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Old 12-26-2015, 03:32 PM   #220
Brian Swartz
Grizzled Veteran
 
Join Date: May 2006
2042 US OPEN

Prakash Mooljee was seeded 16th, and won a couple of easy matches before running into Jurco in the third round. There he was served a fresh bagel and breadstick in another beatdown. Doubles went better, as he was once again runner-up.

Girish Girsh had an easy time of things for a couple of matches, then met 24th-seed Jens Petersen(DEN) in the third round. They'd met once in a big challenger a few years back with Girsh winning a tight 3-setter. Petersen is now 27 and pretty much at the peak of his game, but Girsh had the advantage and had to go through a couple of tough sets but advanced 6-1, 7-6(6), 7-5. He then had his fourth shot at Pierce Gaskell, all of the previous three coming in Masters or Slams also. For the third time in those four meetings, he took a set off the American but he still has yet to win after a 6-3, 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(4) defeat. The frustrating thing about this one is that he was the better player but didn't convert enough of his opportunities. Gaskell had to go through 154 points on his serve, compared to only 124 for Girsh, but the world no. 6 converted a couple more break chances and prevailed in the tiebreaker that clinched the match. Yet another one of those where Girsh was there, played well enough to win, but didn't make the breakthrough when it mattered. He matches last year's 4th-round result, still as good as he's ever done in a Slam.

Anil Mehul was looking to improve on a quarterfinal finish last year, and in the fourth round it was his turn to contend with Olav Birkeland. The Swede gave him all he wanted to handle and then some. Mehul won an epic first-set tiebreak, but still couldn't shake him completely and while he eventually won in straight sets, it was far from easy. 7-6(11), 6-4, 6-3 was the scoreline, no question the better man won but Birkeland's 17 aces made it a real fight despite the fact that he only managed to break Mehul once on the day. David Alvarez, no longer a real threat on this surface, bowed out in straight sets relatively meekly in the quarters. Then it was Bjorn Benda again in the semis; Benda had been forced to rally from two sets down against Gaskell just to get here, showing his championship experience to hold off the advance of time and the rising American one more time at least. He wasn't done either. In this case fatigue still on his side, the German pushed through in another five-setter against Mehul, 6-4, 6-7(4), 7-6(3), 3-6, 6-3 to reach the final, where he was unsurprisingly dumped by Iglar in straights. The semifinal was a very even match, with Benda's serve(21-13 aces) proving the difference in a paper-thin match that could have gone either way. It allows him, at least theoretically, to still have a chance at knocking Mehul out of the year-end #2 spot ...
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