Quote:
Originally Posted by Christy
I could see Wentz making top 10 this year
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And then he loses in the first round at Rome
I'm sure he's loving that kiss of death you gave him, but you're still not at all wrong here. On Molyneaux, it seems to me the fact that nobody immediately below him is doing more than tripping over themselves is basically saving him. He's slipping, but so is pretty much anyone else with half his points :P. I thought the Perez-squared final was interesting in a rematch of the Monte Carlo encounter. Second straight year that Rome has had an unseeded finalist, only a different result this time.
As for me,
Sushant Chiba had a second straight first-round exit at Rome. A close three-set defeat to Moniotte, I can't fault anything there - just got beat by a better player . Really just a tough matchup against the top unseeded player in the draw. Narrowly holds onto #10 ranking for now.
Amrik Kasaravalli was close to the quarterfinals. Beat a qualifier, then a surprise win over
Patrick Sanchez who I thought would get him. Third round was
Fabrizio Abinati, who had just outlasted Hughes and I thought Amrik was a slight underdog against him. That ended up being right, as he gave him at least as good a match as the world no. 6 did in defeat, 6-2, 5-7, 7-5. Frustrating as he really outplayed the Argentine but was 3/14 on BP, while surrendering 5/10. Had 111 return points to 84, a huge disparity … and it would have been a landmark to get to a Masters quarter. Either way, he looks to be secure above the challenger break for now, with a 200-point gap on the cutoff. Just needs to not choke the first couple rounds at RG.
Nasir Chittoor got another FT1 trophy, though there were a couple matches I thought he might well lose. As it was only one went to a third set, and that was the final in which the decider was a dominant bagel served up by Nasir.
Satyagit Guha teamed up for a surprise QF loss for the 3-seeds … again by Super TB, 10-7 … and got himself dismissed by a wildcard in a competitive first-round match. So it wasn't his best week overall.