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Rome Masters
The established order held more frequently this week than it has recently. Minimal early-round upsets, and the only player in the top eight to lose before the quarterfinals was Themis Xanthos, victim of Santino Consiglio in the third round by a 6-2 7-6(5) score. Consiglio of course benefited from the support of a home crowd.
A strange match to start out the quarters; Oleg Urazov won the first set 6-4 against Faille, lost the second narrowly 7-5 ... and then was bageled in the third. Just fell off a cliff apparently. There were no upsets in the round, although Cananis (against Toni Bardales) and Polychroniadis (against Jochen Weigle) had to work for their victories. In the semis, Faille rallied from a set down for the second match in a row against Renke Cananis, who keeps coming close and coming up short; 3-6, 6-2, 7-5 here. That's about as close as the world no. 1 has come to losing a match this year. The other one was a shellacking; once again Ene Caballero was unable to mount a challenge against Leon Polychroniadis, winning only four games. The final was much closer than recent ones have been as Ben Faille definitely appeared to be vulnerable this week. Down a break early in both sets, he rallied to win anyway 6-4, 7-6(5). This was almost certainly the best chance for the field to beat him on clay this year. With the crowd behind him at Roland Garros in a couple weeks, I doubt he will be as accomodating.
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