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2052 Wimbledon
It was not an easy road, but Mehul/Kroese had themselves a great run here. After a couple of competitive matches, they reached the final without having actually lost a set. Cordasic/Aspelin, the #2 team in the world, waited but they could not stop the express, falling in four. After a third-round loss last year, this gives Mehul a second doubles Slam in his trophy case, and vaults the duo to the #3 spot, within striking distance of the top teams.
Shyam Senepathy had an interesting first-round match in singles, losing in a competitive three sets to (30)Olaf Bergman of Norway. Argentina's Tristan Benitez was the only seed to stumble at the first hurdle, after a fairly epic four-set struggle against Ireland's Deji Ekoku. The strange thing here is that it was Ekoku's first-ever Wimbledon victory ... at 32 years old! (19)Hsuang-tsung Teng(NZL) exited in a five-set loss to Swede Valentin Rosenberg in the second round, while everyone else made it through. Teng is a pretty fast-rising 22-year-old player, but he hit a road bump in this one.
In the third, Sava Cirakovic pulled off another magic act in outlasting Borja 3-6, 6-3, 6-7(3), 7-6(8), 7-5, a match in which the world #5 had several match points to advance but could not convert any of them. Usually a reliable grass performer(4th round last year), he figured to have a deep run here. The drama didn't end there, with Blagota Cojanovic stopping no. 4 Gillo Fangio, 11-9 in the 5th! Two of the Top 5 in the world gone by the end of the third round: the field was open for some unusual surprises going forward. There weren't any huge shockers in the round of 16 though. Luc Janin survived a second straight close four-set match to keep on moving.
The quarterfinals had six players more or less expected to make it, along with (18)Andres Guardado(MEX) and (17)Sigmund Kronecker(DEU), who were definite surprises. Both gave it a worth effort; Guardado was the first one to give Mooljee a real match, pushing it the distance before Prakash won the final set 6-3. Closer than it should have been. Kronecker pushed Janin to a third straight four-set result. Meanwhile, Mateo Kaspar also ran into some trouble, with Guus Dircx winning a couple sets to make that one go the distance. A semifinalist a year ago, he showed it was not a fluke. All of the favorites ultimately came through, and the top three were still around.
The first semifinal is one that defending champion Johnny Browne will not soon forget. After taking the first two sets, he watched Kaspar rally for a 1-6, 6-7(4), 7-6(5), 6-3, 8-6 win. Browne had the most aces and won seven more points, but after the first set he was just a bit on the short end and couldn't get over the finish line. In the second, Mooljee stopped Janin in straight sets(two via tiebreak). So the final was the same as just about every other big match the last few months. Once again Mateo Kaspar dropped the first two sets, but once again he came back to win it. Reminiscent of Browne's first Slam title two years ago at the USO, he takes three straight 5-setters, the last two rallying from 2-0 down in sets, and claims his first Wimbledon title. It was a deserved win, but you can only shake your head here. Mooljee was very close to that 9th slam, but like Browne couldn't finish off the champion.
Elsewhere ...
Ritwik Dudwadkar claimed his first 'plus' challenger title, blasting aside Coria easily to finish off a fine run at Braunschweig. He's looking better all the time, finally able to dominate the weaker competition around him.
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