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Old 07-12-2016, 10:12 AM   #419
Brian Swartz
Grizzled Veteran
 
Join Date: May 2006
2046 Wimbledon

Opening Rounds

Shyam Senepathy had a golden opportunity for his first slam win. He was matched with the horribly-out-of-practice Smitala, and won the first two sets only to lose 3-6, 2-6, 7-6(1), 7-6(3), 6-4. Sigh. It was a good start for the other four Sri Lankans though as all won in straight sets, and the seeds were perfect overall in the first round as well. In the next round, it was mostly more of the same. 30 of 32 seeds advanced. Khasan Zakirov dropped a five-setter to Italian Vito Brandini, and Shreya Ujjaval caused the second loss, against 31st-seed Blagota Cojanovic. That one also went the distance, with Ujjaval falling behind a set twice but also taking a couple of easy sets against the more inconsistent Cojanovic.

An unkind draw for the second straight Slam for Prakash Mooljee, who met up with Mehul in the third round. Not a good day for Anil on the break points which allowed it to stay pretty close for most of it, but the four-time defending champ prevailed 7-5, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2. Ujjaval made it six third-round defeats in six chances, including the second year in a row here, in another five-setter, narrowly falling to outstanding grass-courter Elias Trulsen, 7-5 in the final set. Bjorn Benda met an early demise in a ridiculously tight match with Marcelo Herrera in which the first four sets all went to tiebreaks. A couple of other lower-seed upsets were also notable, with Sava Cirakovic knocking out Bourdet and the perennial low-seed Zourab Andronikov ending Marcek's tournament here.

Mehul was tested again in the fourth round, taking all three sets though all were close against Federer. Trulsen knocked out Caratti in a trio of tiebreaks, and Agustin Herrera had his second straight marathon match, knocking out countryman Marcelo 11-9 in the 5th. Agustin had gone to 10-8 in the last round, bringing newfound meaning to the term 'survive and advance'. The bottom half of the draw proceeded to form, with Girsh and Iglar continuing to move on fairly easily and without drama.


Second Week

Back again for his 16th Slam quarterfinal was Pierce Gaskell. Anil Mehul won the first two sets in tiebreaks, but then a funny thing happened. He started to tire, and the American's serve started to control the match more. Overall, Gaskell blasted 26 aces to Mehul's 11, mounting a most improbable comeback upset to stop the chase for history right here, 6-7(4), 6-7(3), 6-4, 6-3, 6-4. Mehul was still the better player and was quite upset and frustrated over converting just 1 of 10 break points, while Gaskell was 4 of 8. Anil should have won this match, but the trend towards failing in his break chances has definitely accelerated as his body slows down. This is just Gaskell's third win in 21 matches, but his second this year ...

Elsewhere, Trulsen stopped Agustin Herrera in what was the Peruvian's third straight five-set match. Perhaps all the long matches finally caught up to him, as the Swede was able to rally from a set down and avoid the upset. More straight-set success for Girsh(over Thiago Herrera) and Iglar(against Mugur Kinczllers) continued that pair on their collision course, and also guaranteed Girsh of the #1 ranking to follow the tournament. It's been a long time coming, but he's finally reached the pinnacle!

It was very much a JV semifinal in the top half, as all eyes were on the #2 and #3 in the world in the bottom half. The first slam semi for Gaskell against Elias Trulsen, and the Swede prevailed in three close stanzas to make the final. Despite being out-aced 16-10, Girish Girsh was a little more effective on return and saved 4 of 5 break opportunities against his serve to snap a two-match losing streak to surging Antonin Iglar, 6-4, 7-6(5), 6-4.

The final then pitted probably the world's foremost grass-court specialist in Trulsen, against it's overall most skilled player in Girsh. Neither had won a Slam before -- Trulsen had not even been close, making one quarterfinal and one semi previously. Girsh had been runner-up twice before, including this year's Australian Open. He would not suffer that fate today, with a solid 6-3, 6-3, 7-5 victory! I thought he had a chance coming in, but I definitely didn't expect him to take the title here without so much as dropping a set. A fitting coronation to the world's new top-ranked player, and the most prestigious Slam championship remains in Sri Lanka hands.

As for Mehul, the writing's been on the wall for months now but a clear changing of the guard if ever there was one. He's had a damn fine run, but I don't see him coming back from the first half of this year now that he's on the far side of 30 and finding himself more and more vulnerable to lower-ranked players.
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