EDWARDSVILLE - Third seeded Aiden McHugh, from Glasgow, Scotland, used three service breaks in the final set and advanced to Sunday's singles final with a 4-6, 7-5, 6-1 win over Marko Milandinovic of Belgrade, Serbia, and Baylor University in Waco, Tex., at the 14th annual $25,000 Edwardsville Futures tennis tournament, presented by The EGHM Foundation, on Saturday afternoon at the Edwardsville Tennis Center.
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In addition, Kyle Kang, from Orange County, Calif., and Stanford University, and his doubles partner, Alexander Razeghi, won over Spencer Johnson and Nicholas Ian Kotzen, also of the United States, in the doubles final 6-7 (6-8 in the tiebreak), 7-5, 10-8 in a very competitive match. Kang had earlier advanced to the singles final with a 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 win over Aidan Kim of Milford, Mich., and Ohio State University.
In a post-match interview, McHugh was very happy to have won, and complimented Milandinovic very highly.
"It was a very tough match," McHugh said. "Me and Marko are very good friends from juniors, and we know each other's games very well. I'm really happy to get through, and give myself a really good opportunity tomorrow in the finals to do business."
McHugh's strategy going in was more mental than anything, as he knows Milandinovic is a tricky player to go against, and he had to be ready for anything.
"I know I'm more mentally preparing for it to be a very tricky match," McHugh said. "Marko plays a very kind of tricky style of tennis. He makes a lot of balls, defends very well, so it was more so mentally preparing for an any case scenario. I'm going to try to dictate the play as much as I can, but be prepared for him to make passes, and play extra balls. So, I was really just trying to focus on on my point, and stick him there."
The service breaks in the final set told the story of the match, and McHugh stayed focused on staying in the match as much as possible.
"I was focused on trying to keep going for more breaks when I was up," McHugh said, "because Marko always has a chance to come back because of his style of tennis he plays. It makes it difficult, so I had a lead in the first set, and In the second set, I lost and I had to regain the lead. So, I was really focused, and I really put my foot down in the third, and not let him breathe. or let himself get back into the match."
McHugh is looking forward to meeting Kang in Sunday's singles final.
"Yeah, it'll be another very good player." McHugh said. "I don't know him as well, so that'll be exciting. It's always fun to play new people that we've not matched up against before. I'll be ready. I'll recover and get ready for tomorrow."
It was a very good day of tennis, although both singles semifinals went longer than expected. The competition was keen, and a record number of fans turned out for the matches.
"That second singles match was long," said tournament director Dave Lipe, "and put us a little bit behind our projected start of four o'clock for the doubles final, because it was a three-set match. But the quality was outstanding. Aiden McHugh came out on top, and he'll face Mr. Kang tomorrow. it'll be Scotland versus the United States, two great players, Kyle Kang in the final again for the second year in a row, and looking forward to that singles final at 11 o'clock. Right now, we are enjoying the doubles final."
It has been another highly successful tournament, with great tennis all week, and incredible fan support as well.
"It's been fantastic," Lipe said, "a lot of community involvement. We broke records today for attendance, over 450 people here, in and out throughout the day, and that's a great number. We couldn't be happier with the way things turned out this weekend. We're hoping for another big crowd tomorrow to wrap up this tournament."
McHugh broke Milandinovic's serve in the opening game of the match, then held his own serve tot take an early 2-0 in the first set, but Milandinovic came back to cut the lead to 2-1, then won two of three straight deuce games, including breaking McHugh's serve to tie the set at 4-4, then broke though again and won the opening set 6-4, and take a one-set lead.
In the second set, Milandinovic went up early, but McHugh broke his serve to go ahead 2-1. Milandinovic fought back to within 5-4, then broke McHugh's serve to tie the set at 5-5, and force extra games, with the possibility of a tiebreak. McHugh recovered to break serve once again and win the set 7-5 to tie the match and force a third set.
Both players were determined and made great shots throughout the final set. McHugh, however, broke Milandinovic's serve twice to take a 4-1 lead, and was firmly in control. McHugh broke Milandinovic again in the final game and won the set 6-1, advancing to the final 2-1 in sets.
McHugh will face Kang, who will be trying for a rare singles-doubles title combination, in Sunday's final at the ETC, starting at 11 a.m. It will be the tournament's final match for the year.
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
