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Canada Masters
The second hardcourt season begins ... strangely. At the bottom of the draw a couple of expected quarterfinalists left a round early. (4) Themis Xanthos was pushed out in three sets by Davide de Laurentiis of Germany, who really hadn't been doing all that much but decided to break out here because reasons. Jochen Weigle's disastrous year continued in a 7-5, 7-6(4) setback against Przalowik also. They did better than 6th-ranked Oleg Urazov, who didn't bother to show up.
Then it got really strange in the quarterfinals. Sometimes a scoreline isn't everything. Toni Bardales stunned Ben Faille 6-4, 1-6, 6-3, but this isn't the disaster for Faille that you might imagine. The world no. 1 dominated the match, but still lost. Total points were 76-66, but even more telling was the fact that he won 37% of the points returning serve, to only 22% for Bardales. The top Spaniard won only 13 points on Faille's serve ... but somehow managed two break points, converting both of them, one in the first set and one in the third. I think this is the most undeserved match result I've ever seen. Usually if you win 5% more on your return than the opponent does on theirs, you're going to win fairly easily. This was triple that margin. Bizarre.
The rest of the round went more normally; Solitris Papadias out against Cananis in straight sets, credible showing by Ene Caballero before losing to Polychroniadis, and Johann Przalowik won the match of players who weren't expected to be here, 6-4, 6-4 over de Laurentiis. Straight-set wins by the favorites in the semifinals set up yet another match between Renke Cananis and Leon Polychroniadis for the title. The Greek rallied after dropping the opening set for his third straight win their rivalry, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4.
Now we'll do it all over again in Canada, where Urazov is expected to play, and Faille can only hope being the better player will be enough to win him matches.
Elsewhere ...
It's been a banner few weeks for my players. Sushant Srivastava notched another FT1 victory in Haifa, Israel, this time taking the doubles title as well. Perhaps he's finally broken through. Aparna Chandrasekharan made his second FT3 final in three events, once again losing the championship match, but it's still enough to guarantee he won't sink back to the amateur level. It seems likely his first futures title isn't far away. Girish Raychaudhari added another dual title at a JG4 in Porto, Portugal. All three appear to be progressing smoothly, and are getting plenty of quality practice weeks in between tournaments. Just keep that train a-rolling, fellas.
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