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Brian Swartz · 08-23-2019, 01:03 AM

Madrid

The Spaniards served notice this week that they are once again to be feared, at least when playing on the dirt and on their home turf. Calisto Aviles didn't just make the title match this time, he won it over Harald Wentz, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3. And where was Nicolas Perez you may ask? He was a spectator due to a stunning third-round upset by the other Spaniard, Fabio Cagide. Cagide would go on to be flattened in the quarterfinals by Haas, who is not known for his clay play, so it would appear that it just wasn't Nicolas' week. Of course, he can afford one of these every once in a while.

Ollie Haas would go on to lose to Aviles in the semis, a great run for him. On the other side it was Il-Sung Jung who formed the opposition for Wentz. Straight-sets in both of those. Prior to the final, the Austrian world no. 2 faced his toughest opposition from a certain Sri Lankan, sending Amrik Kasaravalli home crying 6-3 , 6-7(3), 7-5 in the third round. While Wentz was definitely the better player in the encounter, I mean the crying part literally. Amrik served for the match at 5-3 in the final set, having played well enough in the key moments to be in great position to steal the match. He saved multiple BPs in each of his last service games but ultimately had the upset on his racket and couldn't get it done. Kasaravalli has lost to the eventual runner-up in the first two Clay masters now, but has very little to show for it. His hopes are now pinned on Rome, where he had a breakthrough last year (note that I was thinking this before I saw the results there, for those keeping up on it).

Mpakati, Hart, and Moniotte (badly in that case but he got there) were the other quarterfinal round losers. The first two pushed the eventual finalists to three sets each, so they have nothing to be ashamed of. Moniotte defeated 4-seed Tobias Velilla earlier so nice job by him. Other Anilophiles entered were Willy Weigl (l. Perez 2nd round), Helmut Edlund (l. Mpakati 2nd round), Seamus Hughes (l. Aviles 2nd round), and Algot Hakanson (l. L. Perez 1st round in three sets). Oh, and Sushant Chiba, first-round victim of Cagide who had some nice wins this week, took the first set but couldn't stay with the younger man.

Elsewhere …

Really tough scheduling decision as Nasir Chittoor was up for another tournament. A couple of CH1 events were available, and arguably winnable - but it seemed just a likely to be a runner-up or semifinalist result. So I went for the safe, nearly-certain win in CH3 Zagreb. Not as many points and probably lower XP as well, but it was a total walk as Chittoor cruised to the title and the 75 points for the winner. Satyagit Guha's strategy is to stay as close in form to Nasir as possible, even though that's not quite optimal for his development, so he can help by being doubles partner for practice weeks. He was off to an F2 event in Ecuador, as the only F1 was in the USA with some quality Americans participating. That also went off without a hitch as only the final set in the championship match was even close. So both players did everything they could this week.

Up Next

The third clay masters in Rome, the final tuneup for RG.

08-23-2019, 01:03 AM	#1159
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	Madrid The Spaniards served notice this week that they are once again to be feared, at least when playing on the dirt and on their home turf. Calisto Aviles didn't just make the title match this time, he won it over Harald Wentz, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3. And where was Nicolas Perez you may ask? He was a spectator due to a stunning third-round upset by the other Spaniard, Fabio Cagide. Cagide would go on to be flattened in the quarterfinals by Haas, who is not known for his clay play, so it would appear that it just wasn't Nicolas' week. Of course, he can afford one of these every once in a while. Ollie Haas would go on to lose to Aviles in the semis, a great run for him. On the other side it was Il-Sung Jung who formed the opposition for Wentz. Straight-sets in both of those. Prior to the final, the Austrian world no. 2 faced his toughest opposition from a certain Sri Lankan, sending Amrik Kasaravalli home crying 6-3 , 6-7(3), 7-5 in the third round. While Wentz was definitely the better player in the encounter, I mean the crying part literally. Amrik served for the match at 5-3 in the final set, having played well enough in the key moments to be in great position to steal the match. He saved multiple BPs in each of his last service games but ultimately had the upset on his racket and couldn't get it done. Kasaravalli has lost to the eventual runner-up in the first two Clay masters now, but has very little to show for it. His hopes are now pinned on Rome, where he had a breakthrough last year (note that I was thinking this before I saw the results there, for those keeping up on it). Mpakati, Hart, and Moniotte (badly in that case but he got there) were the other quarterfinal round losers. The first two pushed the eventual finalists to three sets each, so they have nothing to be ashamed of. Moniotte defeated 4-seed Tobias Velilla earlier so nice job by him. Other Anilophiles entered were Willy Weigl (l. Perez 2nd round), Helmut Edlund (l. Mpakati 2nd round), Seamus Hughes (l. Aviles 2nd round), and Algot Hakanson (l. L. Perez 1st round in three sets). Oh, and Sushant Chiba, first-round victim of Cagide who had some nice wins this week, took the first set but couldn't stay with the younger man. Elsewhere … Really tough scheduling decision as Nasir Chittoor was up for another tournament. A couple of CH1 events were available, and arguably winnable - but it seemed just a likely to be a runner-up or semifinalist result. So I went for the safe, nearly-certain win in CH3 Zagreb. Not as many points and probably lower XP as well, but it was a total walk as Chittoor cruised to the title and the 75 points for the winner. Satyagit Guha's strategy is to stay as close in form to Nasir as possible, even though that's not quite optimal for his development, so he can help by being doubles partner for practice weeks. He was off to an F2 event in Ecuador, as the only F1 was in the USA with some quality Americans participating. That also went off without a hitch as only the final set in the championship match was even close. So both players did everything they could this week. Up Next The third clay masters in Rome, the final tuneup for RG.