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Paris Masters
Kroese/Zakirov is looking more and more like a good doubles partnership. They won the title here, and are now pushing their way up in the Top 10. Sushant Chiba won the tier-2 Eckental(indoor) Challenger, reaching the quarterfinals in doubles. Although he took advantage of a diluted field, there wasn't a remotely close match to be found. Anil Mehul took the week off.
Shyam Senepathy lost in singles qualifying, in the last round. 6th-ranked Ruben Piazzola was the first big name to fall. Alenichev, just barely out of the seeding, took him out in a tough second-round matchup. Nikitin and Castegali both went to third-set tiebreakers and a couple other seeds dropped a set, but none were eliminated. No upsets in the third round either: Alexey Nikitin couldn't get past Zarco, 7-6(6), 6-4, and that may have ended his bid for the Tour Finals.
Seven of the Top 8 into the quarterfinals, with #15 Gregory Mackenzie filling the other spot. He got a good dose of Kaspar, winning five games only on a server-friendly surface. The next two matches went to 7-5 in the third, both up-and-down ... Zarco beat Hsuang-tsung Teng, and Ritwik Dudwadkar's struggles on the indoor courts continued with a loss to Fangio. The Italian guaranteed himself a spot in the tour finals with this 'upset', by the way; that means it's the same players as last year, and the youth movement will have to wait. Prakash Mooljee played reasonably well but bowed out in straight-sets to Dircx, and that was it for Sri Lanka.
A little closer now, but Kaspar got through Martin Zarco routinely in the first semifinal. In the second, Gillo Fangio stepped aside, 6-4, 6-0 against Guus Dircx. It was to be his second Masters final of the year, and Mateo Kaspar handled things once again, 6-4, 6-2. He's on another big streak, having been perfect since the Roland Garros final.
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