Aussie lifts grass-court title after nightmare run

Unsung battler Chris O’Connell has been able to enjoy a rare moment in the tennis limelight, lifting the Nottingham Open grass-court title that’s previously been won by more heralded Australian compatriots Nick Kyrgios and Alex de Minaur.

The 32-year-old Sydneysider, who’s yet to win on the main ATP tour, might consider the triumph in the traditional Wimbledon build-up tournament to be the biggest triumph of his 15-year career, even if it’s deemed a second-tier Challenger event these days,.

For, remarkably, his first grass-court prize on Saturday (Sunday AEST) came after one of his worst spells of his career as he came into the event at the Nottingham Tennis Centre at the start of the week on the back of seven-straight defeats stretching back to mid-March.

Instead, the European-based Aussie produced a stellar week’s work, only dropping one set in five victories which culminated in Saturday’s hard-earned 7-6 (7-3) 7-6 (8-6) triumph in the final over Finland’s Otto Virtanen.

There was hardly anything between two players ranked just six places apart on the ATP computer, with O’Connell, who once reached world No.53, now down at 154 while Virtanen, who’s been a top-100 player, now at 160.

But O’Connell, who survived 19 aces from the Finn, had a big serving day of his own following a semi-final win where he didn’t give up a break point.

There was a break apiece in each set but O’Connell was the early frontrunner in both stanzas.

Attacking Virtanen’s second serve, O’Connell largely controlled the two breakers as he joined Geoff Masters (1972), Kyrgios (2014) and de Minaur (2018) as an Australian men’s champion in the event that’s been a staple of the pre-Wimbledon scene in the Open era.

It wasn’t easy, though, for him to seal the victory as Virtanen saved three match points in the second tiebreak before O’Connell finally enjoyed his seventh Challenger triumph, outlasting the Finn in a 27-stroke finale on the fourth match point.

The $A50,000 winner’s cheque will be manna to O’Connell and so will be the confidence he’ll now take into the Wimbledon qualifiers at Roehampton as he seeks to qualify next week for a fifth appearance at the grass-court slam where he reached the third round in 2023.

O’Connell is set to be among a dozen Australian hopefuls who’ll be hoping to come through the three rounds of qualifying for the men’s and women’s singles this week, joining the dozen already guaranteed to be in the main draw a week on Monday.