Andrew Marshall defeats Jovan Popovic
6-4, 5-7, 1-0 (11-9)

From Andrew:  6-4, 5-7, 1-0 (11-9)

This was a tougher, more intense and physically taxing battle than either of us were anticipating.

This was my first time facing  Jovan, and my scouting report from Will - who told me Jovan likes to grind and play long patient points - was neither up to date nor accurate.  He also forgot to warn me that he is a lefty.

Jovan has transformed his style in the last 2 years.  His game is now based around his huge lefty forehand.  His forehand is now easily the biggest weapon on the Golden Ball tour.  He works hard with his footwork to run around as many backhands as possible, and he rarely misses with his heavy cannon forehand.  He can go to either corner effectively, and his running forehand is especially accurate.   Being a lefty makes him a difficult matchup for me, because my whole game is based on working a righty’s backhand corner.

The first set hinged on a few points and was played at a high level.  Jovan was the aggressor in most points, with me usually settling for counterpunching.  Neither of us was making many unforced errors, until Jovan finally blinked while serving at 4-5 30-all to stay in the set.

Jovan’s level dropped a little after that, and I opened up a 4–1 lead in the second.  But I sustained a hammy tweak while leading at 3-1 that slowed me down and negated my slight edge in quickness.  Jovan came storming back, outplaying me with aggressive tactics to take the second set 7-5.

In the super, I started solid to get to 5-2, but then Jovan’s forehand went into beast mode, and he painted the baseline multiple times to win 5 straight points to go up 7-5.   At that point, I realized that my passive reactive strategy wasn’t cutting it.  I shifted strategy, and started attacking the net on every ball after that.  I got back to 7-7.  But then Jovan came up with the goods on a backhand DTL dipper and an incredible full sprint running forehand DTL pass to go up 9-7, earning double match point.

With my back against the wall, I stuck with my strategy of net rushes on every point, and managed to eke out 4 straight tightly contested points to take it 11-9.   The final point ended with suspense when Jovan’s ripped forehand crosscourt pass - his bread and butter - hit the net cord, popped straight up a few inches, but dribbled on his side of the net.

This 2.5h war was played at a lot higher level of tennis than any of my matches in my 2018 golden ball debut season.   Jovan’s new aggressive style and improved forehand has earned him a berth in usta individual 4.5 nationals this year; he is a seasoned mentally strong competitor.   Luckily for me, I have actually been practicing this year, so I had more tools available in the toolset this time.    We were both drained at the end.