He may not have liked the windy conditions, but he most certainly liked the match-up. Denis Kudla, the twenty-six-year-old American was 2-0 on the year versus left-handed players. Today, after defeating the twenty-three-year-old German Maximilian Marterer, he is 3-0. There may not have been lines people, hawk-eye or a shot clock at the Stowe Mountain Lodge Classic but there was plenty of excitement and enthusiasm as the players took the court for this final match.

Though the rain delayed the start of play by an hour and the blustering conditions throughout the match were challenging, both players served remarkably well and went for their shots. In addition, the novelty of having the players call their own lines lends itself to both drama and playfulness.

Kudla served first and held despite hitting a double fault, closing out the game with a sweet cross-court backhand volley winner. Marterer also had a few hiccups in his first service game but held with a huge forehand down the line on game point.

They remained on serve thru the 10th game both displaying their huge serves and all-court games. Although it was extremely windy, Kudla continued to employ the drop shot winning most of those points. Marterer serving down 5-6 needed to hold to force a tie-breaker. Despite being up 40-15, he soon found himself down break and set point following two incredible points by the American: an inside-out forehand winner and a backhand drop shot volley winner. Kudla secured the break and first set 7-5 with a blistering backhand down the line winner.

Kudla served first in the second set and held at love. Marterer struggled once again with his timing off the ground and focus. He was not as sharp as in his previous matches and played passively at times. Kudla forced the issue and struck winner after winner including another stupendous backhand down the line to break serve. Although he hit his second double fault of the match, Kudla held and consolidated the break to go up 3-0.

The German seemed to sense that time was running out as he stepped it up in his next service game and held following a remarkable stab volley and penetrating groundstrokes off both wings. He continued this trajectory in the following game as he put the American under pressure with his depth of shot. Kudla found himself down double break point after committing several unforced errors. Once again, Kudla served his way out of trouble and held for 3-1.

Marterer, with his lefty text-book swing and deep knee bend, served an ace out wide and struck a jaw-dropping cross-court forehand volley winner to hold for 2-4. It looked as if the tide had turned and perhaps he would find a way to break and force a 10-point super tie-breaker to decide the match, but this would be the last game he would win.

Kudla threw in his third double fault of the match but continued to go big on first and second serves eliciting weak replies on the return. The American held for 5-2 and was now just four points from victory.

The longest and most spectacular rally of the match sadly ended with an error, not a winner, as Marterer served to stay in the match. Down 0-15, he soon found himself facing double match point as the unforced errors continued to fly. Kudla over-hit on the next two points but following another unforced error off the forehand by Marterer, had a third match point and that was all he required as he struck another riveting backhand down the line to win the set, $5000 and the second annual Stowe Mountain Lodge Classic.