Helsinki Wednesday: Kontinen tops Berrer in a three-set thriller

Day 3 of the tournament will be remembered from the epic match between Henkka Kontinen and Michi Berrer, but there was plenty of good action besides that match. The day started with an interesting contest played out on the Center Court…

Robin Haase vs Ivan Navarro

Dutchman Haase was looking to continue his successful comeback from injury with a fifth win here while Navarro was hoping to move up the rankings in order to make the cut for Australian Open. The match turned out to be a good one; both players hit a fair amount of winners and showed their emotions on the court. In the first set it looked like Haase would win comfortably, but during the second set Navarro raised his level and took advantage of a minor lapse in concentration from Haase. But again in the third set the Dutchman’s big serve, strong returns and clever passing shots were too much for the Spaniard to handle. And so the Haase comeback is still going strong here in Helsinki. Next I quickly made my way to Court 3 where Brown and Desein were locked in a tight first set battle.

Niels Desein vs Dustin Brown

Plenty of people were expecting the explosive Brown to continue his hot form from yesterday, but things didn’t turn out that way. The Belgian Desein put in a strong display while on the other hand Brown had a really poor day at the office. The first set was a close one, but when Desein broke the Jamaican’s serve to take the set it destroyed the big man’s resolve. The second set was much more one-sided as Brown sprayed his shots all over the place and Desein was happy to take advantage. The Belgian has looked impressive in his first two matches here and should give Haase a proper test in the quarterfinals on Friday. After this match I decided to go and grab something to eat from the cafeteria and then move back to watch the action on the Center Court.

Henri Kontinen vs Michael Berrer

Before the Kontinen vs Berrer match I was able to catch the end of the third set of Bohli’s win over Koubek. The Swiss player did really well to come back from a break down to win the match and progress to the next round. Now it was time for the most anticipated match of the tournament so far between the Finnish starlet Kontinen and the last week’s Bratislava tournament winner Berrer. Everybody was talking about this match beforehand and wondering if the Finn could upset the inform German with the help of the home supporters. Nobody in the crowd was left disappointed by this match. It was high quality attacking tennis from start to finish culminating in a final set tiebreaker, where neither player missed a first serve. Kontinen had to save a match point in that breaker and then converted on his first opportunity sending the crowd into a frenzy. It was arguably the biggest win of the young man’s career and his first one over a Top 100 player. In the post-match press conference Berrer thought it had been a great quality match and predicted a Top 20 future for Kontinen based on what he had seen of the Finn. There’s still a long way to go before reaching those heights, but nobody can deny the talent and the heart the youngster has.

After that draining epic I went to watch the end of the match between Antonio Veic and Daniel Evans, which had been moved to Court 3. When I got there Veic had taken a 4-1 lead in the decider and looked like the likely winner, but Evans did well to fight back to 4-4. Things got a bit heated in the end with Evans complaining to the umpire that Veic talked too much between the points. This match also went into a final set tiebreaker, where Evans took the first minibreak but couldn’t win a point after that making a real hash out of things. It was a rather poor end to a great day, but tomorrow should have plenty of good matches on offer. It will be a real Finnish day with both Nieminen and Kontinen in singles action plus they will also play the doubles quarterfinal tomorrow evening. The organizers and the crowd couldn't be more happy.

Ville Talvenmaa