Tennis: How New Zealand's Rubin Statham achieved a miracle at ASB Classic

Rubin Statham (NZL) during the ASB Classic. Photo / www.photosport.nz

Rubin Statham's incredible ASB Classic win today was the product of new pre-season regime, a ton of match play leading into the event and a change in strategy midway through the match – after seeing a dire statistic on the stadium scoreboard.

Statham upset the odds in incredible fashion on Tuesday afternoon, defeating the world No 25 and sixth seed Hyeon Chung 7-5 6-3 for the biggest win of his career.

For the 31-year-old, who is ranked more than 300 places below the Korean (world No 360), it was just his second career victory in an ATP main draw match.

Chung, who reached the Australian Open semi finals last year, beating six time champion Novak Djokovic on the way, looked like he was cruising to victory at one point, as he led 5-1 in the first set against a struggling Statham.

"There is a good percentage of first sets over when you are down 5-1 but I just hang in there, and clawed my way back as I have done in the past," said Statham. "I tried to not think about it too much and just execute well. I was honestly thinking about the second set and how I could perform a bit better there and go from there.

But the New Zealander found a way back, helped by a startling statistic about his serve, as he glanced up at the scoreboard during a change of ends.

"I sat there and looked up at the screen and saw the points won on second serve percentage…and it was about 18 per cent," said Statham. "It was nice to see that statistic on the board..that gave me the wake up call and indicated 'Let's make a few first serves here Rubin and go from there.'

It ended up I played some great points to get the break back and things went my way from there."

As he greeted plenty of well-wishers in the players lounge, Statham was understandably thrilled about the achievement.

"It's been 17 years as a professional and one of my better wins, if not my best win, said Statham. "I'm happy with the way I played and to start the year well. I'd had a lot of matches moving into this tournament. I feel more comfortable with my game and clarity of style. I've got the shots, just believing and executing on the day. I think my lead in to this event was spot on and countless hours from my team to prepare me for maybe my last ASB was really well done and it showed today."