Cook, Kumanstov advance to McAllen Futures final

MCALLEN - American Lester Cook and Russian Andrey Kumantsov used second-set surges to earn victories in Saturday's semifinal round of the Dr. Raul Marquez and Dr. Rosario Parra Men's Futures of McAllen tournament at McAllen Country Club.

Cook defeated countryman Gregory Ouellette 7-5, 6-2 in the first semifinal of the USTA event to earn a spot in today's final against Kumantsov, who beat Nikoloz Basilashvili of Georgia 6-4, 6-2 in the second match. Cook said that keeping a cool head was key to winning on a windy day in the Valley.

"It was pretty mentally tough because of tough conditions," Cook said. "I got down at break in both sets but I just stuck with my gameplan and eventually it broke him down a little bit and worked."

With the first set tied at 4-4, Ouellette allowed only one point during Cook's next service to take a 5-4 lead. But Cook rallied to a 6-5 lead as Ouellette struggled to get the ball between the lines over the next two games. Ouellette's struggles continued during his service in the 12th game as he double faulted to give Cook a 40-15 advantage and missed with a long forehand return on Cook's set point.

Ouellette came out roaring in the second set, shutting out Cook in the first game and taking next game with a backhand volley at the net to break deuce and a hard slice veering the ball past Cook's far right. However, momentum quickly shifted back in Cook's favor. Cook won the next three games as Ouellette started hitting net and earned game point on another with a volley that glanced off the tip of Ouellette's racket as he advanced toward the net. Cook aced in the seventh game en route to a 5-2 lead and Ouellette double faulted in the eighth, surrendering match point.

"(Ouellette) started hitting his backhand really well in the beginning of the second set," Cook said. "The first two games he came out and played really great. Then I started hitting everything with the forehand and that was the difference - six games in a row."

Kumantsov's victory over Basilashvili the second semifinal was very similar to Cook's win in the preceding match.

Basilashvili took a 3-2 lead in the first set after outlasting Kumantsov in fifth game that reached deuce three times. Down 40-love during his serve in the sixth game, Kumantsov rallied back after Basilashvili erred on three straight points to set up deuce. The Russian then whizzed a hard forehand past his opponent's left side to set up a game-point ace that tied the set at 3-3.

"It was big comeback on that game because it would have been a set probably for him if I lost that game," Kumantsov said. "It just worked out very well for me that I came back 3-0 and then broke. It gave me confidence for the match."

Basilashvili couldn't recover from the collapse and Kumantsov won three of the next four games to win the first set.

Kumantsov recorded four aces in the second set and won 6-2 with relative ease. The Russian powered through the final game with his serve and notched two aces, the final coming on match point.

"The serve was the factor because I was getting free points and he wasn't," Kumantsov said.

Today's singles final between Cook and Kumantsov is slated to start no earlier than noon. The match will follow the 11 a.m. doubles final pitting Ruben Gonzalez of the U.S. and Andreas Siljestrom of Sweden against Luis Diaz-Barriga and Antonio Ruiz-Rosales of Mexico.

Stephen K. Lee covers sports for Valley Freedom Newspapers. You can reach him at (956) 683-4442 or via e-mail at slee@themonitor.com.