Damico and Schnugg Survive Third Set Tiebreak to Reach Australian Junior Open Doubles Final

Damico and Schnugg Survive Third Set Tiebreak to Reach Australian Junior Open Doubles Final~~~
©Colette Lewis 2006
Melbourne--

After a fast start, the fifth seeded team of Kellen Damico and Nate Schnugg (USA) fought off unseeded Kei Nishikori (JPN) and Peter Polansky (CAN) to take a 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (4) semifinal contest Saturday evening at Margaret Court Arena.

Down 0-40 at 4-4 in the third on Damico's serve, and 15-40 at 5-5 on Schnugg's, the longtime friends hung on to force a tiebreak. Down 4-2 at the change of ends, Damico and Schnugg were oblivious to the drops that began to fall, and saving their best for last, took the next five points to earn a place in the final against the unseeded Polish team of Blazej Koniusz and Grzegorz Panfil, which is scheduled for 5 a.m. Sunday, EST.

Koniusz and Panfil defeated Bassam Beidas of Lebanon and Mateusz Kecki of the U.S. 7-6 (1), 6-0.

Complete coverage of the Boys Doubles Championship will be posted later.

For photos, seeustaboys.com