Front Office Football Central - View Single Post

Brian Swartz · 09-10-2017, 11:49 PM

Canada

Seeded fifth, Mehul/Kroese had a quality run here, narrowly edging 4th seeds Srbulovic/Zopp in the QF 10-3 in a super tiebreak after splitting tiebreakers in the first two sets. That earned them a beating from dominant #1s Aspelin/Cordasic in the semis, which is as good as can be expected at this point. Shyam Senepathy qualified and won tiebreaks in the second and third sets, rallying from a poor first against Zakirov in his first match. Quite a nice win for him, leading to a 3 & 1 shellacking from world no. 2 Fangio.

It was upset central right away for the seeded guys. Niklas(14th), Panter(15th, a narrow loser to Dick Blake), and Santos(13th) were all gone by the end of the first round. No more fell in the second, though (7)Johnny Browne needed everything he could muster to survive Besson, 4-6, 7-6(12), 7-6(5), saving a number of match points in that second set breaker. In the third, everything went as planned on the top half. Mooljee had a testy encounter with Jake Jolland but got through it in straights. Not so on the bottom. Dircx nearly went home early to Ruben Piazzola before rallying for a narrow victory. Fangio was shocked by unseeded Valentin Rosenberg, 7-6(5), 6-7(8), 6-4, while Ritwik Dudwadkar went just 1 of 8 on break chances, just enough for the youngster Blake and the home crowd to send him out early. 7-5, 6-7(5), 7-6(4) there in another match that could not have been any closer. If you like tight battles, it had already been one heck of a tournament, but this was a bitter pill for Ritwik to swallow.

Six of the top eight into the quarterfinals, along with the two unseeded guys who were matched up against each other. Blake couldn't overcome Rosenberg, so the Swede marched on. Kaspar and Dircx cruised onwards, while Prakash Mooljee lost to a guy who barely made it this far. Browne got the better of him, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. Another case of just not closing out opportunities. Mooljee had 9 BPs, the American 3 --- but it was 2-1 Browne in terms of conversions, breaking a five-match winning streak in their personal head-to-head. Both losses here leave a real bad taste in my mouth -- Canada '54 is not a tournament to remember fondly.

Mateo Kaspar brushed Browne aside in the semis, while Guus Dircx became the latest victim of Rosenberg, 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-3. Valentin is an extreme hard-court guy, but he's still the most unlikely Masters finalist in some while. Kaspar swatted him fairly easily, losing six games in total. He was not remotely challenged in what amounted to a virtual walk-over of a tournament, appearing to be in full flight amid the chaos elsewhere in the draw.

Elsewhere, Sushant Chiba entered a tier-1 in Quebec, and made the final. Top seed Chalerm Prachuab, who has been ranked third most of the year but up to #2 recently, thumped him once again 6-1, 6-1. He's knocked Chiba out of two Slams already in their earlier meetings this year, and it's abundantly clear this is a one-sided matchup.

09-10-2017, 11:49 PM	#674
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	Canada Seeded fifth, Mehul/Kroese had a quality run here, narrowly edging 4th seeds Srbulovic/Zopp in the QF 10-3 in a super tiebreak after splitting tiebreakers in the first two sets. That earned them a beating from dominant #1s Aspelin/Cordasic in the semis, which is as good as can be expected at this point. Shyam Senepathy qualified and won tiebreaks in the second and third sets, rallying from a poor first against Zakirov in his first match. Quite a nice win for him, leading to a 3 & 1 shellacking from world no. 2 Fangio. It was upset central right away for the seeded guys. Niklas(14th), Panter(15th, a narrow loser to Dick Blake), and Santos(13th) were all gone by the end of the first round. No more fell in the second, though (7)Johnny Browne needed everything he could muster to survive Besson, 4-6, 7-6(12), 7-6(5), saving a number of match points in that second set breaker. In the third, everything went as planned on the top half. Mooljee had a testy encounter with Jake Jolland but got through it in straights. Not so on the bottom. Dircx nearly went home early to Ruben Piazzola before rallying for a narrow victory. Fangio was shocked by unseeded Valentin Rosenberg, 7-6(5), 6-7(8), 6-4, while Ritwik Dudwadkar went just 1 of 8 on break chances, just enough for the youngster Blake and the home crowd to send him out early. 7-5, 6-7(5), 7-6(4) there in another match that could not have been any closer. If you like tight battles, it had already been one heck of a tournament, but this was a bitter pill for Ritwik to swallow. Six of the top eight into the quarterfinals, along with the two unseeded guys who were matched up against each other. Blake couldn't overcome Rosenberg, so the Swede marched on. Kaspar and Dircx cruised onwards, while Prakash Mooljee lost to a guy who barely made it this far. Browne got the better of him, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. Another case of just not closing out opportunities. Mooljee had 9 BPs, the American 3 --- but it was 2-1 Browne in terms of conversions, breaking a five-match winning streak in their personal head-to-head. Both losses here leave a real bad taste in my mouth -- Canada '54 is not a tournament to remember fondly. Mateo Kaspar brushed Browne aside in the semis, while Guus Dircx became the latest victim of Rosenberg, 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-3. Valentin is an extreme hard-court guy, but he's still the most unlikely Masters finalist in some while. Kaspar swatted him fairly easily, losing six games in total. He was not remotely challenged in what amounted to a virtual walk-over of a tournament, appearing to be in full flight amid the chaos elsewhere in the draw. Elsewhere, Sushant Chiba entered a tier-1 in Quebec, and made the final. Top seed Chalerm Prachuab, who has been ranked third most of the year but up to #2 recently, thumped him once again 6-1, 6-1. He's knocked Chiba out of two Slams already in their earlier meetings this year, and it's abundantly clear this is a one-sided matchup. Last edited by Brian Swartz : 09-10-2017 at 11:51 PM.