In perhaps the most hotly contested match of the day, Stevie Johnson defeated Vasek Pospisil, needing two tiebreaks to move on in Nottingham.
The match was an affair of opposing forces who refused to bend to the other's will as both men held serve throughout the first set and only lost serve once in the second. Ultimately, the American proved the better of his Canadian counterpart to advance in the Aegon Open.
Americans rising
American players have had somewhat of a resurgence on grass this year. Coming into Johnson's match today, American men held 14 wins at pre-Wimbledon grass court tournaments. That's double the amount of victories the men had last year- when they only had seven such victories in that span. Johnson looked to keep the good times rolling.
However, Pospisil was just as game to notch a win for his home country- and for himself. The young Canadian has struggled mightily so far this year.
Both men began the match looking every bit determined to advance in this pivotal match. Pospisil used sticking volleys to take an aggressive command of games on serve. He regularly challenged his opponent to cross him at the net, to stave off his unrelenting aggressive, attack- one he has not used quite as often this year.
Johnson, for his part, used his strong arm to keep himself on serve throughout the first set. Though his games sometimes seemed longer, he regularly got out of trouble by launched several aces across the net.
All told, both men would hold serve throughout the first set. It needed to be decided in a tiebreak. In that breaker, Pospisil finally struggled to hold serve, buckling under pressure. He only won three points in the break and Johnson would take the first set 7-6(4).
Lost chances for Pospisil
Johnson was the first man to finally drop a game on serve. He didn't do that until the eighth game of the set. Pospisil had a break and gave himself a chance to get back in the match. However, it was not to be.
Johnson stormed back with a break of his own, winning every single point in the subsequent game of the set. Once again, the two men needed a tie-break, this time, to decide whether Pospisil would live to fight another day or Johnson would take the 15th win on grass for American men this year.
Unfortunately for Pospisil, he couldn't rise to the challenge, or barely even attempt to meet it. He won just a single point in the break. That was the only small victory for the 44th ranked player in the world. Johnson went on to claim three mini-breaks on Pospisil's remaining serves in the match. He claimed a 7-6(4), 7-6(1) match victory.
Johnson fired 12 aces in a match that lasted an hour and thirty-two minutes.