. Hopefully he snaps out of it soon. Sometimes that can occur when you least expect it ...
2046 US Open
Early Rounds
Early on, this was the most successful Slam event Sri Lanka has ever had.
Shyam Senepathy defeated a Romanian qualifier for his first-ever Slam victory, while Ujjaval was seeded 31st and along with others moved through his first match successfully. The seeds were perfect in the first round;
Theodore Bourdet was pushed to five by one of the tour's favorite spoilers this year, de los Santos, but none of them lost.
Girish Girsh had a bit of a second-round hiccup, dropping a set to
Manfred Borrman, but he recovered well and advanced in four. A couple of lower seeds, Condon and Farkas, departed but nobody from the Top 20.
Shreya Ujjaval and Senepathy met in this round as well, with Ujjaval dominating the match with only four games lost.
A few upsets came about in the third round as often happens. Sri Lanka had two shots to get one of them. Ujjaval's latest crack at a fourth-round appearance came against
Agustin Herrera. He put up a competitive effort but lost in four sets.
Prakash Mooljee had another classic battle in a match I thought he had the edge in, and lost once again against
Bjorn Benda, 6-1, 4-6, 7-6(4), 4-6, 6-3. Mooljee had the better of it overall, esp. after the first set, but in what was an uncharacteristic display until recently, he didn't do enough on his break chances. Benda split his(5 of 10), while Prakash was just 4 of 15. Another tough defeat with a chance to move forward. Elsewhere, Andronikov continued his recent strong play upending
Marcelo Herrera in four; Sampras stopped the third member of the Peruvian trio,
Thiago Herrera, in straight sets;
Blagota Cojanovic got a big win, outlasting McCuskey in five; and [b]Phillip Carter[b], an American hiding in the high-20s weeds for a while now, knocked off Federer after losing the first two sets.
The fourth round had a lot less drama. There's very little to say about it as the top seven seeds all advanced. The only player to crash the party of what would otherwhise have been a perfectly top-heavy quarterfinals was Bourdet, who survived his first-round scare and beat
Elias Trulsen in four stanzas.
Second Week
The storyline going into this year's final Slam was the return of Iglar and the decline of Mehul. The two were expected to switch their second and third-place spots in the rankings by the tournaments' end, with Iglar claiming his first Slam title in two years. With all the top players here, the fireworks were about to start ... but the quarters didn't cooperate. Girsh beat Kinczllers(four straight QF meetings in just over a month!!), Iglar defeated Benda, and Mehul stopped Gaskell, all in straight sets. Caratti dropped only one against party-crasher Bourdet. A boring round overall and it certainly looked like the top players had all brought something close to their best stuff.
In the semifinals, the first one between
Girish Girsh and
Antonin Iglar was expected to be the de facto championship match. Both players were a little worn. The Czech got off to a great start, but things got tigher towards the end. Girsh dug himself too big a hole and couldn't rally, falling 6-3, 6-2, 6-7(4), 7-6(5). Who knows what might have happened if he started as well as he finished, but you can't spot a legend a two-set lead and hope to advance. On the other side,
Gustavo Caratti was able to win just 14 total points on Mehul's serve and was routinely dispatched.
The final pitted Mehul against Iglar for the 46th time. It was their first Slam final since they met here last year, but this season the Czech was playing much better. Ironically, Anil's earlier failures may have worked in his favor as he was the fresher man. Whatever the reason, you might as well have rewatched the championship match from '45 because this one was pretty much the same. Mehul was narrowly able to get out to the early lead and prevailed in four again, 7-6(5), 6-3, 4-6, 6-4. It shouldn't even have been that close, but he was just 4 of 16 on break chances. Iglar's serve(24 aces to 12) was a big weapon, but not quite big enough.
This is a big win for Mehul in two ways. It keeps him just barely in the #2 spot in the rankings, and it also is his 8th Slam overall. That breaks the logjam he was part of and puts him 6th all-time, cementing his spot as a second-tier great. After the way the last several months have gone, I didn't think he had it in him. I thought maybe ... hopefully ... he'd turn things around next year, but he brought some of the best tennis he is capable of at age 30. He's only about seven months shy of the record here(owned by Gorritepe) for the oldest man to ever win a Slam title. Heck of a tournament by Anil.