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Championship Match Set as Dent, Russell Advance at JSM Challenger
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Brian and Dann Battistone will make their first finals appearance of the year tomorrow at noon.
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Nov. 20, 2009
URBANA, Ill. - Taylor Dent picked up right where he left off earlier tonight at the JSM Challenger, as the fourth-seeded power hitter took control early on and never let up, en route to a speedy 57-minute victory over last year's runner-up and top-seeded Kevin Kim, 6-1, 6-2.
"You have to be on a mission out here if you want to compete and beat these guys, because they're all great players," Dent said. "If my level drops five to 10 percent, I lose that match. That's how tight it is. The score line doesn't really indicate it sometimes, but all of these matches are close out here."
Dent, who reached a career-high ranking of No. 21 in the world in 2005, has not lost more than three games in a set since his first-round match back on Tuesday and now finds himself vying for his first-career JSM Challenger title. Joining him in the championship match will be third-seeded Michael Russell, who ended the impressive run of 19-year-old Ricardas Berankis, this afternoon with a 6-4, 6-1 victory. After defeating Berankis in three sets just two weeks ago, Russell knew what to expect this time around.
"It definitely helps to have seen your opponent before," Russell said. "You see what your opponent's patterns are, what his best shots are. You try to think ahead about how he is going to serve or hit the ball at a certain point. Today was different than how I played him last week. Last week, I didn't know anything about how he played. He's my height, but he serves pretty big and hits the ball really hard. Today, I was a lot more prepared so that was good."
In the first semifinal doubles match of the day, the No. 2-seeded tandem of Treat Conrad Huey and Harsh Mankad rallied past fourth-seeded Martin Emmrich and Andreas Siljestrom, 3-6, 6-1, 10-5. The duo will face brothers Brian and Dann Battistone in the championship match beginning at noon tomorrow.
The Battistone's topped Jamie Delgado and John Paul Fruttero, 7-5, 6-4 to make their first appearance in a final this year.
"Our two previous matches were super tiebreakers, so it's nice to get a straight sets win," Brian said. "But it definitely was every bit as close as the previous two because these guys were playing well and it came down to just a couple of break points that went our way. Luckily, we were able to play big on the big points."
Admission for tomorrow is $7 for adults and $5 for students. Additional information can be found HERE.
Friday's Results
Singles - Semifinals
[4] T Dent (USA) d [1] K Kim (USA) 61 62
[3] M Russell (USA) d [Q] R Berankis (LTU) 64 61
Doubles - Semifinals
[2] T Huey (PHI) / H Mankad (IND) d [4] M Emmrich (GER) / A Siljestrom (SWE) 36 61 10-5
B Battistone (USA) / D Battistone (USA) d J Delgado (GBR) / J Fruttero (USA) 75 64
Saturday's Finals
Starting at 12:00 PM (Court 1)
Brian Battistone / Dann Battistone vs. #2 Treat Conrad Huey / Harsh Mankad; followed by
#4 Taylor Dent vs. #3 Michael Russell
Additional Quotes
Taylor Dent on preparing for opponents:
"For a person who plays my style of game, where I'm just bringing it to you 100 percent of the time, it's more important for that type of style to play my own patterns and tactics and just try to enhance my own game. If I was more of a counter puncher or a passive player, then I'd try to pick apart the guy's games a little bit more, but I pretty much play the same match everyday out here."
Brian Battistone on tomorrow's championship match:
"We lost to them about a month ago. One of the players I played with for about two months, while my brother's wife had a baby, so we partnered up and traveled to Europe and played together. He's a good buddy of ours. It's just another case of knowing each other's weaknesses and it'll be interesting to kind of come out with a game plan and see if we can outsmart them because they're familiar with all of our tricks."
