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Rome Masters
Yet another qualifying loss for Senepathy this week. Shreya Ujjaval's manager had a stroke of good sense, taking the route of sitting this week out. It's the only way he'll have a chance to make a run at RG -- should have kept him out of some smaller events further back, but given the situation, it's a wise move. First-round upset victims here were Srbulovic(again) and Andronikov in a surprise loss to fading veteran John Condon. Only one in round two, with Phillipe Besson forcing his name into the news a bit with a three-set defeat of Bourdet. A pretty smooth start for the top players overall though.
There were only a couple of one-sided matches in the third round; Mooljee had the easiest road as he had an unusually easy time with Khasan Zakirov. Girsh rallied to stop Luc Janin, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 ... the Canadian prodigy hasn't had a big year but he's been solid recently; Luc did well this week and almost pulled the upset. Mehul was pushed to three as well by last week's finalist Niklas, but he also prevailed. Caratti went the distance with Condon before finishing things off. There were a couple of upsets; Besson kept going against Elias Trulsen, and McCuskey's strong year continued as he eliminated Kinczllers.
Five of the top eight made the quarters, with Besson the real wild-card. Nobody else was a shock to be here. That was more reserved for Caratti's performance, as he was obliterated with only two games against Girish Girsh. A nice win to be sure, but it was obvious if it hadn't been before that the Argentine's game has vanished. He should be a lot better than this, and appears to be mired in a horrific slump. Mooljee took care of McCuskey easily, as did Iglar over Besson, but Mehul was knocked out in the one competitive match of the round, 6-3 in the third by Agustin Herrera. Still a solid performance for Anil, and a competitive match here but Herrera was relentless and pushed his way through.
Girsh served well enough in the first semi, nine aces and no double faults, to get through Herrera though it took a tough second-set tiebreak. In the second match, it was Mooljee against Iglar again. The #2 ranking going into Roland Garros looked to be on the line here. After a bad first set the Czech rallied, and it looked like he'd take the second ... but he dropped the last three games of the match after going in front, with Mooljee taking the 6-1, 6-4 win. An all-Sri Lanka final proved another occasion for a straight-sets win by the younger player, who lost only five games. The way Caratti is playing, there's no question Prakash Mooljee is the best player on this surface as well at the moment. The last time anyone dominated both hardcourt and clay at the same time like this was over a decade ago when the incomparable Eric Gorritepe ruled the sport. Nobody's putting Mooljee in that stratosphere, but he moves up to the #2 spot with his fourth Masters on the year, and he's been the better player every time out there so far. Sure seems the smart money is on him going forward.
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