Neil Smith bt Guy Smith-Bingham 15/13,
15/4, 12/15, 15/8
Harry Foster bt Guy Devereux 13/16, 3/15,
15/7, 15/9, 15/11.
Match stories.
In the first game Smith-Bingham was up
11/3, but Smith charged back to even the game and then led. At 13
all, Smith-Bingham, hand-out, elected "no set" and Smith ran off the
two points for game. Charles Swallow described the game as "very
high quality rackets. It could have gone either way."
The second game was all Smith as he
repeatedly ended rallies with his favourite winner, a low forehand
(he's a lefty) rightwall/frontwall drive into the left corner.
In the third game Smith-Bingham started to
serve more tellingly and put his famous backhand on display. He led
9/5. Neil caught him at 12 all, but Smith-Bingham prevailed to keep
his chances alive.
From 7 all in the final game, the forty
year-old Smith sealed his twenty-four year-old opponent's fate with
excellent serving and merciless kills.
The Harry Foster/Guy Devereux semifinal
was a slugging contest that delighted the packed gallery and went
the full five games. Devereux is the reigning US Open Champion,
Foster last season's British Open Champion. Devereux beat Foster in
the 2002 US Open semifinal in Chicago, and looked to be on his way
to a repeat after taking the first two games today.
Foster showed amazing grit as he made any
number of circus gets out of the corners. In the end his service to
a length in the lively New York may have been the deciding factor.
In the final game Devereux was up 5/0 when
Foster fell heavily twisting his ankle. He recovered but still
trailed 1/9. It looked like the match was all over, bar the
shouting. Amazingly, Foster scratched back to 9 all with ace
services and some help in the form of unforced errors from Devereux,
and then advanced to 14/9, game ball and match point. Devereux
gamely put him out and won a couple of more points before the final
curtain came down.
Foster has impressed all with his
competitiveness. He had a rough five game struggle with Tim Chisholm
on Friday and now this tough one with Devereux. He looks awkward at
times, but his great reach and thrilling retrieving skills awed the
gallery.
