EDWARDSVILLE – For Tennys Sandgren, things didn't come easily at times in his Saturday morning tennis match against Evan King. The two battled throughout a second-set tiebreaker before King finally prevailed 11-9.
Sandgren, though, bounced back and took control to defeat King 6-4, 6-7 (9-11), 6-3 in their semifinal singles clash of the $25,000 USTA Edwardsville Futures tennis tournament presented by the EGHM Foundation at Edwardsville High's tennis center.
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Sandgren, from Gallatin, Tenn., eliminated King, who hails from Chicago and went into the match as the tournament's defending champion, to reach Sunday morning's singles final at the tournament; Sandgren, who won last week's Lewis and Clark Community College Men's Futures title, will face Marc Polmans of Melbourne, Australia, in the final; Polmans defeated fellow Melbourne native Omar Jaskia 6-4, 6-2, in the day's other semifinal match.
The Sandgren-Polmans clash gets under way at 9 a.m., with the match being streamed live at riverbender.com; Polmans will also be in Sunday's doubles final, teaming with Great Britain's Luke Bambridge as they take on Americans Connor Smith and Jackson Withrow in a match that will begin no earlier than 11 a.m. Updates and live scoring are also available on-line at www.edwardsvillefutures.com
“I started the third (set) playing pretty well,” Sandgren said. “I got a nice lead there and he started coming back on me; I was happy to serve out (the match).”
“He's a great player,” King said of Sandgren. “He's in great form; he won his tournament last week. You can tell he's riding on a lot of confidence. It was tough to be out there, but I've been playing well too; Tennys just went out there and fought and had a little bit more than I did.”
The opening set went somewhat back-and-forth before Sandgren took control and took a 6-4 win to go up in the best-of-three match; King responded by getting an early lead on Sandgren, but Sandgren battled back and managed to forge a tie at 6-6 to force a tiebreaker, in which the first to seven points while winning by at least two points takes the set. Both players never gained a big advantage and traded points throughout the tiebreaker. In the end, King managed to get the necessary two points ahead to take an 11-9 win and force a third and deciding set.
“It was a lot of fun,” King said of the tiebreaker. “I felt like I had some good momentum going into the third set, but Tennys played great to start the third set and that was the difference in the match.” Sandgren got out to a 5-0 lead in the set before King bounced back to pull to 5-3. “That was tough to overcome, for sure,” King said.
“That was a war,” Sandgren said of the tiebreaker. “I was thinking that was tough after losing that tiebreaker and to come out and play a third (set); he was playing well and I decided to make a small adjustment and execute a little bit better, and I was able to do that.”
Sandgren jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the final set before King bounced back to cut the lead to 5-3, but Sandgren was able to close out the match and advance to the final.
The other semifinal between Polmans and Jaskia wasn't as close; Polmans took control early and won the first set 6-4 before going on to advance with a 6-2 win the second set to eliminate Jaskia. “I'm super happy,” Polmans said. “I'm in the final this week, so I can't complain; I'm happy with how I played. It was a tough match in hot conditions, so it wasn't too easy today.”
Saturday's weather was much cooler than it had been earlier in the week; temperatures only got to the mid-80s, but weather conditions, to Polmans, do play a factor. “The conditions play a big part here, I think,” Polmans said. “Obviously, we're all going through a lot of sets of clothing and it's kind of humid, so you just go do your best.”
Polmans got an early service break in the opening set and the match, in his mind, turned on that. “That early break in the first game of the first set was huge,” Polmans said, “Once I get a (service) break in the second (set), I gained more confidence and I think I made it harder for Omar to get back in it.”
All three players were appreciative to playing before a large crowd at the EHS center Saturday. “It's really cool to see a crowd come out and watch,” Polmans said. “It's not often that we get to play in front of a crowd, so it does help us out there.”
“I won this when I got OT a final and I made a couple of semis before that,” King said. “It's good vibes and it's great playing relatively close to home. I enjoy this tournament; it's the reason why I'm back here.”
“(Both Godfrey and Edwardsville) do a phenomenal job (with the tournaments),” Sandgren said.
Most of the players in this week's tournament will be heading to Decatur for the third of four stops on the USTA Futures Illinois Swing this week; the swing concludes in Champaign the week of Aug. 8.
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
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