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Shanghai
The trend in hardcourt Masters this year was finally broken. Nicolas Perez strengthened his grip considerably on the tennis world by taking the title, but he lost a set in each of the last three rounds so it wasn't a walk in the park. Ollie Haas was a bit of a surprise finalist - he appears to be having a resurgence of sorts, eliminating Mpakati and Ali Solberg along the way. Il-Sung Jung came the closest, and was a tiebreak away from a straight-sets win over Perez in the semis. As for the expected Wentz, he had a three-set loss to Solberg in the quarterfinals, losing tiebreaks in the first and final frames. Very tough loss for him, but I can't really say that he's slumped, more gotten unlucky. In that match, he won the overall points 131-122, return points 38% to 32%, and the BP disparity was quite severe. 4 of 6 for Solberg, 5 of 27 for Wentz. It's not taking anything away from the Swede to note he was very fortunate to come through that one.
John Hart had his run end at the first hurdle in the second round, losing in a third-set tiebreak to Moniotte. Clearly the Irish have decided it's time to go doubles, and I'd expect a fairly rapid descent for him now as he's essentially surrendered the passing of the torch to Perez. My players did quite well, each lucking out with a matchup against a qualifier in the first round. Sushant Chiba then eked out a match against Balzer with a strong showing in the decisive tiebreaker before a surprising 6-4, 6-4 upset to end the appearance of 8th-seed Tim de Jong early. He even stole the first set against Perez in the quarterfinals - courtesy of his only break point opportunity of the match - before fading. Amrik Kasaravalli dominated the first set against 4th-seed Chisulo Mpakati in his third-round encounter before the smelling salts were administered in a 1-6, 6-4, 6-3 defeat. It's hard to get a read on matches like that but either way I can't complain about that kind of showing.
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