By Erik Gudris / Saturday, December 21, 2013

 

In a battle of former college standouts, Steve Johnson and Tennys Sandgren will meet in the Australian Open Wild Card Playoffs final.

Photo Credit: USTA

Steve Johnson and Tennys Sandgren will face off in Sunday's Australian Open Wild Card Playoffs final. For the winner, a coveted main draw wild card entry into next month's Grand Slam will be awarded.

With the playing field nearly even among all four semifinalists, it was a question of who would handle the moment better.

For Sandgren, that meant taking on top seed Denis Kudla in the first men's semi. Sandgren, using a powerful serve and aggressive hitting from the back court, went on to take the first set 6-3. But Kudla turned things around in the second set and soon served for it at 5-3.

Sandgren put the pressure on with his return game and soon broke Kudla for 5-4. With an easy hold of serve, Sandgren leveled the set at 5-all. Soon enough a tiebreak was necessary to decide the set.

A tense back and forth breaker had both men questioning the umpire on several service calls. With yet another ace, Sandgren held match point. One last big serve from Sandgren produced a return error from Kudla on match point. With that, Sandgren wrapped up the 6-3, 7-6(5) win.

By reaching the finals, Sandgren continues a late season surge that saw him win the challenger title in Champaign, Illinois, and reach a career-high ranking since he turned pro two years ago. Sandgren credits staying calm in the big moments for his recent success.

"Staying calmer. Maybe a little more belief in myself," Sandgren said about his good end of year. "You get a good win and that kind of gives you an avalanche effect that can help you get a few more wins. Playing little closer to the baseline, being more aggressive, serving pretty well. Those are the things that I've been doing better."

Johnson Handles Buchanan to Reach Finals.

In the second men's semifinal, Steve Johnson competed against Chase Buchanan. Buchanan knocked out last year's winner Rhyne Williams in three sets on Friday. But it was Johnson who got off to a quick 3-0 start and never looked back.

A double fault from Buchanan when down set point allowed Johnson to wrap up the first set 6-0 in just under 20 minutes.

Buchanan did improve his game and broke Johnson to start the second set. But Johnson broke back and soon held his serve with more consistency. A final break of serve from Johnson was all he needed to soon wrap up the 6-0, 6-4 win.

Sunday's men's finals will be a best-of-five match per Australian Open rules. Sandgren has never played a best-of-five match, while Johnson competed at all four majors this season during his first full year on the ATP Tour.

Sandgren is looking forward to the challenge of possibly playing five sets. "I hope it goes five," Sandgren said with a laugh. "I want to see how I stack up in a long match like that."

"It's a different mentality because it's not a sprint," Johnson said on playing best-of-five. "Two out of three you can get 30 good minutes and the match could be over. Best three out of five, going to be lots of up and downs. It's whoever can maintain it mentally and just not let it get to them."