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Old 03-23-2016, 06:41 PM   #293
Brian Swartz
Grizzled Veteran
 
Join Date: May 2006
So now it's time once again to blast the thread with a barrage of posts. This particular delay had three causes:

** Last week my boss was on vacation, which meant extra joy and rapture for me.
** Results were pretty depressing from the clay season for my players. It's always more fun to report good news.
** I had a mouse die(computer, not animal).

So with no more ado, here we go!

Monte Carlo 'Masters'

A couple of interesting storylines going into this. First, since Mehul is playing and Iglar isn't, he actually had a chance to seize the #1 spot again for a few weeks. In order to do so, he'd need to reach the final which seemed likely. Also, Girsh, despite his struggles, has an opportunity to make headway on Marcek. The Czech no. 2 had two big results last year that elevated him above the rest; the first was here where he is the two-time defending champion, the second was being a finalist at RG where he actually led Benda 2-0 before collapsing. He'll never get that close to being a Slam champion again. It's a really sad, good story for him, but more to the point he may 'come back to the field' so to speak in the clay season if he can't repeat these results.

Both players had routine wins in their first matches. Mehul matched up with Shreya Ujjaval, who had done well to qualify and beat another qualifier in the first round. He took just four games off Sri Lanka's #1 though. The third round was more testy. Mehul had rising Frenchman Davide Poilblan who pushed him to three, though he was served a breadstick in the decider. Girsh ran into the most dangerous player he could have, Argentine Gustavo Caratti. Caratti, seeded 12th, is an extreme clay-court specialist and while Girsh fought for a while he eventually succumbed in straight sets. Not the result he was looking for.

Mehul got another easy win, and then came the semifinals which featured four pretty evenly matched players on this surface. The other three were 9th-ranked Thiago Herrera, Marcek, and Smitala. Mehul was stopped one match short of regaining the #1 ranking by Herrera, 4-6, 6-2, 6-4, despite pounding out 18 aces. It was a pretty close match, but after the first set the Peruvian was clearly better. Herrera went on to claim his first Masters Shield by taking another three-setter, this one over Smitala.
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