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I have returned from the land of a brief power outage and a longer internet outage. #firstworldproblems
Australian Open
This was Sri Lanka's most important Slam in many years, which is saying virtually nothing. Srivastava and Chandrasekharan combined in doubles, losing a close match in the first round of qualifying. The younger player made round two of singles qualifying, just as Srivastava did last year. This time though, Sushant actually made it through to the main draw! He had the 'pleasure' of drawing world no. 4 Caballero at that stage though, and won 20 points over 3 sets. It was every bit as ugly as that sounds. Somehow he managed to hold once in the first set, but every other game was lost. The achievement of course was in getting there.
As for the more expected players, four seeds left in the first round, headlined by (14) Eddy Copperfield and (16) Daniel Long. There were a few epic second-round matches between players who aren't household names, but still quite important results to them. Perhaps the best was Czech Jonas Stanya over American Collin Tupper, 6-7(3), 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(8), 9-7. (28) Jan Schleicher's first moment of note came in a third round upset - or was it? - of 13th-seeded Ramirez. It went five sets, but the young gun dominated the final frame.
Toni Bardales went bye-bye in the fourth round, and it was the even older Solitris Papadias who eliminated him ... in straight sets. Close sets, but still; that's about as close to an official funeral for Bardales as you can get. Top players don't lose to nearly 30-year-olds who were has-beens two years ago in Slams. Polychroniadis was pushed to five sets by 10th-seed Goya Banqueria, but it'll just read as another missed opportunity for the Spaniard. Themis Xanthos was back in singles, probably for the purpose of just getting some matches in, but he exited as scheduled. #3 Renke Cananis was the big result, going out to Davide de Laurentiis in and up-and-down 5-setter. It's the 7th career meeting between the Germans, and the first one Cananis has lost.
Two double-digit seeds then in the quarters. Papadias was the latest sacrifice offered up to Faille, but de Laurentiis produced magic in another five-setter, taking the final one 8-6 over Johann Przalowik. Another all-German matchup there. A taut four-setter between Caballero and Oleg Urazov ended in disappointment for the Canadian once more. The semifinals were both worth the price of admission. Ene Caballero lost to the French freight train, but he took a set and pushed the first one to a 13-11 tiebreaker. Who knows what happens if that tiebreak falls the other way. In the second, de Laurentiis narrowly was pushed out by Leon Polychroniadis in a third straight match to go the limit; 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(6), 6-7(8), 8-6. Yowzerz. Polychroniadis could have been out in the first week, but instead he strikes a blow ... narrowly ... for the old guard. The final? Ben Faille takes it 6-1, 7-5, 7-6(5). Couldn't really expect much more; he lost only the one set against Caballero in the semi. That's probably his best competition at the moment.
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