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Indian Wells Masters
This tournament really heated up with some good fourth-round matches. Themis Xanthos was eliminated in a third-set tiebreak by Davide de Laurentiis, but the one that really was a surprise was world no. 3 Renke Cananis getting narrowly edged out by fellow German Johann Przalowik, 6-3, 6-7(5), 7-6(5). It was the earliest loss at a Masters event in more than six years for Cananis, and meant that two double-digit seeds made the quarterfinals.
Both of them not only showed up, but played competitively ... and still lost. A pair of tiebreaks allowed Jochen Weigle to get past Przalowik, while de Laurentiis was a three-set victim of Ene Caballero. The Spaniard would go on to be the only player to take more than two games in a set from Ben Faille, who crushed the field this week. A 6-4, 7-6(3) defeat in their semifinal was a herculean feat by comparison. A close match in the other semi as well, but Weigle lost to Leon Polychroniadis, who ate a breadstick and a bagel from Faille in the final. Ouch. No matter who you're playing, as the #2 in the world you expect a little more than that.
Elsewhere ...
Sushant Srivastava suffered a pair of second-round Challenger defeats; CH2 Bergamo and CH3 Florinapolis were the locations. He is now officially set to bounce back down to futures for a tournament at this point. Some definite struggles in the transition for him.
Aparna Chandrasekharan made it the semis in Uzbekistan, and then had his breakthrough in Brazil, taking his first futures title - an FT3 of course. It was not a cruise by any stretch, he endured close three-set victories in the first round against a local and again in the semifinals. I'm not sure how big of a step this is yet, but if nothing else it officially vaulted him to #2 behind only Srivastava in the Sri Lanka national rankings. Now we'll see if Chandrasekaharan can consolidate and put together a string of tournament trophies.
Girish Raychaudhari won in both singles and doubles at JG3 events in Kapan, Armenia and again at Szeged, Hungary. He's on a serious roll at the moment and there are no concerns with his play.
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