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Rome
Playing in one of the world's most historic cities, Nicolas Perez bounced back from the early loss last week to re-establish himself. This time the final victim was Chisulo Mpakati, who broke the impressive streak of sets lost in a row against the world no.1 but still couldn't get over the hump completely. The end was sad in a 6-7(3), 6-4, 6-0 that got worse and worse as it went on for the pride of Zimbabwe, and indeed the entire continent of Africa. The semifinalists were not exactly expected. After skipping Madrid entirely, Mike Rhodes showed that he can still play. de Jong, Haas, even Wentz in a third-set QF tiebreak found that out the hard way. But he definitely hit a wall in Mpakati, taking only four games. On the other side, Amrik Kasaravalli just likes playing here apparently. He had a credible but one-sided 6-3, 6-4 defeat against Perez. Before that, he avenged the close MC loss to Calisto Aviles with another close one in which the Spanaird was more consistent but Amrik was fresher and managed one more break conversion than his opponent. Prior to that, it was Algot Hakanson who did me the favor of knocking out Velilla early in an extremely close match; Kasaravalli has now won three straight against Hakanson, all of them on clay and all of them tough matches. So after making a breakthrough last year and reaching the quarters here, he goes one step further this season in his first Masters semi *clapclap*
Jung and Lucas Perez, who gave Mpakati a real run for his money, were the other QF losers. Willy Weigl lost a close 2nd-rounder to Dogic, Helmut Edlund was smacked silly by Jung at the same stage, Seamus Hughes ran out of gas against Mathou and John Hart departed early in a close one against Kjaerstad. Clavet Moniotte was sad after he lost in three to aging veteran Abinati as well. But no Anilophiles lost in the first round, so that's something to celebrate.
Coming Up …
After a week off, the clay season wraps up in Roland Garros.
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