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Old 09-17-2016, 05:23 PM   #498
Brian Swartz
Grizzled Veteran
 
Join Date: May 2006
500s Week

** Swiss Indoors -- As mentioned this could be otherwhise termed the Sri Lanka Invitational. Girsh, Mehul, and Mooljee are the top three seeds, with none of the lower ones relevant to the Race. Federer lost a tight one in the first round to Rui Padilla, but all the other seeds made the quarters as drawn. Straight-sets matches all around there with Tioslav Srbulovic the beneficiary of Federer going down. Both semifinals were blowouts, with Mooljee taking just three games from Girsh and Srbulovic four from Mehul. This is not really unexpected as both Girsh and Mehul still are quite proficient indoors, a hold-over from when I originally planned things that way. Mooljee is higher than I'd like on the surface but it is his worst objectively. The final was a heck of a match. Girish Girsh took the first set, but Anil Mehul rallied for a 4-6, 7-6(2), 7-6(5) barn-burner. It looked for most of it like Girsh's 20 aces(13 for Mehul) would be enough to get him through, but Anil played like a champion in the tiebreaks to get the mild upset. It's his sixth 500 crown.

In terms of the Race, the big news here is Mooljee can replace a second-round loss at Washington a few months back with a semifinal here, so he improves his standing somewhat.

** Vienna -- The French duo of Bourdet and Poilblan were heavily favored here, being quite proficient on indoor courts. With the top five seeds all still alive in the Race though, this was an even more important event in that regard. Elias Trulsen had to go to 13-11 in a third-set tiebreak to get through his first-round match, and Poilblan lost a set before roaring back in his, but all the seeds got past their first matches intact. None of them dropped a set in the second round, leading to a 'perfect' quarterfinal setup. Trulsen was obliterated 6-2, 6-0 by Theodore Bourdet, for all intents and purposes eliminating him although I'm not sure if the math will quite do that. Pierce Gaskell lost a tough one to Tomas Niklas, who is sure finishing well this year, 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-4. The top US player will definitely need a big run in Paris to get back in it now. Bjorn Benda nearly lost as well, but got through a third-set breaker to squeak by Condon.

Both of the favored Frenchmen took care of business in straight-set semis, Bourdet over Benda and Poilblan over Niklas. Theodore Bourdet was the better in the final, 6-3, 6-4, and definitely solidified an already strong position at a minimum. Poilblan gained a bit but not much with his run to the final ... he really need to win here as he's just replacing one of his 250 titles so it's a minor plus. Benda will get a modest boost from making the semi, and Gaskell/Trulsen don't figure to gain at all.
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