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Brian Swartz · 08-27-2017, 11:11 AM

Miami

Mehul/Kroese had a similar, but slightly better tournament this week. They escaped a close match against Ukrainian 7-seeds Buynoz/Bezhin in the quarterfinal, but lost in the semis to #2s Podkopayev/Cordovez. Both semifinals went to super tiebreaks, highlighting the continued very narrow margin between the top doubles pairings. Shyam Senepathy got through another first-round match, then got smashed by Mooljee in the second, which was no surprise.

It was a bad start for the Spaniards, who saw both Santos and #6 Martin Zarco depart at their first hurdle in the second round. Only one other low seed went that early. Easy progress continued for my top guys in the third, while 21-year-old American Stuart Pargeter grabbed another win, this one over (25)Ruslan Strelkov. Pargeter was around 50th at this point, and took advantage of the favorable crowd to grab himself a nice result. Dircx was challenged by Dick Blake but got through it, and in a very tense match, young Panter was narrowly defeated by Hsuang-tsung Teng. 7th-ranked Sigmund Kronecker was the latest clay specialist to fall.

All the favored players moved on in the fourth round, with a three-set classic between Espinoza and Valentin Rosenberg, 3-6, 7-6(4), 7-6(6) proving to be the match of the day. The second-best German continued a strong year so far with this win, and was the only player in the quarterfinals who wasn't a Top 10 seed coming in. Form held there again, but there were some tight ones. Crowd favorite or no, Johnny Browne could present only one competitive set to Kaspar. Stefano Espinoza pushed Dircx to a third set but was clearly the inferior player, while Ritwik Dudwadkar lost again to Mooljee though that one went right down to the wire. 7-5 in a 3rd-set tiebreak, could have gone either way, but Prakash was somewhat better and deserved the win. In the other match, Gillo Fangio absolutely demolished Jolland, losing only three games.

In an interesting quirk, both semifinals were decided by the same scoreline: 6-3, 7-6(5). Nothing more than a curiosity, but I don't think I've ever seen that symmetry before. The winners were the expected ones: Kaspar ended pGuus Dircx, and Fangio stopping Prakash Mooljee. That's 9-1 in their last 10 meetings now. Mooljee still holds a 15-14 lead in the overall head-to-head, but clearly that's not going to end in his favor. Mateo Kaspar pummelled the Italian in the final -- two games, two sets, two breadsticks. That is a painful finish.

08-27-2017, 11:11 AM	#659
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	Miami Mehul/Kroese had a similar, but slightly better tournament this week. They escaped a close match against Ukrainian 7-seeds Buynoz/Bezhin in the quarterfinal, but lost in the semis to #2s Podkopayev/Cordovez. Both semifinals went to super tiebreaks, highlighting the continued very narrow margin between the top doubles pairings. Shyam Senepathy got through another first-round match, then got smashed by Mooljee in the second, which was no surprise. It was a bad start for the Spaniards, who saw both Santos and #6 Martin Zarco depart at their first hurdle in the second round. Only one other low seed went that early. Easy progress continued for my top guys in the third, while 21-year-old American Stuart Pargeter grabbed another win, this one over (25)Ruslan Strelkov. Pargeter was around 50th at this point, and took advantage of the favorable crowd to grab himself a nice result. Dircx was challenged by Dick Blake but got through it, and in a very tense match, young Panter was narrowly defeated by Hsuang-tsung Teng. 7th-ranked Sigmund Kronecker was the latest clay specialist to fall. All the favored players moved on in the fourth round, with a three-set classic between Espinoza and Valentin Rosenberg, 3-6, 7-6(4), 7-6(6) proving to be the match of the day. The second-best German continued a strong year so far with this win, and was the only player in the quarterfinals who wasn't a Top 10 seed coming in. Form held there again, but there were some tight ones. Crowd favorite or no, Johnny Browne could present only one competitive set to Kaspar. Stefano Espinoza pushed Dircx to a third set but was clearly the inferior player, while Ritwik Dudwadkar lost again to Mooljee though that one went right down to the wire. 7-5 in a 3rd-set tiebreak, could have gone either way, but Prakash was somewhat better and deserved the win. In the other match, Gillo Fangio absolutely demolished Jolland, losing only three games. In an interesting quirk, both semifinals were decided by the same scoreline: 6-3, 7-6(5). Nothing more than a curiosity, but I don't think I've ever seen that symmetry before. The winners were the expected ones: Kaspar ended pGuus Dircx, and Fangio stopping Prakash Mooljee. That's 9-1 in their last 10 meetings now. Mooljee still holds a 15-14 lead in the overall head-to-head, but clearly that's not going to end in his favor. Mateo Kaspar pummelled the Italian in the final -- two games, two sets, two breadsticks. That is a painful finish.