Continuing our Season In Review Series, ATPWorldTour.com revisits the best ATP World Tour comebacks of 2015:
5. Jerzy Janowicz d. Dustin Brown 2-6, 7-6(1), 7-5/R32/Montpellier
Fifth-seeded Pole Jerzy Janowicz survived an opening-round scare at the Open Sud de France, somehow saving half a dozen match points to turn back Germany’s Dustin Brown in three sets 2-6, 7-6(1), 7-5.
For Brown, the first three match points came and went at 5-3 and 5-4 in the second set. With the match leveled at a set apiece, Janowicz again dug deep to save two match points with Brown serving at 6-5 in the decider. The Pole, who smacked 14 aces and won 51 of 69 (74 per cent) of his first-serve points in the comeback, rallied to defeat the German in one hour and 47 minutes.
Janowicz would go on to the Montpellier final, where trailing 0-3 to Frenchman Richard Gasquet he retired with an illness. But the 24-year-old would go on to finish in the Top 75 (No. 57) of the Emirates ATP Rankings for the third straight year.
4. Tomas Berdych d. Bernard Tomic 6-7(4), 7-6(3), 6-1/R16/Miami
Bernard Tomic was up a set and a pair of breaks when World No. 9 Tomas Berdych came roaring back at the Miami Open. The 6-foot-5 Czech would save four match points in a 6-7(4), 7-6(3), 6-1 victory in two hours and 35 minutes.
The 2010 Wimbledon finalist fought off match points at 2-5, 3-5 and 4-5 to bring the second set back on serve before winning the tie-break to level the match at one set apiece.
A week after tooth pain and a back injury forced him to pull out of his quarter-final clash with Novak Djokovic at Indian Wells, Tomic was haunted by unforced errors in the third set as he lost his opening service game. He would never recover as Berdych wrapped up the set 6-1.
Berdych remained a perfect four-for-four against Tomic, including a fourth-round victory at the Australian Open in January.
3. Novak Djokovic d. Alexandr Dolgopolov 6-7(3), 7-5, 6-0/R16/Miami
Leave it to Novak Djokovic to find a way to win even when he’s feeling out of sorts. Down 6-7(3), 1-4, the World No. 1 would win 12 of the next 13 games, dropping just three points in the third set to dismiss Alexandr Dolgopolov in three comeback sets at the Miami Open.
“I just felt it wasn’t my kind of a day today,” Djokovic reflected. “In the warm-up, the entire day, it was one of those days where you don’t feel so great mentally. But I fought. I fought my way through. I was just trying to find a way to come back in the match. It was just believing more, and I was just kind of hanging in there, fighting a different battle inside of myself.”
Asked about his Houdini-like escape, the Serb asserted, “I was literally a game or two from losing the match. I’m just happy to be able to bounce back. These particular matches do help me in a certain way mentally to gain that confidence and self‑belief in a way that I never give up and battle till the last point, and it sends a message also to the other players, as well.”
2. Roberto Bautista Agut d. Steve Johnson 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(8)/SF/Valencia
Hometown hero Roberto Bautista Agut saved six match points to down Steve Johnson 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(8) in just over two hours at the Valencia Open. Johnson struck 13 aces to Bautista Agut’s six and claimed the first set, but the No. 7-seeded Spaniard reached his second ATP World Tour final in as many weeks (l. to Marin Cilic in Moscow) by forcing a third-set tie-break and by recovering from a 3-6 deficit in the decider.
“It was an incredible match,” said Bautista Augut. “It was really tough and I was really close to losing. I think today I could win, I could lose — anything was possible on the court.”
With the victory, Bautista Agut improved to 4-0 in the FedEx ATP Head2Head series against Johnson and prevented the American from reaching a second consecutive tour-level final after he finished runner-up in Vienna (l. to David Ferrer).
1. Jeremy Chardy d. John Isner 6-7(9), 7-6(13), 7-6(4) /QF/Montreal
Jeremy Chardy saved seven match points to defeat John Isner 6-7(9), 7-6(13), 7-6(4) in a rain-delayed match at the Rogers Cup, reaching the semi-finals of an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event for the first time.
The Frenchman saved five match points — at 5-6, 6-7, 7-8, 9-10, and 11-12 in the 19-minute second-set tie-break, the longest of 2015 — and converted on his fourth set point to keep his hopes alive. In the third set, Isner fought on to earn two more match points on Chardy’s serve at 6-5, but his opponent erased both and closed out the game with an ace to force a deciding tie-break. He converted on his first match point after three hours and 12 minutes.
“It was a crazy match,” said Chardy. “We both served really well and we both had our chances, so I am happy that I won it in the end. On those match points, I was only thinking about where I wanted to hit my serve or how to play the point. Under pressure it’s easy to get nervous and miss if you start thinking about the match point or the break point.
“It’s never easy,” he said of playing a power serve like Isner. “He had seven match points, so it was a really close match. You need to stay focused on your game, your service game. I know if I get broken, the set is close to being finished. I was lucky to come back in the second. I’m really happy I stayed focused and strong in my head the whole match.”
