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Old 06-01-2015, 02:27 AM   #24
Brian Swartz
Grizzled Veteran
 
Join Date: May 2006
Nah, I'd much rather read you swearing about your latest FM club :P

2038 US OPEN

The final Slam of the year arrived with the luck of the draw a paramount consideration. There are two kinds of players for whom it is particularly important, both represented here. At the lower end, Amrik Chittoor is among the lower-ranked players in the draw and, absent a favorable draw, has basically no real chance of advancing. On the other end of the scale, Anil Mehul is one of the best unseeded players and has the potential to win a few matches or go out immediately depending on who he gets. It's important to avoid the titans for as long as possible, as in last year's straight-set beatdown by Alastra in his opening match.

As it happened, the draw was fairly kind for both players this time, though it could also have been better in either case. Chittor was paired with Egon Bengtsson(FIN, 79th), a clay-court specialist who is more powerful but not adept at hard-court tennis and a player who has been known to choke away matches in the key moments. It's still unlikely he'll avoid another loss but there's a chance for a mild upset.

Mehul was set to face off against Pavel Bestemianov(RUS, 100th), a young player that he should slightly outclass across the board and who slightly overplayed coming into the event, so he won't quite be at his best. A win there, and he'd meet at worst the lowest seed in the tournament, Switzerland's Vito Bonamoni, against whom he'd also have good chances. The bad news was that if that went well, the gravy train was expected to end there with a third-round date against world No. 4 David Prieto of Spain.

First Round

Chittoor not only broke his perfect 0-3 Slam record come in, but he did in a grand style with a fairly shocking victory over Bengtsson, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4. I hadn't bothered to look further ahead in his section, but he'll next be a sacrifical lamb for 5-seed Oliver Challenger(USA). Mehul handed out a bagel to start and cruised through the next two sets for an easy straight-sets win, surrendering only five total games. A great start for both players.

Second Round

Chittoor was handed two breadsticks and a final-set bagel, winning only 38 of 124 points against Challenger. A predictable beat-down, but for him of course the event was made by advancing past the first round. The first set between Mehul and Bonamoni went down to the wire, with a break in the 10th game the only difference. Anil was able to put more and more pressure on his opponent's serve as the match went on, and scored a fairly tough 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 win to advance to the third round without the loss of a set. Unfortunately, Prieto is there as expected, and has surrendered just five games all tournament.

Third Round

The expected straight-set defeat happened, but Mehul took another step in giving Prieto some serious competition. The final line was 7-6(1), 6-2, 7-5, a very credible effort against the fourth-ranked player in the world. He's inching closer all the time.
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