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Old 04-28-2016, 01:19 PM   #332
Brian Swartz
Grizzled Veteran
 
Join Date: May 2006
Australian Open -- Second Week

Along with Bereznity, former #7 Perry Mockler, an afterthought for nearly a year now, was a surprise quarterfinalist after surviving a 10-8 fifth set against his better fellow American Radek Smitala. Mockler went away quickly here though, thanks to Iglar. Benda smacked Bereznity around pretty good, while Mehul had only a few tense moments in the third set against Cestmir Marcek, still coming through easily in straights. Girsh Girsh looked about the same against Pierce Gaskell, leading 2-0 before losing a tense tiebreaker in the third. After the wheels came off in the fourth, it looked like a repeat of last year's WTC final against Iglar. He saved the match, barely, 6-4, 6-4, 6-7(5), 1-6, 6-3, but it shouldn't have gone that far.

Iglar and Benda had a very tight first set in the first semifinal, but after the Czech squeezed through in a tiebreak, the German veteran folded and it was over in three. Once again the world's top player was through to the final here, and he'd taken on one of my power pair who were set to go in the second semi. It was all Girsh in the first set, but he didn't do a whole lot afterwards. Anil Mehul's second win in as many weeks over his younger rival served notice that he isn't quite done yet as the top player in Sri Lanka tennis, 1-6, 6-1, 6-4, 6-4. Just like in Sydney, Girsh played well enough overall to win but Mehul's serve(17 aces to 10) came through more when things were tight, and Anil's experience allowed him to seize more opportunities.

So, for the 5th year in a row, it's Iglar vs. Mehul. A couple of the matches have been very close, with last year's going the distance, and the two before that taking four sets. This time, Mehul won a pair of very close sets at the outset, but the Czech legend didn't take this lying down. An easy third, and then a tight fourth-set breaker had them going to a fifth set again. This time though, it was Mehul who got the last laugh, 7-5, 7-6(3), 2-6, 6-7(8), 6-3! An epic final, and a huge victory here for Anil. Over more than five years, Iglar had won the last 11 hard-court Slam tournaments. Not this one. Not today. Mehul claims his 4th Slam title, first away from Wimbledon, and strangely now holds more of them at the moment(2, 1 each for Iglar and Benda) despite still being thousands of points down in the rankings due to other results. It's a heck of a start to the year for him, and a second straight match that he won in the key spots despite being slightly outplayed. Give yourself a chance enough times, and eventually you might come through. That's exactly what happened here. The head-to-head is now 26-12 Iglar -- this was his first hardcourt loss though in a year and a half. A sign of things to come? That remains to be seen.

Elsewhere ...

Ritwik Dudwadkar had his first juniors event, and lost competitive qualifying matches in both singles and doubles.

Coming Up . ..

The important WTC tie against Germany is up next week. Mooljee will be training, and Dudwadkar will try his luck in another tier-5 juniors due to only getting a couple of matches this time.
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