Little Rock Final, Play-by-play

Artem Sitak (above) eats Matt Roberts' lunch.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- Artem Sitak defeated Matt Roberts in the final of the St. Vincent Auxiliary Men's Professional Tennis Tournament in a triumph of Sitak's experience and seasoning over Matt Roberts' enthusiasm and adrenaline.

First set

Sitak opens the match having problems with his serve, a problem that bothered him throughout this Futures tournament. A number of double faults by Sitak led to a 1-0 lead for Roberts.

Despite the serving problems Sitak was able to move ahead 3-1 in the first set over Roberts who was playing before an enthusiastic crowd in his hometown.

Sitak was able to overcome the service problems and landed an ace for a 4-2 lead in the first set.

Roberts was able to get a little traction by using a tactic that opponents have used with success against Sitak: hit the ball to his backhand about three to four times in succession and then quickly swing it over to his forehand. Roberts was able to close the gap (4-3 Sitak, first set).

With the score 5-3 Sitak, Roberts drew on the enthusiasm of his hometown fans; Roberts put together an excellent game of serve and volley and a few overhead spikes (5-4 Sitak).

Despite a great effort by Roberts, who threw probably some of his hardest and best shots at Sitak, Sitak won the first set handily 6-4. This singular moment was a show of the difference in the level of play of the two finalists: Sitak has played tougher competition and has even won a Futures tournament this year; Roberts was playing on raw emotion, a chance to win a tournament in his hometown.

Matt Roberts waves to the hometown crowd.

Second Set

The raucous crowd cheered Roberts on for one last run. He was able to charge ahead to a 2-0 run.

In a strange way, the crowd might have helped Sitak. Sitak was a heavy favorite coming in because many of the top players were not in Little Rock and traveled to bigger tournaments in Tallahassee, Florida, and Mexico City, Mexico. The attention paid to Roberts must have allowed Sitak to relax knowing that if he could hold off the charge and enthusiasm of Roberts, the tournament was his to win.

Sitak covers the court well and runs down a lot of Roberts volleys. Roberts comes to the net occasionally but he does not put the ball away, he does not hit through the ball, and Sitak is able to run it down.

In earlier matches, Roberts used the aggression and force of the other players against them. He has a knack of hitting hard, low groundstrokes, a great forehand. Perhaps sensing this, Sitak took the pace of the ball and knocked little dingers and used a lot of spin, hitting the ball to the baseline. This didn't allow Roberts to come forward on his shots and he was unable to make 'tennis shots' and create his own pace.

Sitak took the upstart to school and it was just a matter of time before he put him away. Sitak wins 6-4, 6-3.