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Brian Swartz · 12-30-2017, 08:53 PM

2056 US Open

I've been remiss in not mentioning what Sushant Chiba has been up to recently. He's ranked high enough now that it's tough to get good practice opponents during the big tournaments, so he's played a few singles-only Challengers. His second straight title came at tier-2 Campos do Jordao during Canada, then he lost in the quarterfinals at tier-3 Brasilia the next week(to Livio Kaspar, one of the Kaspar cast-offs). During the year's final Slam, he got back in the winner's circle at tier-3 Astana, with a 6-2, 3-6, 7-6(1) final over aging Bulgarian Petko Yantchev, former world no. 50 but at 36 years old well past those days. So Chiba is gradually moving up, and the dictates of scheduling will have him playing a fairly steady diet of events. Anil Mehul got to the second round in doubles, double-bageled there by Arendt/Yumashev, familiar foes who were seeded 7th. In singles, Shyam Senepathy had the unfortunate draw of world no. 5 Teng: 6-1, 6-0, 6-1 was the gruesome result of that. A couple of Chiba's former junior mates, Edleman and Svajnovic, got favorable first-round opponents and advanced. But it is not his time -- yet. By this time next year, he'll be close to being ready for this stage ...

(17) Jake Jolland was the sole first-round casualty, and a surprising one; I didn't realize it at the time, but it appears his manager has gone the way of all flesh in terms of his participation in the game world. Such things happen from time to time unfortunately. The second round would hold a few more surprises. Uglesa Svajnovic got the biggest win of his career over (23) Angel Zaferia, the barely-seeded Milos Schmucker had yet another early exit, and in more of a surprise, (21) Phillipe Beson was dumped by journeyman Claudio Fandino in four. Fandino's one of those guys who has hung around the Top 50(career-best of 47th), never better but rarely much worse. Capable enough to be dangerous, as shown here. Another American, Rob Lock, won a 5-setter over another low seed, and Vinnie Cone came very close before losing to (26)Hamal Sbai, 7-6(3), 7-5, 4-6, 3-6, 7-6(4). Jolland's first-round conqueror, Bulgarian Trifon Strashilov, survived again with a last-set tiebreaker. So a few holes opened up and it was quite an entertaining start to the play at Flushing Meadows.

(15) Valentin Rosenberg was a not-really-an-upset loser in the third round, while (20)Stefano Espinoza nearly cleared out 6th-ranked Piazzola before tumbling 7-5 in the 5th. Svajnovic poked in again, impressively pushing Nikitin to five as well -- and (22) Cristian Castegali knocked out Kronecker, seeded 10th, in a tough four-set match. Castegali is really starting to be a consistent performer. Mostly predictable results continued in the fourth ... but not all of them. After cruising along so far, Prakash Mooljee became Castegali's latest victim, 7-6(3), 6-3, 7-6(8). Straight sets no less. (5) Hsuang-tsung Teng went out as well, a five-setter against Dick Blake that was doubtless largely down to crowd support; (7) Gillo Fangio lost less competitively to (11) Matthew Panter.

So the quarterfinals had a couple of extra Americans, and three players ranked outside the Top 10. Variety is the spice of ... something. Beatdowns of the unworthy are the expectation of the elite. And pretty much that's what happened. Kaspar over Blake, with just two games surrendered. Yikes. Ruben Piazzola went out to Dircx in a tough four, pretty expected result there. Cristian Castegali was shown the door by Dudwadkar, 6-1, 6-3, 6-4. That's a nice result by Ritwik that demonstrates he's learned how to handle interlopers. Matthew Panter pushed the top Spaniard, but Zarco took care of him in four sets.

So the top four all make it to the semis. Yawn. Routine, but not easy for Kaspar over Guus Dircx in the first match. In the second, the fifth match between Ritwik Dudwadkar and Martin Zarco went the way the first four have; but they haven't been this one-sided. 6-2, 6-4, 6-0. It's, uh, no longer exactly close who the second-best player in the world is. In his third straight Slam final against Mateo Kaspar, Ritwik started strong and then reality was forced upon him, 2-6, 6-1, 6-4, 6-2. All hail the King, who now has 20 career Slam titles. And counting.

