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Old 06-19-2015, 04:15 PM   #46
Brian Swartz
Grizzled Veteran
 
Join Date: May 2006
The last couple of weeks have been unexpectedly fantastic. First up, Mehul entered the 250 event in Brisbane, Australia instead of Chennai where so many top players entered that he wouldn't even have been seeded. He needed to get a few matches in and try to get enough points to move up some if possible. The early rounds went as expected and Mick Elder awaited in the quarterfinals. That was enough to prepare him for the AO, and figured to be the end of the road. Instead, Mehul stunned the world no. 2, 6-4, 7-6(3) and it could have been more decisive. It was his first win in four meetings with Elder, and any win over a player of that stature is huge. At least for the day, he had arrived as a player that could hang with the best in the sport.

Next up was none other than Julian Hammerstein, who had benefited by the way from Chittoor knocking off unprepared no. 18 Kecic to clear the way. Unable to utilize his power nearly as effectively as he did last year in the WTC matchup on clay, Hammerstein's slowness of foot allowed Mehul to dictate from the baseline more often than not and another tough two-set win, 7-5, 7-5, put him in the final! There waiting was the hottest player in the world, Perry Hogue, and he fairly easily took the title but it was still a fantastic start to the year, vaulting Mehul to 29th in the world for the third time.

The next week, Girish Girsh was in action in the only non-clay top-tier futures event of the first month of the season, in Metz, France. It was a very strong field due to this fact, and he was the 7th-seed but felt good about his chances on an indoor court. Only one of his first three matches was remotely competitive, but things got tougher at the business end of the tournament. A pair of Frenchmen, strongly supported by the partisan crowd, got their shot. In the final, having knocked off regular foe Jesper Fine in the semifinals, Paul-Mathieu Bergerat gave Girsh a real run. It wasn't enough though, he pushed through 7-6(4), 6-4 and claimed his maiden first-tier futures crown after losing twice in the final and once in the quarters in three previous attempts. Ranked up to a new best of 275th afterwards, he will now take several weeks off before taking another shot at breaking into the challenger level of competition.


2039 Australian Open

And so it was that Anil Mehul entered the AO equaling his career-best rank at 29th, and seeded 28th. The difference was accounted for by the fact that 13th-ranked Jens Oberg, who is fairly well if imperfectly managed by the #13 manager by ranking, decided to play only doubles as did the other player under his tutelage. Quite a strange decision considering Oberg was a semifinalist here last year and will now take a zero-pointer, dropping him down to around 17th and opening the door a little wider. It must be an oversight, but a pretty costly one.

It's worth noting in a brief aside that In four of the five 250s in the two weeks leading up to the Australian Open, at least half of the top seeds were knocked off prior to reaching the semifinals. Among the titlists was rising star Antonin Iglar who I mentioned at the outset of this year, the first pro title for anyone of his generation(the 'Stars of Tomorrow'). Undoubtedly the first of many in his case. Things are so fluid and highly unpredictable at the top right now -- everybody has to take advantage of any opportunity given.

At any rate, Mehul had a draw that looked to offer him good chances to make this a very successful event. The farthest he's previously made it here was the second round last year, and never past the third in any Slam. Going into the tournament it felt like he was now turning a corner, finally ready to fully enter his assault on the shrinking number of players ahead of him. With the big wins a couple of weeks ago, he feels he has at least a chance against almost anyone, almost anywhere.

American Tommy Day, two years removed from being the junior no. 1, took just five games in the first round. The second match was more competitive but another straight-sets win. The third round brought #10 Spasoje Kucerovic, who won their lone previous meeting in a third-set tiebreak at Indian Wells last year. On clay he'd be the better player but hardcourt is Kucerovic's weakest surface, making this a pretty favorable matchup for this stage of the tournament. It wasn't easy, but Mehul advanced to the last 16 for the first time at a slam, 7-6(4), 6-4, 6-7(4), 6-4. He was able to keep Spasoje guessing just enough to blunt his power, and already it's a second win against the Top 10.

Standing in the way of a quarterfinal berth was a first encounter with no. 4 Bjorn Benda. The German had already bettered an early exit here last year, and has not dropped a set this year with only one set in the last two rounds even competitive. Once again Anil had the advantage of going up against a player that is not at their best on the hardcourts, but Bjorn is probably the only player in the world that can hang with him from the baseline along with having a better serve and all-around athleticism. It's a much different matchup than Kucerovic was. Unfortunately Mehul just came out and stunk it up -- everybody has bad days but this was just embarassing. 6-0, 6-3, 6-3 was the final, and other than a brief period in the second set he just wasn't nearly good enough, losing just over the half the points on his own serve and getting broken seven times. At this stage of his career, a beatdown like this, no matter the opponent or situation, is pretty much just inexcusable.

While his generational rivals Iglar and Hammerstein also made it to the fourth round, they likewise lost in straight sets. Mehul could also take some solace in the fact that he was the lowest-ranked player to make it that far. 7 of the top 8 seeds made it to the quarterfinals, making a convincing statement with their play that there is certainly a limit to the cries of parity, and they aren't about to surrender their lofty positions easily. The eighth is worth mentioning as well, #11 David Alvarez, who reached that stage without the loss of a single set and handed out a ridiculous triple-bagel to worn-out Tihomir Hreglic, allowing just 22 points! Hreglic, ranked 22nd coming in here, had been fresh enough to rally from behind to knock out Challenger in the previous match, and generally speaking routs of that severity just don't happen to players of his stature. All together it set up what looked to be a fantastic second week with the elite players all looking like they were close to the top of their games.
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