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2052 Roland Garros
Tough result here for 4th-seeded Mehul/Kroese, who were upset in the third round. It's the same showing as a year ago, but disappointing as this was an opportunity to make up some ground. The top three teams are pulling away from them a bit here, and more consistency is needed in order to challenge them. Mehul played singles as well, qualified and won in the first round over (25)Davide Poilblan, but lost to American Roger Calzada in a second-round match that went the distance. Very mixed results there. Shyam Senepathy also had a good draw, won easily, but then was stomped by Mooljee in the second round. That left just the usual two participants. Poilblan was the highest-ranking player to exit in the first two rounds.
In the third, four different matches went the distance and most of them were high-quality. Shreya Ujjaval had the chance for one of the bigger wins of his career against Juan de los Santos, leading by two sets before the Spaniard rallied to take the last three. Tough loss there. Youngsters Manee Paschal(Mooljee) and Ruben Piazzola(Guardado) had their runs ended here. Guus Dircx(Cojanovic[/b] and Gillo Fangio(Kronecker) both were lucky to advance, 7-5 in the 5th for both of them; Zakirov also narrowly survived. For all of that, on this day higher-seeded players were 15-1. Jake Jolland was beaten surpringly easily by the young Russian Ruslan Strelkov, and that was it. That was a shocking result, but the only one.
The pattern continued as Prakash Mooljee won his sixth straight over Niklas and 22nd in 24 meetings, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4. Bit of a throwback match to an era now in the rearview mirror when they, not the French prodigy, ruled the sport. Guus Dircx knocked off #5 Ariel Borja in three close sets, but that wasn't much of an upset. The best match was Zarco over Khasan Zakirov, four sets and the last three via tiebreak. All Top-10 players in the quarterfinals, so form was definitely continuing to hold here. Kaspar beat Luc Janin easily, and Santos stopped Johnny Browne. A much better showing here for the world no. 3, and Browne's first time past the third round at his worst Slam. Mooljee dropped his first set of the tournament, then rallied to allow just three games over the final two sets. He gets past Guus Dircx in four. Fangio keeps moving despite the early stumble, as once again Zarco is part of the best match. That also went four, with the Spaniard on the losing end this time.
In the semifinals, Mateo Kaspar continued to be in devastating form. Just four games allowed to Santos; he hasn't come close to losing a set. Gillo Fangio gave a strong effort but lost to Mooljee 6-7(4), 6-3, 7-6(4), 6-4. Uncharacteristically, the Italian was 0-5 on BPs, but he was outmanned here on clay. The final was very tight for half a match, but Kaspar pulled away to claim his first RG crown, 5-7, 7-5, 6-2, 6-1. It was another classic case of being better in the big moments; both players had 13 BPs, but the conversion count was 8-3. The last good chance for a Slam title of Mooljee's career most likely, and Mateo's emergence as the best player in the world even on a weak surface is both impressive and scary.
Ritwik Dudwadkar won at tier-2 Nantes, highlighted by a convincing win over Ivan Coria, 6-3, 6-2. Earlier this year he lost to the Argentine who floats around #50 in the rankings.
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