12-30-2017, 08:53 PM	#743
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	2056 US Open I've been remiss in not mentioning what Sushant Chiba has been up to recently. He's ranked high enough now that it's tough to get good practice opponents during the big tournaments, so he's played a few singles-only Challengers. His second straight title came at tier-2 Campos do Jordao during Canada, then he lost in the quarterfinals at tier-3 Brasilia the next week(to Livio Kaspar, one of the Kaspar cast-offs). During the year's final Slam, he got back in the winner's circle at tier-3 Astana, with a 6-2, 3-6, 7-6(1) final over aging Bulgarian Petko Yantchev, former world no. 50 but at 36 years old well past those days. So Chiba is gradually moving up, and the dictates of scheduling will have him playing a fairly steady diet of events. Anil Mehul got to the second round in doubles, double-bageled there by Arendt/Yumashev, familiar foes who were seeded 7th. In singles, Shyam Senepathy had the unfortunate draw of world no. 5 Teng: 6-1, 6-0, 6-1 was the gruesome result of that. A couple of Chiba's former junior mates, Edleman and Svajnovic, got favorable first-round opponents and advanced. But it is not his time -- yet. By this time next year, he'll be close to being ready for this stage ... (17) Jake Jolland was the sole first-round casualty, and a surprising one; I didn't realize it at the time, but it appears his manager has gone the way of all flesh in terms of his participation in the game world. Such things happen from time to time unfortunately. The second round would hold a few more surprises. Uglesa Svajnovic got the biggest win of his career over (23) Angel Zaferia, the barely-seeded Milos Schmucker had yet another early exit, and in more of a surprise, (21) Phillipe Beson was dumped by journeyman Claudio Fandino in four. Fandino's one of those guys who has hung around the Top 50(career-best of 47th), never better but rarely much worse. Capable enough to be dangerous, as shown here. Another American, Rob Lock, won a 5-setter over another low seed, and Vinnie Cone came very close before losing to (26)Hamal Sbai, 7-6(3), 7-5, 4-6, 3-6, 7-6(4). Jolland's first-round conqueror, Bulgarian Trifon Strashilov, survived again with a last-set tiebreaker. So a few holes opened up and it was quite an entertaining start to the play at Flushing Meadows. (15) Valentin Rosenberg was a not-really-an-upset loser in the third round, while (20)Stefano Espinoza nearly cleared out 6th-ranked Piazzola before tumbling 7-5 in the 5th. Svajnovic poked in again, impressively pushing Nikitin to five as well -- and (22) Cristian Castegali knocked out Kronecker, seeded 10th, in a tough four-set match. Castegali is really starting to be a consistent performer. Mostly predictable results continued in the fourth ... but not all of them. After cruising along so far, Prakash Mooljee became Castegali's latest victim, 7-6(3), 6-3, 7-6(8). Straight sets no less. (5) Hsuang-tsung Teng went out as well, a five-setter against Dick Blake that was doubtless largely down to crowd support; (7) Gillo Fangio lost less competitively to (11) Matthew Panter. So the quarterfinals had a couple of extra Americans, and three players ranked outside the Top 10. Variety is the spice of ... something. Beatdowns of the unworthy are the expectation of the elite. And pretty much that's what happened. Kaspar over Blake, with just two games surrendered. Yikes. Ruben Piazzola went out to Dircx in a tough four, pretty expected result there. Cristian Castegali was shown the door by Dudwadkar, 6-1, 6-3, 6-4. That's a nice result by Ritwik that demonstrates he's learned how to handle interlopers. Matthew Panter pushed the top Spaniard, but Zarco took care of him in four sets. So the top four all make it to the semis. Yawn. Routine, but not easy for Kaspar over Guus Dircx in the first match. In the second, the fifth match between Ritwik Dudwadkar and Martin Zarco went the way the first four have; but they haven't been this one-sided. 6-2, 6-4, 6-0. It's, uh, no longer exactly close who the second-best player in the world is. In his third straight Slam final against Mateo Kaspar, Ritwik started strong and then reality was forced upon him, 2-6, 6-1, 6-4, 6-2. All hail the King, who now has 20 career Slam titles. And counting.