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Hopefully tomorrow we'll get to a rankings update and take a look at the Race for the first time this year. But first this ...
2066 Wimbledon
For the quarterfinals, we had three of the top four seeds, but also three double-digit ones. It was a diverse mix. Defending champion Brian Meikeljohn was indeed a no-show. It's now been several weeks since he or the other player under the same manager did anything. Could be a total abdication.
For the first match, we had Hart against Srba Dogic, a straight-sets win for the world no. 1 but it was still a welcome performance by Dogic. After a quick RG exit and a loss in the third round here last season, it's a bounce-back effort. Benefiting from our missing player with a 4-seed was Hughes, who knocked out Emilien Mathou of France in three close sets. Back-to-back Slam quarterfinals continue a strong year for him. Then it was Nicolas Perez against the low seed, (16) Ollie Haas. And this one was back and forth, up and down, with a strange 6-2, 1-6 start. That's not a very grass-like result, and it ended 9-7 in the 5th for the underdog Dutchman. I say underdog, but Haas was a quarterfinalist last year and is a strong grass player. A bit disappointing for Perez, but it is still a round further than he went a year ago and he's not much for this surface. Then Sushant Chiba had his third straight close matchup against 6th-seeded Isa Solheim. Most of my players are crap on grass to start and fairly good late in their career, and no exception is Chiba. After his epic of Jung and a somewhat less stressful four-setter over Gonzoles, he figured to be a very narrow favorite in this encounter. After losing his serve late in the second set and dropping the first in a tiebreak, it seemed it wasn't to be. But he broke Solheim's first service game in the next two sets, eventually capitalizing to level the match. The pride of Denmark was clearly the sharper player in the decider, eventually getting the crucial break midway through the set for a 7-6(4), 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 6-3 win. Talk about close in the final stats:
** Both players were 3 of 10 on BPs
** Both players were an identical 52 of 165 while returning
** 167-166 was the total points count
Had Sushant won, he would have moved back into the Top 10. That would have been fabulous, but anytime he gets to the second week these days it's a big success. And it almost ended two rounds earlier, so I can't complain.
Hart is now 24-5 lifetime against his compatriot Seamus Hughes after a four-set success in the semis. How predictable. Meanwhile Haas dismissed Isa Solheim in straight sets, the last two in tiebreak. And so it was that Ollie Haas aimed to become the lowest-ranked player in over 50 years to win Wimbledon - though it's been much more common for a double-digit seed to make it to the final and lose here. I feel like we've seen this movie before, and recently. But this time the house won. Barely. After one of the most epic finals these championships have ever seen, Hart was the last man standing. Only one set ended in regulation: 7-6(6), 7-6(2), 6-7(4), 3-6, 10-8. The match stats say that Haas was actually, by a very narrow margin, the better player on this day. But champions find a way, and John Hart continued his trend of winning here every other year. It's his third Wimbledon, and 8th Slam overall, tying him for 7th all-time. At least for now, he's not giving up his crown of being the world's best.
In Other News ...
RG champion Calisto Aviles got off to a good start, then was derailed by (32) William Todhunter in the third round. Fine showing by the Australian. Tim de Jong nearly crashed N. Perez's party earlier, losing 11-9 in another epic 5th set in the fourth. Wentz and L. Perez also made it that far. Before losing to Chiba, Gonzoles went five with and ultimately upended (3) Barry Molyneaux in round three. So it was very hit-and-miss with the top players.
Amrik Kasaravalli got through one round, then tasted the taste of sheer disgust after a two-set lead devolved into an 11-9 5th-set defeat against nobody Joey Adriaansz(NLD). He's very happy to be done with grass-court tennis for the year. Nasir Chittoor entered qualifying after carefully weighing the options; practice competition would have been total garbage, and he was too tired to go through a full tournament draw and try a challenger. He repeated his performance from a month ago, getting through two rounds easily and then falling at the final hurdle. It was actually a bit better overall than I anticipated.
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