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Cincinatti
Shyam Senepathy skipped this week entirely for reasons unknown, leaving just the top two guys to soldier on. Despite a few close calls, all the top players made it through on the first day. In the second round, the Americans flexed their muscles ... except for (16)Jake Jolland who won just a single game in a shocking match against Karl Kaspar. The 'lesser Kaspars' are really starting to make some inroads now. (14)Alexey Alenichev was knocked out in a close match against Rob Lock, while (11) Beno Duhr lost to Matteo Zimolo, 4-6, 7-6(2), 7-6(2).
Unlike last week, form would return in the third as not a single higher-seed lost. Piazzola needed a 7-5 decisive set to get past Dick Blake, and Mooljee went to a third-set breaker to defeat Lock, but the US players, crowd favorites or no, all went home. The Top 8 all made the quarterfinals. Kaspar beat Ruben Piazzola again, a matchup that is getting awfully repetitive at this stage. Gillo Fangio lost a close one -- he's been playing better of late -- to Teng, while Dudwadkar ousted Prakash Mooljee, 6-4, 6-4 in just their third meeting this year. The overall is now 8-6 in favor of Mooljee. Martin Zarco departed perhaps a bit early, falling in three to Dircx in the last match of the day.
Another easy win for Kaspar in the semis over Hsuang-tsung Teng, and Guus Dircx was stopped by Dudwadkar, 6-2, 5-7, 6-3. First set he's lost, but he had enough in the tank to move on to the final ... and nearly win it. Took the first set from Mateo Kaspar, but eventually went down 3-6, 7-6(2), 6-4. Another sign of weakening in the French legend; this was close enough to show that he's no longer untouchable on hard courts, though it would still take a perfect storm of a bad day on his part for him to lose one. Didn't quite happen here.
Elsewhere ...
Anil Mehul was at a tier-2 challenger in Vancouver, losing badly in the second round. Not a real productive trip there for him,.
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