Back injury a distant memory for triumphant Ball

Los Angeles: A week after contemplating pulling out of the LA Open because of a back injury, Australian qualifier Carsten Ball eased into the tournament final with his seventh consecutive straight-sets win on Saturday.

Ball, ranked a lowly 205th in the world, outplayed Argentina’s Leonardo Mayer 7-5 7-6 in their semi-final encounter on a sun-splashed afternoon at the LA Tennis Center. A resident of nearby Newport Beach, the Australian left-hander had to come through three matches of qualifying to book his place in the main draw, although the first of them was very nearly his last.“When I was playing the first round here, in the middle of the match I hurt my back where I wasn’t able to hit a backhand,” Ball told reporters of his opening qualifier against South Korean Daniel Yoo seven days ago. “Later that day I was almost debating whether to pull out or not because it was giving me pain to walk.” “But I came back the next day and had the trainer work on it and it felt better against (Go) Soeda (in the second round of qualifying).” “Since then it has been feeling better and better every day.” Ball had not won a match on the ATP World Tour until this week but he has relished playing on the hardcourt surface of the LA Tennis Center’s stadium court. “I have a game if I can put it together and get some confidence going, I can go ahead and win some matches, especially in these conditions here,” the 22-year-old said. “They help and suit my game, with the faster court and the higher bounce. These courts are great. They grip and they work really well with the kick serve and stuff like that.” The only slight problem for Ball this week has been navigating the 80-km drive from his Newport Beach home in the notoriously bad Los Angeles traffic. “It’s a minimum an hour and it took two hours yesterday to get home,” he said. “But when you’re away travelling 30-odd weeks out of the year, to be able to spend any night you can at home is worth an hour-long drive I think.” Bureau Report