I think Perez will be able to recover fine - a little tired for RG but it shouldn't hurt him too much. I've always been of the mindset that you have to plan for the expected result - if you make it further then that's just a bonus and being a bit out-of-form for a bit is a minor headache in comparison. As far as Aas is concerned - one doesn't just win Masters as an unseeded player. That's amazing! He won't be able to do it again - because he'll be seeded now. Making the QFs from that position is noteworthy, semis is rare … actually winning just doesn't happen. That motivated me to look up some history. Here's the last time somebody won the big events without being seeded:
** AO - 1999 (Prieto)
** RG - 1990 (A qualifier in the inaugural year of the tour)
** WIM - Never, although the 32-seed did win it the first year.
** USO - Never, it's been a Top-8 seed without exception.
Masters records only go back 40 years. Cheap beauracracy I guess. Still, within that time-frame:
** IW - Never
** Miami - Never
** MC - Never
** Madrid - Never, but that Chiba dork was the closest as a 15-seed champ in '59. Not that I'm tooting my own horn here or anything.
** Rome - Never before this year. You may remember meteoric Canadian
Luc Janin, who took the title as a 14-seed in '50.
** Canada - Never.
Ritwik Dudwadkar was seeded 14th in '53.
** Cincinatti - Never. In '39,
Antonin Iglar came from the 11th spot as one of his coming-out parties.
** Shanghai -- Never. In fact, only once was the champion not seeded in the Top 3!
** Paris -- Never.
Zourab Andronikov of Georgia, who you don't remember because he was never higher than 7th, won it as the final seed(16th) in '48. Ending a string of three straight titles by Girsh. Grrr. Soon afterwards, Mateo Kaspar's stupid run of 11 in a row would begin.
So take a bow,
Samuel Aas. You just pulled off the biggest tournament upset win in modern tennis history. Now go sit over in the corner and give us back our sport please
In all seriousness, I think this points up the parity in the game right now. Hart's real good - but if he loses then who the heck knows.