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Brian Swartz · 08-19-2022, 02:19 PM

Madrid Masters

The apparent predictability seen in Monte Carlo was fairly absent in the second of the three clay-court Masters. First up there was the matter of the missing Cypriots. #4 Themis Xanthos and current #10 Aketas Albanos, who have the same manager, didn't show up. For a top player in a slow world this is a big if perhaps understandable mistake. You can schedule Masters events a long ways out and there's pretty much not a good reason to not play them at this level. Then add to that the continuing free-fall of Schwarzkopf, the fact that former world No. 1 for over a year #13 Marc Erdozain has stopped playing singles at age 31 and gone doubles, and you've got a lot of openings in the draw for players to have more opportunities then you might otherwhise expect.

(8) Eddy Copperfield was knocked out in the second round by wild-card Christian Villareal (ESP). A home tournament for the 74th-ranked Villareal, who has the talent but too much mismanagement in his past has his serve still solidly at Challenger level at age 24. And then there was Frenchman Pet Sampras .... not Pete, Pet. That's either a hilarious misspelling or an intentional joke. Villareal was easily dismissed by Oleg Urazov, who found himself in the quarterfinals but was routinely eliminated by Polychroniadis.

Up to the 4th seed, Jochen Weigle got there as well but couldn't handle Papadias, the Greek no. 2 rudely waving him aside 6-3, 6-2. Toni Bardales is banking on this event and he made it count, grinding his way past second-seed Renke Cananis 6-4, 6-4. And there was another surprise, with 10th-seeded Italian Ale Ballok straight-setting third-ranked Alexander Reimann for some reason. Both of the Germans out in the quarterfinals.

The all-Greek semi was the best match of the tournament, with form eventually holding and Solitris Papadias going down 3-6, 7-5, 6-3. In other, Ballok lost to Bardales, a first-set tiebreak but then an anticlimactic bagel. In his first Masters final, Toni Bardales was uh ... crunched. 6-2, 6-3 by Leon Polychroniadis who just keeps right on winning, and convincingly most of the time. He lost only ten points on serve, and extended his already quite large lead over all comers in the rankings. I wouldn't bet against him doing it all over again next week in Rome.

Elsewhere

Girish Raychaudhari's first junior tournament was expectedly brief. Qualified in doubles, lost in the main draw in both singles and doubles at the first time of asking. He'll try again next week, and it's time for Srivastava to play another futures event also.

08-19-2022, 02:19 PM	#1263
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	Madrid Masters The apparent predictability seen in Monte Carlo was fairly absent in the second of the three clay-court Masters. First up there was the matter of the missing Cypriots. #4 Themis Xanthos and current #10 Aketas Albanos, who have the same manager, didn't show up. For a top player in a slow world this is a big if perhaps understandable mistake. You can schedule Masters events a long ways out and there's pretty much not a good reason to not play them at this level. Then add to that the continuing free-fall of Schwarzkopf, the fact that former world No. 1 for over a year #13 Marc Erdozain has stopped playing singles at age 31 and gone doubles, and you've got a lot of openings in the draw for players to have more opportunities then you might otherwhise expect. (8) Eddy Copperfield was knocked out in the second round by wild-card Christian Villareal (ESP). A home tournament for the 74th-ranked Villareal, who has the talent but too much mismanagement in his past has his serve still solidly at Challenger level at age 24. And then there was Frenchman Pet Sampras .... not Pete, Pet. That's either a hilarious misspelling or an intentional joke. Villareal was easily dismissed by Oleg Urazov, who found himself in the quarterfinals but was routinely eliminated by Polychroniadis. Up to the 4th seed, Jochen Weigle got there as well but couldn't handle Papadias, the Greek no. 2 rudely waving him aside 6-3, 6-2. Toni Bardales is banking on this event and he made it count, grinding his way past second-seed Renke Cananis 6-4, 6-4. And there was another surprise, with 10th-seeded Italian Ale Ballok straight-setting third-ranked Alexander Reimann for some reason. Both of the Germans out in the quarterfinals. The all-Greek semi was the best match of the tournament, with form eventually holding and Solitris Papadias going down 3-6, 7-5, 6-3. In other, Ballok lost to Bardales, a first-set tiebreak but then an anticlimactic bagel. In his first Masters final, Toni Bardales was uh ... crunched. 6-2, 6-3 by Leon Polychroniadis who just keeps right on winning, and convincingly most of the time. He lost only ten points on serve, and extended his already quite large lead over all comers in the rankings. I wouldn't bet against him doing it all over again next week in Rome. Elsewhere Girish Raychaudhari's first junior tournament was expectedly brief. Qualified in doubles, lost in the main draw in both singles and doubles at the first time of asking. He'll try again next week, and it's time for Srivastava to play another futures event also. Last edited by Brian Swartz : 08-19-2022 at 02:20 PM.