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Brian Swartz · 09-03-2017, 10:16 AM

2054 Roland Garros

The junior event is a week earlier, so I'll start there. The manager for Chiba's doubles partner, no. 2 junior Pavel Kutuzov, decided to fire his young charge. That ended the partnership, and the luck of the draw for RG wasn't kind in terms of the new player to join with. Largely as a result, he was bounced in the second round there. It's been fun while it lasted, but the doubles gravy train looks over. In the weeks that followed, repeated attempts to get another high-ranking partner were rejected. Not sure why nobody wants to join up -- Chiba is still pretty good -- but it is what it is. On the singles side it was a new day and the same old story. Pretty easy road to the quarterfinals, where Paulo Alcantra(ARG), the 8-seed, bounced Sushant 7-6(2), 6-0. Stanley Edleman is the champ again, losing four games in the title match. That's more than usual.

In the senior event, Mehul/Kroese came up with just one good set in the quarterfinals, losing early to Argentinians Disanti/Escavias, 6-3, 0-6, 6-4. They continue to slip slowly down. An interesting matchup for Shyam Senepathy against Czech Hugo Jurco, a veteran who was marginally relevant at one point, peaking at 14th in the world. Now 30 years old, he still had enough to send Senepathy packing in four sets.

In the first round the seeds were even more dominant than usual; all 32 won, and only Juan de los Santos lost a set. Sounds strange that he would struggle on his best surface -- but his foe was former no. 4, 31-year-old Khasan Zakirov, the best player in decades for Uzbekistan as you may recall. Not your typical opening flunkie. Cojanovic and Blake both departed in the second round, but the Top 20+ continued forward.

In the third, the match of the day was (16)Hsuang-tsung Teng(NZL) against (18)Andres Varas(ARG). Both on paper, and on the court. Varas got the better of Teng eventually, 8-6 in the 5th, in an epic encounter that he probably should have lost. Santos was pushed to the distance by Matthew Panter in the latest strong showing by the slowly-rising American. Gregory Mackenzie was most impressive in crushing (12)Tomas Niklas easily in straight sets, while Borja crashed out again; (25)[/b]Valentin Rosenberg[/b](SWE) eventually prevailed in another five-setter there. Seed 11th, he was the top seed to leave so far. The fourth round saw the 28th-seeded Mackenzie rise up again, beating #8 Jake Jolland in four ... including two bagel sets! He's a strange player who has roughly equal ability on all four surfaces, but no question he's moving upwards. The bottom half of the draw was filled with long matches; the only one that didn't go the distance was a crushing victory by Dudwadkar, who eliminated Rosenberg and lost just six games. Gillo Fangio survived Piazzola by the narrowest of margins, 12-10 in the 5th there -- 463 points in that contest of survival. Tough defeat for the young Chilean to be sure. Sigmund Kronecker had a moderate upset of #6 Martin Zarco in an early meeting of two of the best on the dirt, rallying from a 2-1 sets deficit to take the last couple and get the victory. Prakash Mooljee had to do the same against Varas, who almost pulled off another five-set win but couldn't quite get there; 6-4, 6-7(9), 2-6, 7-6(3), 6-1 was the final there. Before the strong finish, it wasn't really looking good.

Into the quarters then were seven players who would be expected to contend ... and Mackenzie. Guus Dircx thumped him aside with ease, but I'm sure we haven't seen the last of him. Kaspar eliminated Johnny Browne without breaking a sweat as well. Those two have galloped through the top half easily. On the bottom, there were more wars to wage. Gillo Fangio handed Dudwadkar a pair of breadsticks, but Ritwik won the other three sets in closer fashion. Nice to get a win he should have lost, and here's an interesting fact: not a single double fault in over 150 service points. That's staying focused for you, while the Italian was very up and down. Winning a long match against him is not easily done, given Fangio's mental fortitude ... and getting to the last four of a Slam is huge for Dudwadkar as well. Then Mooljee narrowly won the first set over Kronecker, lost the next two badly ... and pulled himself together again to control the final two and advance for his second straight 5-set victory.

On the top half then, it was Mateo Kaspar losing his first set of the tournament but prevailing in four over Dircx, who couldn't come through on enough opportunities there but has no apologies to make after an excellent run here. On the bottom, an All-Sri Lanka Slam semi. That's a heck of a thing, and one that hasn't been seen for many years. Mooljee led the H2H 6-1, and was looking to get to his first big final in over a year. I think he ran out of gas though -- the younger man put a lot of pressure on him throughout and won this in a competitive three. On to the final then, where Ritwik Dudwadkar aimed to kill the giant and take his first Slam crown. Or not. 6-3, 7-6(3), 6-2. Nice to make your acquaintance kid, but you're not worthy. Compared to Kaspar though, who is? Making the final vaulted Ritwik from 7th to 5th, and essentially made this year a success for him already with over half of it remaining.

