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Madrid Masters
Shyam Senepathy didn't make it through qualifying, leaving only two in the singles draw for Sri Lanka. Sadface. Mehul/Kroese made it the final, including upsetting #2 seeds Yumashev/Arendt in the semis, but won just two games against champs Cordasic/Asepin. The 3-seeds are clearly on their way up, and at our expense. Shreya Ujjaval easily beat a qualifier, and then exited 2 & 3 against Santos, so that took care of that.
On the wider scale, world. no. 3 Johnny Browne was dumped out by Spaniard Simon Davila in the second round, with Srbulovic also losing. Not a good day for the Americans, but of course clay is not typically friendly to them. The next round had a couple more upsets of sorts, Dircx over the usually reliable Khasan Zakirov, and no. 4 Fangio taking the first set and then falling apart against Martin Zarco. As one would expect, Spain is doing well here.
Still five of the top eight reached the quarters. Mateo Kaspar lost his first set at this point before knocking out Santos in three. Borja won over Jake Jolland in a US clash, Mooljee steamrolled Guus Dircx 6-0, 6-2, and Zarco continued his run with a close victory over Luc Janin. The semis were a total joke. Kaspar and Mooljee lost five games COMBINED. I'd be tempted to demand a refund if I were a fan, and many were in a foul mood after seeing Martin Zarco put up less of a fight. The final largely made up for it though. Prakash Mooljee got the upper hand this one, a tight 7-6(5), 7-6(6) win with plenty of drama. 15th Masters for him, one short of Girsh's national record.
In other news, I totally screwed up on Ritwik Dudwadkar's scheduling and had him play both singles and doubles in Tier-1 Bordeaux. He won doubles as a qualifier, and lost yet another tight singles match he should have won. Top-seeded Angel Zaferia(ARG) was the conqueror this time, 3-6, 7-6(8), 6-3. As a result of this, he'll have to take the next couple of weeks off.
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