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Brian Swartz · 10-25-2016, 12:55 PM

Way behind here. Timeline is actually past Wimbledon at this point, two Slams and other stuff to cover, and I even missed a couple of training sessions that I should done(slacker). But first things first.

2048 French Open

Shyam Senepathy had an unkind draw against no. 8 Theodore Bourdet, who had the crowd behind him here to top everything off. Didn't do too badly in the last couple of sets, winning a total of eight games. It was even more predictable than usual the first couple of days, with no seed coming close to losing in the first round. In Round Two, McCuskey got dismissed early, a rarity for him this year, against German Joseph Boller. Straight sets, no less. The match of the day was definitely the battle of the Johns. 32-year-old John Condon, on the one surface where he still is semi-relevant, rallied from two sets down but couldn't beat local favorite Johnathan Ardant in a five-setter. One of the Spanish specialists, Adergazoz Lugassy, knocked out Caminha, but everyone else kept moving on.

Then in the third round things started to get more interesting. Sava Cirakovic ended Gaskell's trip, although he usually exits at about this stage. Tristan Benitez knocked out Trulsen, who is still hanging around for some reason. And then Anil Mehul met up with Juan de los Santos in an excellent match. The improving Spaniard was a rare case where losing at this stage would not be a disaster for Mehul. In the end, he didn't serve quite well enough, going out 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 7-5. It was his earliest exit here in nine years. There were other examples of clay specialists beating higher-ranked players who aren't, in not-really-upsets; Thiago Herrera over Bourdet, Rui Padilla in a five-set comeback win over Srbulovic, and the last one was a bit of a surprise to me -- Andre Herrera over Poilblan. So much for the high-ranked Frenchmen, who are pretty ineffective on clay making it hard for them to succeed here.

In the round of 16, Girish Girsh got his first challenge. He dropped the first set against Cirakovic, rallying to win in a tough four. Shreya Ujjaval gave Santos a match, but ultimately lost in three competitive sets as the Spaniard notched a second Sri Lankan here. Luc Janin showed up with possibly the biggest win of his career over T. Herrera, 6-4, 7-5, 3-6, 6-3. Agustin Herrera kept Peru going though with a very tight four-set match including three tiebreaks against Kinczllers, and the other favorites just kept chugging along easily.

The quarterfinals were a smattering. Mehul was the only Top-5 player who didn't make it this far, but the other half of the remaining field was 12th or lower in the rankings. The headliner was Girsh against Gustavo Caratti. This was not the same match from a couple weeks ago; Caratti was in good form here and lost just eight games. After three straight semifinal losses here, you can pretty much bank on Girsh never winning this event now. The big news is that the Argentine seems to have his game back though, which means it will be tough to stop him on this surface. Following that, the two lowest-ranking players met with de los Santos prevailing over Janin in four sets. We'll see more of them running into each other in the future I wager, esp. here. Prakash Mooljee kept on cruising along, dominating Agustin Herrera 6-1, 6-1, 6-3. Wow. Iglar got past Zakirov in four sets, a good tournament for both of them.

Three of the top five plus Santos remained. He had the toughest job, up against Caratti in the first semifinal. He won the second set to even the match, but then Gustavo really turned it on and left his younger opponent in the dust for a four-set win, 6-3, 3-6, 6-0, 6-2. Mooljee obliterated Antonin Iglar, setting up a most interesting final. This year's dominant player against the king of clay several years running. It looked like a classic ... but it wasn't. Gustavo Caratti rolled, 6-3, 6-2, 6-3. Just Mooljee's second loss of the year, and it pretty much settles things; Caratti still owns clay, when he, you know, actually decides to show up. He's won here four years straight now.

10-25-2016, 12:55 PM	#534
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	Way behind here. Timeline is actually past Wimbledon at this point, two Slams and other stuff to cover, and I even missed a couple of training sessions that I should done(slacker). But first things first. 2048 French Open Shyam Senepathy had an unkind draw against no. 8 Theodore Bourdet, who had the crowd behind him here to top everything off. Didn't do too badly in the last couple of sets, winning a total of eight games. It was even more predictable than usual the first couple of days, with no seed coming close to losing in the first round. In Round Two, McCuskey got dismissed early, a rarity for him this year, against German Joseph Boller. Straight sets, no less. The match of the day was definitely the battle of the Johns. 32-year-old John Condon, on the one surface where he still is semi-relevant, rallied from two sets down but couldn't beat local favorite Johnathan Ardant in a five-setter. One of the Spanish specialists, Adergazoz Lugassy, knocked out Caminha, but everyone else kept moving on. Then in the third round things started to get more interesting. Sava Cirakovic ended Gaskell's trip, although he usually exits at about this stage. Tristan Benitez knocked out Trulsen, who is still hanging around for some reason. And then Anil Mehul met up with Juan de los Santos in an excellent match. The improving Spaniard was a rare case where losing at this stage would not be a disaster for Mehul. In the end, he didn't serve quite well enough, going out 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 7-5. It was his earliest exit here in nine years. There were other examples of clay specialists beating higher-ranked players who aren't, in not-really-upsets; Thiago Herrera over Bourdet, Rui Padilla in a five-set comeback win over Srbulovic, and the last one was a bit of a surprise to me -- Andre Herrera over Poilblan. So much for the high-ranked Frenchmen, who are pretty ineffective on clay making it hard for them to succeed here. In the round of 16, Girish Girsh got his first challenge. He dropped the first set against Cirakovic, rallying to win in a tough four. Shreya Ujjaval gave Santos a match, but ultimately lost in three competitive sets as the Spaniard notched a second Sri Lankan here. Luc Janin showed up with possibly the biggest win of his career over T. Herrera, 6-4, 7-5, 3-6, 6-3. Agustin Herrera kept Peru going though with a very tight four-set match including three tiebreaks against Kinczllers, and the other favorites just kept chugging along easily. The quarterfinals were a smattering. Mehul was the only Top-5 player who didn't make it this far, but the other half of the remaining field was 12th or lower in the rankings. The headliner was Girsh against Gustavo Caratti. This was not the same match from a couple weeks ago; Caratti was in good form here and lost just eight games. After three straight semifinal losses here, you can pretty much bank on Girsh never winning this event now. The big news is that the Argentine seems to have his game back though, which means it will be tough to stop him on this surface. Following that, the two lowest-ranking players met with de los Santos prevailing over Janin in four sets. We'll see more of them running into each other in the future I wager, esp. here. Prakash Mooljee kept on cruising along, dominating Agustin Herrera 6-1, 6-1, 6-3. Wow. Iglar got past Zakirov in four sets, a good tournament for both of them. Three of the top five plus Santos remained. He had the toughest job, up against Caratti in the first semifinal. He won the second set to even the match, but then Gustavo really turned it on and left his younger opponent in the dust for a four-set win, 6-3, 3-6, 6-0, 6-2. Mooljee obliterated Antonin Iglar, setting up a most interesting final. This year's dominant player against the king of clay several years running. It looked like a classic ... but it wasn't. Gustavo Caratti rolled, 6-3, 6-2, 6-3. Just Mooljee's second loss of the year, and it pretty much settles things; Caratti still owns clay, when he, you know, actually decides to show up. He's won here four years straight now.