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Brian Swartz · 11-10-2016, 02:02 AM

Paris Masters

In terms of the tour finals, Kinczllers came in with the last spot nearly wrapped up. Bourdet would need to reach the final no matter what to change that situation.

Shyam Senepathy made it through qualifying again, but lost to another qualifier meekly in the first round, a rather recurrent theme with him. There were a few second-round upsets right off the bat; Cirakovic over Zakirov was a pretty significant surprise, neither being a particularly strong indoor player though; Gaskell lost to Moicevic, and most importantly for the tour finals, the door was left open when Kinczllers lost to wild-card Johnathan Ardant, 3-6, 7-6(8), 6-4. This naturally thrilled the crowds here, and all that was left was to see what Bourdet would do.

The third round was a little more straightforward, with no big upsets although there were some close matches. Shreya Ujjaval was the only higher seed to lose, but a 6-4, 6-4 decision to Davide Poilblan is quite understandable on this surface and in front of his home-nation fans. Mooljee had a tight straight-sets win over Sava Cirakovic, Niklas had a three-set nailbiter against Luc Janin, and Bourdet was pushed to three by Srbulovic.

The French push ended too soon for them in the quarterfinals however, and in fairly routine fashion. Girish Girsh defeated Poilblan, Bourdet went out to Tomas Niklas, and that was that -- Kinczllers would be the final entrant in the tour finals. A competitive win for Mooljee over Anil Mehul was also no surprise ... but Iglar was stunned by Zourab Andronikov, 6-4, 6-4, to throw a bit of a wrench into things.

Prakash Mooljee was next up for the upstart Georgian, and it was a fantastic match culminating in an epic tiebreak. At the end, Andronikov prevailed 6-7(2), 6-3, 7-6(12) in one of those matches where both players had tons of opportunities. Combined break points were just 3 of 23 combined, and it could have gone either way. Girsh easily dispatched Niklas in the second match. The final was another close one, but he simply became the latest of the world's top indoor players to fail in a 7-5, 2-6, 6-3 win for Andronikov. A stunning victory for his first Masters, as he'd never made it past the semifinals of this level of tournament -- and never past the second round here in Paris! He's been eliminated for the WTF for some time now, but moves up to a career-high 10th in the world rankings with the victory. Quite the way to end the season for the 26-year-old.

Coming Up ...

A couple of weeks off, Dudwadkar will be playing next week but the others will rest up and get some hitting in ahead of the tour finals which are in Canada this season. Mehul still has an outside chance of moving up from his 6th position but the biggest question is who will finish second: it looks like Girsh has it now with Iglar's early exit in Paris but it's not fully decided yet.

11-10-2016, 02:02 AM	#552
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	Paris Masters In terms of the tour finals, Kinczllers came in with the last spot nearly wrapped up. Bourdet would need to reach the final no matter what to change that situation. Shyam Senepathy made it through qualifying again, but lost to another qualifier meekly in the first round, a rather recurrent theme with him. There were a few second-round upsets right off the bat; Cirakovic over Zakirov was a pretty significant surprise, neither being a particularly strong indoor player though; Gaskell lost to Moicevic, and most importantly for the tour finals, the door was left open when Kinczllers lost to wild-card Johnathan Ardant, 3-6, 7-6(8), 6-4. This naturally thrilled the crowds here, and all that was left was to see what Bourdet would do. The third round was a little more straightforward, with no big upsets although there were some close matches. Shreya Ujjaval was the only higher seed to lose, but a 6-4, 6-4 decision to Davide Poilblan is quite understandable on this surface and in front of his home-nation fans. Mooljee had a tight straight-sets win over Sava Cirakovic, Niklas had a three-set nailbiter against Luc Janin, and Bourdet was pushed to three by Srbulovic. The French push ended too soon for them in the quarterfinals however, and in fairly routine fashion. Girish Girsh defeated Poilblan, Bourdet went out to Tomas Niklas, and that was that -- Kinczllers would be the final entrant in the tour finals. A competitive win for Mooljee over Anil Mehul was also no surprise ... but Iglar was stunned by Zourab Andronikov, 6-4, 6-4, to throw a bit of a wrench into things. Prakash Mooljee was next up for the upstart Georgian, and it was a fantastic match culminating in an epic tiebreak. At the end, Andronikov prevailed 6-7(2), 6-3, 7-6(12) in one of those matches where both players had tons of opportunities. Combined break points were just 3 of 23 combined, and it could have gone either way. Girsh easily dispatched Niklas in the second match. The final was another close one, but he simply became the latest of the world's top indoor players to fail in a 7-5, 2-6, 6-3 win for Andronikov. A stunning victory for his first Masters, as he'd never made it past the semifinals of this level of tournament -- and never past the second round here in Paris! He's been eliminated for the WTF for some time now, but moves up to a career-high 10th in the world rankings with the victory. Quite the way to end the season for the 26-year-old. Coming Up ... A couple of weeks off, Dudwadkar will be playing next week but the others will rest up and get some hitting in ahead of the tour finals which are in Canada this season. Mehul still has an outside chance of moving up from his 6th position but the biggest question is who will finish second: it looks like Girsh has it now with Iglar's early exit in Paris but it's not fully decided yet.