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Old 03-29-2016, 05:27 PM   #297
Brian Swartz
Grizzled Veteran
 
Join Date: May 2006
2044 Wimbledon

Opening Rounds

When the draw came out, it was clear that Girish Girsh had an interesting opportunity here. He was once again in the same quarter as Marcek, as he had been in the Australian Open to start the year but not since then. With the Czech no. 2 not having quite the clay season he had a year ago(thanks in no small part to Mehul outlasting him a few weeks ago at RG), Girsh had closed the gap despite his own struggles. If he could beat Marcek in the quarters, he would nearly eliminate it and give himself a chance at getting to #4 by the end of the year.

Mehul was not so happy with his draw, as Benda was on his side(it would be much preferred to have him playing on Iglar's side, as it was last year, so that he only needed to play one of them). But you can't win them all, and he did have things his way at the French, so it was only fair really. Time to see if he could win a third straight here. 10 men have won two in a row, but only three have done it three years consecutively ... Gabriel Alastra stands alone with four straight here. So it's a real chance at some significant history.

Shreya Ujjaval had himself an easy win over a qualifier -- ntndeacon's Nawal Sebban, a veteran who has never been past the first round of a Slam. He then met Anton Grimaldo, fresh off an upset of 31st-seed Vito Brandini, and Grimaldo knocked out Ujjaval in a tough four-set match. Still a solid result for the steadily improving Sri Lanka no. 3.

Girsh and Mehul both progressed easily through the early rounds, neither dropping a set in their first three matches though Mehul did have a bit of trouble with one of the younger Herreras in the third round. In the round of 16, Girsh met up with former nemesis Milan Farkas, who he played at this same stage last year and defeated. It's the Czech no. 3's best surface, but he struggled mightily to make any headway on Girsh's serve, and lost in four. Mehul played a foe of similar quality and took four as well to put away Mugur Kinczllers

While this was going on, Prakash Mooljee was in Germany for another clay tier-2 challenger. This time he was able to exorcise of the ghosts of his recent early exits, taking the title in a fine final match against 4-seed Matthias Faber, who enjoyed the support of the crowd being a local player. It was another example of Mooljee escaping a match in which he was slightly outplayed, and it went down to the end with a 6-2, 3-6, 7-5 final. It's the first 90-point challenger that Prakash has won, and a lot better than first and second-round exits, though he was out in qualifying in the doubles which is more of what we might expect.


Second Week

Wimbledon is often full of surprises, and there were three double-digits seeds that reached the quarterfinals this year. None of them would go any further though. Russia's Afanasy Bereznity, off to a disappointing start to the year, was dispatched easily by Iglar. Italy's Tobia Alberti had done Girsh a great favor by knocking out Marcek in the third round, and the math meant that if Girsh won their encounter and reached the semifinals, he would take over the #4 spot in the rankings! He controlled the match throughout and was helped considerably in an easy straight-sets win by the fact that Alberti did not convert a single one of his six chances to break. The final underdog was another young player, Sweden's Elias Trulsen. An excellent athlete with a good serve and a strong affinity for grass play, he was no push-over, but after dropping a first-set tiebreak Mehul recovered to push him aside in four sets.

The semifinals looked much different with four of the world's top five left; the chaff had been removed, so to speak. Girsh's 19th try at Antonin Iglar was a sad affair; he won just seven games and was thoroughly manhandled. The second matchup was Mehul against Bjorn Benda, their fourth meeting on grass and all of the previous ones had been hotly constested. This was no exception. After dropping the first set, and then an epic tiebreaker in the second, Anil had to stage a comeback from 2-0 down. He was clearly the better player over the last half of the match, but it still took a long fifth set for him to eventually down the 30-year-old German, 3-6, 6-7(10), 6-4, 6-4, 9-7. Benda saved 16 of the 20 break points he faced, and it was almost enough for him to get the upset. He simply refuses to grow old gracefully -- there's no quit yet in the former champion.

Having struggled to a degree in four straight matches leading up to it, and facing the best player in the world looking in dominant form without dropping a set so far in the tournament, Anil Mehul was in the unusual situation of being an underdog two-time defending champion in the final. He would clearly need to step up his game if he was going to win this. He trailed again, dropping the first set and then the third, but once again forced a long fifth set ... and once again won it, a pair of fairly astonishing comeback wins against the best players in the world accomplishing his third straight title here, 3-6, 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-3, 7-5! Iglar did well to make it go that long considering that he only cracked the Mehul serve once, in the first set, but the third-set tiebreak made it go the distance. Overall, Anil was definitely the better player, rising to the moment here in a most satisfying third addition to his Slam trophy case.
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