Photograph by Lamar Jacaman for Texas Student Media
Stefan Dostanic and Pierre-Yves Bailly, above, are first-time doubles partners who on Saturday became doubles champions who also happen to be the singles finalists of the Greenview Development & Majestic Realty Men’s Pro Tennis Open at the Texas Tennis Center.
The sixth-seeded Dostanic rallied to defeat No. 3 Alastair Gray, 1-6, 6-3, 6-3, and No. 8 Bailly, the Longhorn senior and defending champion, held off No. 2 Duarte Vale, 6-2, 7-6(2). The final is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m.
Dostanic steadied his game to easily win the second set over Gray, a Brit whose serve and groundstrokes had become less effective. Dostanic broke Gray in the first game of the third set and broke him again to serve with a 4-1 lead. But Gray promptly broke back then held. He had one break point when Dostanic served at 4-3 but could not convert as the USC alum revved up his own serve. Dostanic took the match with a backhand return winner.
“My third set got a little tricky,” said the 23-year-old Dostanic. “He actually started playing a lot better, the wind started picking up. Tried to stay consistent, tried to stay solid and luckily it got me through the end.”
Bailly’s powerful yet consistent ground game had given him a big lead over the higher-seeded Duarte. But as he did in his comeback victory in the quarterfinals, the 25-year-old Portuguese player kept fighting. In Set 1, he saved set points down 5-0 before breaking Bailly to cut his lead to 5-2. Bailly then broke easily to take the set. Vale started playing more aggressively in the second set, going for his forehand. Bailly served for the match at 5-3 but was broken at 15 as he couldn’t match Vale’s power. Vale saved a match point at 5-6, but Bailly dominated the tiebreak through a combination of Vale errors and his own strong forehand.
“It was going great,” said Bailly, a 21-year-old Belgian. “He started playing more aggressive, and I started getting on my back foot. And before you know it, it’s 5-all and you have to battle until the end.”
Last month in an M25 in Harlingen, Texas, Dostanic defeated Bailly, 6-4, 6-3, in the quarterfinals. Maybe that’s where Bailly got the idea to seek out his future doubles partner.
After a short break, the two semifinal winners teamed up to defeat the top-seeded but unrelated pair of Cleeve Harper and Patrick Harper, 7-5, 6-3, to take the doubles title. Patrick Harper served for the first set at 5-3, but the singles finalists relied on their sharp returns to win the next five games. Dostanic’s ad-side returns caused all kinds of trouble for Harper and Harper, especially at the 40-40 winner-takes-game point in doubles.
It was fitting that Dostanic clinched the match with a screaming return that Cleeve Harper couldn’t handle at the net.
Dostanic gave credit to his partner for his improved doubles play – especially since this was the only ITF doubles event all season. “The whole week, he’s been playing better honestly,” Dostanic said. “I think I really just stepped up today on my return game.”
He said that Bailly had been taking the 40-40 return point before Saturday’s final.
“Normally he was the one taking it, he was the one coming up clutch,” Dostanic said. “But he’s just building me up and gave me the confidence to play well today.”
We’ll see who plays well tomorrow.