09-03-2017, 10:16 AM	#666
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	2054 Roland Garros The junior event is a week earlier, so I'll start there. The manager for Chiba's doubles partner, no. 2 junior Pavel Kutuzov, decided to fire his young charge. That ended the partnership, and the luck of the draw for RG wasn't kind in terms of the new player to join with. Largely as a result, he was bounced in the second round there. It's been fun while it lasted, but the doubles gravy train looks over. In the weeks that followed, repeated attempts to get another high-ranking partner were rejected. Not sure why nobody wants to join up -- Chiba is still pretty good -- but it is what it is. On the singles side it was a new day and the same old story. Pretty easy road to the quarterfinals, where Paulo Alcantra(ARG), the 8-seed, bounced Sushant 7-6(2), 6-0. Stanley Edleman is the champ again, losing four games in the title match. That's more than usual. In the senior event, Mehul/Kroese came up with just one good set in the quarterfinals, losing early to Argentinians Disanti/Escavias, 6-3, 0-6, 6-4. They continue to slip slowly down. An interesting matchup for Shyam Senepathy against Czech Hugo Jurco, a veteran who was marginally relevant at one point, peaking at 14th in the world. Now 30 years old, he still had enough to send Senepathy packing in four sets. In the first round the seeds were even more dominant than usual; all 32 won, and only Juan de los Santos lost a set. Sounds strange that he would struggle on his best surface -- but his foe was former no. 4, 31-year-old Khasan Zakirov, the best player in decades for Uzbekistan as you may recall. Not your typical opening flunkie. Cojanovic and Blake both departed in the second round, but the Top 20+ continued forward. In the third, the match of the day was (16)Hsuang-tsung Teng(NZL) against (18)Andres Varas(ARG). Both on paper, and on the court. Varas got the better of Teng eventually, 8-6 in the 5th, in an epic encounter that he probably should have lost. Santos was pushed to the distance by Matthew Panter in the latest strong showing by the slowly-rising American. Gregory Mackenzie was most impressive in crushing (12)Tomas Niklas easily in straight sets, while Borja crashed out again; (25)[/b]Valentin Rosenberg[/b](SWE) eventually prevailed in another five-setter there. Seed 11th, he was the top seed to leave so far. The fourth round saw the 28th-seeded Mackenzie rise up again, beating #8 Jake Jolland in four ... including two bagel sets! He's a strange player who has roughly equal ability on all four surfaces, but no question he's moving upwards. The bottom half of the draw was filled with long matches; the only one that didn't go the distance was a crushing victory by Dudwadkar, who eliminated Rosenberg and lost just six games. Gillo Fangio survived Piazzola by the narrowest of margins, 12-10 in the 5th there -- 463 points in that contest of survival. Tough defeat for the young Chilean to be sure. Sigmund Kronecker had a moderate upset of #6 Martin Zarco in an early meeting of two of the best on the dirt, rallying from a 2-1 sets deficit to take the last couple and get the victory. Prakash Mooljee had to do the same against Varas, who almost pulled off another five-set win but couldn't quite get there; 6-4, 6-7(9), 2-6, 7-6(3), 6-1 was the final there. Before the strong finish, it wasn't really looking good. Into the quarters then were seven players who would be expected to contend ... and Mackenzie. Guus Dircx thumped him aside with ease, but I'm sure we haven't seen the last of him. Kaspar eliminated Johnny Browne without breaking a sweat as well. Those two have galloped through the top half easily. On the bottom, there were more wars to wage. Gillo Fangio handed Dudwadkar a pair of breadsticks, but Ritwik won the other three sets in closer fashion. Nice to get a win he should have lost, and here's an interesting fact: not a single double fault in over 150 service points. That's staying focused for you, while the Italian was very up and down. Winning a long match against him is not easily done, given Fangio's mental fortitude ... and getting to the last four of a Slam is huge for Dudwadkar as well. Then Mooljee narrowly won the first set over Kronecker, lost the next two badly ... and pulled himself together again to control the final two and advance for his second straight 5-set victory. On the top half then, it was Mateo Kaspar losing his first set of the tournament but prevailing in four over Dircx, who couldn't come through on enough opportunities there but has no apologies to make after an excellent run here. On the bottom, an All-Sri Lanka Slam semi. That's a heck of a thing, and one that hasn't been seen for many years. Mooljee led the H2H 6-1, and was looking to get to his first big final in over a year. I think he ran out of gas though -- the younger man put a lot of pressure on him throughout and won this in a competitive three. On to the final then, where Ritwik Dudwadkar aimed to kill the giant and take his first Slam crown. Or not. 6-3, 7-6(3), 6-2. Nice to make your acquaintance kid, but you're not worthy. Compared to Kaspar though, who is? Making the final vaulted Ritwik from 7th to 5th, and essentially made this year a success for him already with over half of it remaining.