Odesnik in Palm Springs

Odesnik advanced to the US Men’s Clay Court Championships semifinal in which he lost last year to the eventual champion, Marcel Granollers.

Playing in front of a sold out crowd in Houston, at 5 all in the first set, Odesnik and Isner had just finished a clay court serving clinic. Both winning ~70% of their first serve points and Odesnik winning all 9 of his second serve points and Isner winning 7 of his 8 second serve points. But at 5 all, Odesnik converted on a couple Isner second serves and took the break to served out the set a 6-5.  Odesnik’s first serve percentage of 63% in the first set worked to his advantage as his winning percentage on 2nd serves ended at 91% vs. 74% on his 1st serves.

Midway through the second set, Odesnik’s 2nd serve strategy let him down and now Odesnik’s 40% first serve percentage was a liability as Isner took the break to go up 4-2 and Isner was able to hold to take the set 6-3.

On serve in the second set at 1 all, Odesnik had made just 2 first serves out of six, winning only one point on Isner’s opening service game. Odesnik continued to drop multiple 2nd serve points and faced 4 break points, but held to stay on serve at 2-1.

At 3 all, Odesnik was winning 90% of his first serve points, but only 2 of 14 service return points in the first three Isner service games.

Isner went down early serving at 3-4 when Odesnik won his first point of the set on an Isner first serve, but Odesnik was not able to capitalize on Isner’s many 2nd serves and although the game went to deuce, Isner never faced a break point as the set went to 4 all and then 5 all after two quick service games and the inevitable Odesnik/Isner tiebreak loomed.   Their last third set tiebreak was in 2007, which Isner won on hard courts 7-2.

Isner started with an early mini-break, 1-0. But could not consolidate when Odesnik went up a mini-break at 2-1 which was all Odesnik needed as he held all his service points to a 7-5 victory.

Odesnik will take on #77 Bjorn Phau, who is having a good year of 19-8 if qualifying matches are included.  However, given Bjorn’s low winning percentage on clay and low match experience vs lefthanded players, Odesnik could see the final this year.

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