University of Tennessee Athletics
Williams Upsets Top Seed to Start Tourney
December 16, 2011 | Men's Tennis
Dec. 16, 2011
BY AMANDA PRUITT
UTSPORTS.COM
NORCROSS, Ga. -- Former Vol Rhyne Williams' first match at the USTA Australian Open Wild Card Playoffs lasted three-and-a-half hours Friday, but the end result was well worth his time.
With a passing shot winner on his fifth match point, Williams ousted top-seeded Bobby Reynolds 4-6, 6-4, 10-8 to advance to the semifinals at the Racquet Club of the South.
The Knoxville native built 0-40 lead in the final game, but Reynolds erased all three match points with good serving under pressure to make it deuce. Williams finally closed out the match by winning a rally on a shot that breezed past Reynolds' forehand into open court.
"Finally, back and forth, fifth match point, it was a crazy rally," Williams said. "I was just praying one of those passing shots would be a winner, and luckily, I hit it in the right spot and he guessed wrong."
Williams plays fourth-seeded Robby Ginepri, a former world top 20 player, in Saturday's semifinals. The match starts no earlier than 3 p.m.
Always a player who demonstrates the whole spectrum of emotions on court -- everything from elation to self disgust -- Williams was able to keep his frustrations largely in check on court, particularly after dropping the first set 6-4 and losing his service game to begin the second.
He bounced back and was able to break Reynolds' serve right away. He eventually broke Reynolds again to clinch the second set 6-4 and force the deciding third set.
"I'd still get mad out there, but the biggest thing is coming back and playing the next point as hard as you can and not letting it affect you for a couple points in a row," Williams said. "I think I did a pretty good job of that. I got frustrated but I did a decent job of bouncing back and playing the next point hard."
In the third set, Williams jumped out to a 4-2 lead, but the veteran Reynolds climbed right back in the match thanks to some errors by the former Vol. Williams double faulted three times to give Reynolds the game 4-3 and the top seed served to tie the set a few minutes later at 4-4.
"That was a funky game," Williams said of his service game at 4-2. "I rarely double fault, and I doubled three times that game. That's not acceptable. I noticed that he was getting a little down on himself, and that was a moment where I really needed to hold serve that game and get up on him and close it out."
The tournament format is set up like the Australian Open with the final set being played out rather than ending in a tiebreaker. Reynolds broke Williams at 6-6 and served for the match, but Williams denied him the chance.
After losing a long three setter in the wild card semifinals here a year ago to eventual champion Ryan Harrison, Williams settled down in his final service games before breaking Reynolds at 9-8 to clinch the semifinal spot.
Williams now faces the other 29-year-old in the field in Ginepri, who resides in nearby Kennesaw, Ga., and will undoubtedly have the home crowd on his side when they meet on the stadium court.
The two faced each other this summer in the first round of the Aptos Challenger in California with Williams pulling off the surprising 6-2, 6-4 victory.
"I played the match of my life," Williams said. "Hopefully I can do that again because he's a really good player, obviously. He was a semifinalist in the US Open. It's going to be tough. I know he's going to have the crowd behind him too. That's what it sounded like.
"Hopefully, I'm not too sore."
The other men's semifinal match features second-seeded Jesse Levine and Denis Kudla. The winner of this weekend's tournament receives a main draw wild card into January's Australian Open.
(Photos courtesy of the USTA, taken by Tom Grason.)
