|
US OPEN
Girish Girsh made the final round of qualifying without incident, then edged past journeyman Jaromir Simunek, 6-2, 1-6, 6-4. Having succeeding in his goal, he met the best, by far, up-and-coming player in the world in the main draw: Spain's Marcel Bahana, already seeded here at 20 years old. He did manage to get one break but still lost in straight sets, 6-2, 6-2, 7-6(3).
Anil Mehul cruised through his first pair of matches, dropping only five games in each. Eric Gorritepe, who has already effectively given up on his singles career and is focused on trainer preparation after dropping out of the Top 10, was next up. Gorritepe held a 2-1 edge including a win earlier in the year, but this time it was all Mehul, a competitive match but straight sets.
Fourth Round -- On to the Round of 16. Again. 8th time in a little over a year. The foe was Mick Elder who is the defending champ and had certainly taught him a lesson a couple weeks ago in Cincinatti. All signs pointed to the same result here; but Mehul won a tense tiebreak in the opener and went on to take the upset in four! A huge, huge win, his second over Elder and finally he has broken through the wall.
Quarterfinals -- Pierce Gaskell was a surprise to see here, but he's on the rise as well and had nearly as impressive a fourth-round win, knocking off Goncharenko. They'd last played a little over a month ago in Atlanta, Mehul's only loss to Gaskell and one of his worst defeats of the year. This one went a little different; Anil dominated the match, 6-3, 6-3, 6-2.
Semifinals -- The last four at a Slam; certainly this was not expected coming in. Opposing him was the flavor of the month, Antonin Iglar. Iglar had knocked Mehul out of Wimbledon at a much earlier stage, then followed up his masters win in Cincinatti by crushing Prieto and then rallying to beat Topolski in a good four-setter. He was the favorite here as well but another upset was not out of the question. Iglar is on a mission though and prevailed 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(2). Mehul could take solace in the fact that nobody played him any tougher here.
In the other semifinal, Perry Hogue clinched the #1 spot for the first time by defeating Almagro. He was beaten in straights though in the final by Iglar, who snagged his first Grand Slam title and has now won his last 12 matches to surge past a number of players far more experienced. He's more vulnerable on other surfaces, but there's no doubt that right know Iglar is the best hardcourt player in the world.
As for Mehul this is a mammoth result. He increased his career winnings by over 20% by taking home over 350k, and leapfrogged past Hammerstein to convincingly take his place in the Top 16. The win over Elder was the big one, the others he should have won but did so convincingly, and gave Iglar a fairly tough match as well. This is the breakthrough he's been waiting for over a year now -- can he build on it?
Elsewhere, Mooljee's first Tier-4 event in Boston resulted in second-round exits both in singles and doubles. He'll go back to tier-5 for at least one more tournament, perhaps vacillating back and forth for a bit yet.
|