[Brian Swartz]

2069 Australian Open

Doubles … did not go well for me. Guha/Chiba met up with 9th-seeds Solheim/Aas and got their butts kicked fairly severely. They'd eventually play 2-seeds Hughes/Hart tough in the third round, before the Irish lost in the quarterfinals. There were some new pairings about, and one of them, (4) Nives/Godinic, wound up carting off the trophy. Prince Karl didn't do so well, not having a regular partner right now, and suffered the insult of a first-round exit to qualifiers. So there's a bit of a shakeup going on in the doubles ranks.

On the singles side, Satyagit Guha qualified in a Slam for the first time, then won a fairly favorable first-round matchup in four before getting his appointed smacking by Mpakati … who was charitable enough to allow a couple games in the final set to avoid the dreaded triple-bagel. Elsewhere, Kjaerstad was pushing to five in the first round, and (21) Pedro Perez was the surprise upset victim of Grigor Dimitrov (BUL) … no relation to the real-life player, I'm told … 9-7 in the 5th. Edlund was almost another upset victim, pushed to 8-6 by a Bolivian player whose name I'd never previously laid eyes on. But in the end it was only Perez the Third who failed to advance.

In the second round some of the geezers stepped aside. Sushant Chiba was beaten by a Swiss Karl-Heinz Edelman (who?) in straight sets. Balzer suffered a similar fate, but at least he played someone, losing in four to one of the de Boers. Narciso was pushed to five by Licona but survived, while (20) Emilien Mathou was swept out by countryman Clavet Belgraver. And then came the third round, when stuff started happening as all manner of newly seeded players came up against quality competiton.

Pretty safe to say I had the match of the round, as Chittoor took down Srba Dogic in a match I did not expect to win. On hardcourt Dogic had a modest but safe advantage IMO, but a topsy-turvy epic ensued which Nasir came out on the winning side of 6-2, 6-7(4), 6-3, 2-6, 13-11! And actually, he should have won it sooner but wasn't particularly opportunistic on this day. A surprisingly strong performance and this match went almost 400 points. Going in, I thought (24) Tommy Fitzpatrick had a better look at advancing against Molyneaux, but after splitting a pair of tiebreaks the veteran American eventually pulled through, also in five sets. He shouldn't have though - Fitz outplayed the older player and it was only Barry's legendary mental game (4.7) that allowed him to steal the victory here. Tough loss for Tommy. Then came the biggest surprise IMO, with the previously consistent 4th-ranked Calisto Aviles losing, again in five, to de Boer the Greater. I did not see that one coming. de Boer the Lesser nearly pulled off a similar feat, going down 7-5 in five sets to de Jong.

That was only the top half of the draw for the third round! The bottom wasn't quite as wild, but there was still some action worth mentioning. A couple of all-Anilophile matchups with Helmut Edlund meeting his end in three close sets to Moniotte, while Joao Narciso played Kasaravalli to a tough four. Smith got the upset he was looking for in four sets against (8) Ollie Haas, while (17) Algot Hakanson could do no more than winning one frame against Csollang.

(26) Nasir Chittoor's prize for reaching the fourth round was Perez himself, and that went the minimal three sets. Nasir won nine points against the serve of the world no. 1. They'll meet again, but he was overmatched here for sure and did well to get this far. de Boer the Greater was outlasted by Vicars in a five-set affair, while an initially stunning upset of Il-Sung Jung by Kasaravalli in straight sets was explained by the fact that the Korean was quite tired by this point. Clavet Moniotte was dismissed in three by Velilla, and similarly for Mark Smith against Csollang.

Three double-digit seeds in a mixed group in the quarterfinals to start off the second week. First up, Chisulo Mpakati showed he's sick of being Perez's pigeon, taking the first two sets in tiebreaks and forcing a third … which he lost 13-11 before falling in a devastating comeback. It's the 13th straight win in the series and 16th out of 17 overall for Perez, but Mpakati should have prevailed this time. He had the chance, and just couldn't finish. (16) Ross Vicars was knocked out in four by L. Perez, Wentz continued to cruise along by smacking Amrik Kasaravalli silly, and Odimos Csollang came within a whisker of knocking out the defending champion, 8-6 in the 5th for that one. He's an increasing threat, but was stopped this time.

Three of the last four then were from Argentina, in addition to the red-hot Harald Wentz. He got his first challenge from Tobias Velilla, but there would be no repeat here as the Austrian won in a tough four sets. Pushed once again to five sets in a three-tiebreak match that he could well have lost, Perez advanced again versus Lucas Perez. Nicolas 'The Real Perez' Perez had a very even start against Wentz, but gained the upper hand later in the championship match to win in four. His third AO title and 8th Slam overall, and this one wasn't a demonstration of pure skill but of grit, determination, and will. He had every reason to fold the previous couple of rounds but didn't, and as a result the greatest challenge to his reign at the top has been quieted for the moment.

Lower down in the rankings things keep churning, churning, churning. Kasaravalli reaching the quarters is a good event for him, and Chittoor gets more security with the fourth-round finish and upset of Dogic, so other than doubles it was a strong event for my players.