TASMANIAN tennis fans will have a new name to cheer after Australian wildcard Blake Mott recorded a massive upset in the final of the Launceston International.
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After losing a close first set in a tiebreak, the 19-year-old wildcard took his game to another level to register a 6-7, 6-1, 6-2, win over eighth seed Andrey Golubev.
With several hundred lining the stands at the regional tennis centre, Mott won both the trophy and the affection of the crowd with a mature and measured performance that saw him claim his first professional title.
‘‘I feel unbelievable right now,’’ Mott said after the win.
‘‘I played some great tennis out there, it was a really good atmosphere for me out there and I was just lucky to come through.
‘‘The fact the crowd were behind me I really felt it and I really felt it lifted me up and kept me fighting.’’
Mott showed no signs of nerves in the opening set, holding serve confidently before breaking the Golubev serve in the sixth game.
But after narrowly missing several chances to wrap up the first set with the score at 5-3 and 5-4, the New South Welshman suddenly found himself down a set with Golubev seemingly in control of the match.
‘‘He came up with some good play on those points,’’ Mott said.
‘‘I was a little bit disappointed but I wasn’t too disappointed, I felt like I gave everything I had and I just fell short.
‘‘I just felt like if I hang in there we’ll see what happens and that’s what happened, I kept playing and kept competing and came out the other side.’’
Showing levels of self-belief and determination more typically associated with the recently-retired Lleyton Hewitt, Mott broke Golubev’s serve four times in the second set to level the match at 6-1.
With the momentum firmly in his favour, Mott kept a cool head in the decider to eventually break serve midway through the set and go on to claim the match.
‘‘I think firing up and really chumming out the second set with a presence and showing that I wasn’t going to go away and that I wasn’t going to give up that easy really helped me even play better.
‘‘If I can keep bringing that out for the rest of the year and continue to do that then I feel like I could do better and better.’’