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Old 05-30-2017, 06:11 PM   #619
Brian Swartz
Grizzled Veteran
 
Join Date: May 2006
2052 US Open

All things considered, doubles went pretty well for (3)Mehul/Kroese. It was an easy road to the semifinals, where the top four seeds were all represented. There they lost to newly minted #1s Cordasic/Aspelin, 6-2, 6-3. Those two are a dedicated doubles team almost in their prime; they may not be surpassable. Certainly they are opening up a bit of a gap here.

Shyam Senepathy had a nice opportunity and once again tripped up, losing to Ardant in a 5th-set tiebreaker after winning the first two sets. A fine match, but not the result he was looking for. A second straight first-round Slam exit after winning his first match three times in a row prior to that. Davide Poilblan almost lost his first, beating young up-and-comer Claudo Fandino 7-5 in the fifth. Jurco rallied from two sets down to beat (31) Alexander Maliagros, a poor showing for the Greek after a couple of third-round performances earlier in the season. 31-year-old Agustin Herrera took out (21) Benno Duhr, the highest-ranking loser; he's put no effort into hardcourts, and that's pretty much fatal. One more low seed, (27) Joseph Boller of Germany, lost in the second round. It was otherwhise very routine.

The third round found things to be a little more interesting. Shreya Ujjaval kept going with a surprise upset of Jolland in four sets. The overworked Ariel Borja bowed out meekly to Besson, and Swede Valetine Rosenberg, 22 years old and seeded for the first time in a Slam, kept on trucking with a straight-sets elimination of Guardado. Schmucker easily dismissed (7)Khasan Zakirov in a match that was definitely youth over experience. The best action of the day was seen between (15)Kire Zopp and (28)Ruslan Strelkov, with Zopp winning 7-5 in the 5th after a long struggle. (5)Luc Janin was next on the hit parade in the fourth round, a straight-sets loss to Kronecker. Milos Schmucker kept moving with a win over Dircx, and Phillippe Besson found the crowd a tougher foe than Srbulovic, eventually winning after that match went the distance. Ujjaval ran up against Kaspar, and was crushed 6-3, 6-1, 6-0. Ouch.

Five of the top eight were through to the quarterfinals, with the other three not so accustomed to these surroundings. Schmucker had never reached this stage before, and Prakash Mooljee dismissed him easily. Still a personal best, and we'll see how far the still-rising Czech can go. Phillipe Besson hasn't made it this far in almost two years, and he was easily handled by Kaspar. Sigmund Kronecker is the third, and he may be a regular; already up to #13 coming in, he made this his second Slam in a row where he's reached the final eight. Johnny Browne was made to work a bit, but still took care of things in straight sets. In the only match between players expected to be here, Fangio knocked out Martin Zarco. No match went longer than the minimum.

With all the top four players here for the semis, Mateo Kaspar stomped Browne pretty easily. There would be no repeat of his magical run of a couple years ago. The second match was well worth the price of admission though. Gillo Fangio found it more difficult than his win over Mooljee at the same stage last year, but got his 5th win against 13 losses in their matchup all the same. 7-6(3), 3-6, 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-2 was the final. Definitely Prakash had his chances, especially in that fourth-set tiebreak which could have won it for him. By the numbers it was an even as could be. He almost had twice the break chances, but both players converted four times and he couldn't get it done in the breakers. Fangio's mental game really came through here. It served him well also in the final against Kaspar, where he put up more resistance than expected. Rallying from a two-set deficit in a match where the champion didn't have his best game, he had a chance to pull off a huge comeback and claim his first Slam crown. Unfortunately he ran out of gas in the 5th, and Kaspar became the first player since Gorritepe to pull of the Calendar Slam(winning all four Slams in a calendar year). Three is downright common, but all of them at once is a rare thing. Too many things can go wrong on clay and grass for the dominant hardcourters. Another feather of a growing number in his cap.

Ritwik Dudwadkar easily won the biggest challenger available in the meantime, a tier-2 in Como.

Last edited by Brian Swartz : 05-30-2017 at 06:40 PM.
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