|
Olympic Results
So with all that in mind, here's how it played out. Shreya Ujjaval got one victory in, but was blasted by Girsh in the second round. He did form with Mooljee in a surprisingly effective doubles run, upsetting the 7th-seeded Argentinians to reach the quarterfinals. The 3rd-seeded Mexicans were far too strong though, allowing just three games.
Prakash Mooljee was seeded 15th, surprisingly, as many of those who had little to no chance for a medal opted for easy points in the Washington 500 or other events this week. Mooljee had a couple of easy wins, and then a heck of a match against Gustavo Caratti in the third round. After losing the first set, he rallied for a 3-6, 7-6(5), 8-6 victory - there are no final-set tiebreaks here. Gaskell was able to stop him 6-4, 7-5 in the quarterfinals, but it was still a fine showing.
Anil Mehul had a bit of a third-round test from Theodore Bourdet, but got through it in straight sets. That put him up against Hammerstein again ... and he stumbled again, 6-1, 7-6(5). In 14 career meetings, he's now lost nine including the past three. It may very well be mental at this stage. The Austrian is a hard-court focused player and still very strong, but doesn't have the baseline game to make one think he'd still be better.
Girsh made it to the medal round without dropping a set. Condon and then Trulsen made things a little bit interesting, but not overly so. Gaskell was his opponent, and the American had himself one heck of a tournament. Quite probably he should have won this match, but he failed at all four break chances and Girsh took a 7-6(3), 6-4 win that could very easily have gone sideways. Hammerstein and Kinczllers, objectively the two biggest threats, met in the second match. A crushing performance by Kinczllers permitted Julian just four games, ending his bid for repeat Olympic titles.
In the final, Girsh had already guaranteed Sri Lanka of it's best medal, and needed only to take his sixth straight against the Italian challenger to win the gold. It was in doubt early as he dropped a tiebreak to start things off. Both players served well, with 39 combined aces against only 3 double faults, but Girsh had the better of it on the return overall. He stamped Sri Lanka's place in history with a 6-7(3), 6-4, 7-6(3), 6-3 win, consistently doing just a little better in the most contested games, and adds his name to the list, now 15 players long, of those who have been Olympic champions.
Coming Up ..
A brutal stretch has only just begun. Counting the Olympic week, it will cover six tournament weeks out of seven, up through the WTC QF which follow the USO. That will only be for the Girsh & Mehul, as after considerable pondering, I've decided Mooljee will be better off taking the masters weeks to practice.
|