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Brian Swartz · 08-26-2019, 07:59 PM

2068 Roland Garros

I'll start off with a bit of doubles this time, as Guha/Chiba officially made their debut. They progressed smoothly through qualifying and won their first match in the main draw as well, before getting pummeled by (11) Fantoni/Aubry 6-3, 6-1. A quality start, but we still have quite a bit of work to do there. That pairing ended up in the semifinals, so perhaps they are better than their seeding would indicate. Seamus/Hughes lost a close match to the eventual runners-up in the quarterfinals, while Karl Kaspar is apparently doing just fine without Chiba as he paired with Krasjoe Godinic to take the title - there were a few close calls though. The doubles scene appears to be highly competitive, and we'll aim to make it even more so before Chiba's time is done.

On the singles scene, Anilophiles progressed through the first round without incident, even a couple of unseeded entrants - and more than ever before earned themselves seeded protection. Shakti Vemireddy is still out there causing mischief, taking a set from Velilla before submitting. Veteran Jorge Campos was the only seed to lose. In the second round we saw how vulnerable Odimos Csollang is on clay, with the 20-seed bowing meekly to Jaak Christ of the USA. (30) Willy Weigl survived his first-test in a four-setter against a journeyman from Italy, while 7th-ranked John Hart unceremoniously departed in straight sets to Pieter de Boer, aka de Boer the Lesser. Tommy Fitzpatrick went out in three to Haas, and Seamus Hughes came up short in a match against Dogic that went the distance. Those were the only unseeded members of our club in the main draw. (11) Clavet Moniotte played an epic against rising Argentine (yes, another one) Pedro Perez, same guy I recently tapped to join the elite ranks soon, and came up short in five sets. That's a disappointing result for Moniotte, who made the quarterfinals here last year.

Heating up a bit per usual in the third, we saw Weigl push Rhodes to five sets although he was served breadsticks in the final two frames, an unfortunate close to a promising start there. Kasaravalli was pushed to four by Argentine Hugo Licona but he got through, and Chiba knocked out (10) Srba Dogic with surprising ease, a straight-set conquest. (32) Joao Narciso and (28) Helmut Edlund both bowed out to higher-ranked opposition in three sets apiece, Jung and L. Perez respectively. There were only two matches in the round, out of 16, that the higher-ranked player did not win. In the fourth, de Boer the Lesser finally hit a wall, with Kasaravalli surrendering eight total games to take advantadge of the hole his opponent had created in the draw. Sushant Chiba's surprising push came to a swift end against an apparently-resurgent Haas, but making the final 16 at age 32 is still not bad. (21) Algot Hakanson also did well here but found himself outclassed by Aviles. And there were a couple of upsets on the bottom half of the draw; Il-Sung Jung is unpredictable but lost meekly to L. Perez, while last year's finalist (2) Harald Wentz was defeated in four sets by de Jong of all people. What has gotten into him?

Amrik Kasaravalli, in his second straight and second-ever Slam quarterfinal, faced off against the best player in the world and acquitted himself respectably. He played just well enough to have a chance at stealing the match, taking a third-set tiebreak and holding a break point opportunity at 4-all in the fourth that would have given him a chance to serve his way into a 5th set where anything could happen. Perez held though, and quickly broke himself to take the match. Ollie Haas showed signs of continuing to push onwards, taking a couple of close sets against Mpakati before the world no. 3 found another gear to rally for the comeback victory. Lucas Perez was the latest to find out that de Jong is playing his best tennis right now, dropping both tiebreak opportunities in a four-set defeat. Tobias Velilla was the latest routine victim of Aviles in the final matchup.

The semifinals had two matchups with a clear favorite, and there were no surprises. Perez dismissed Chisulo Mpakati though the latter played served well enough to be competitive, and Tim de Jong snagged an opening-set tiebreak only to win just two games in the next two sets combined. He fell in four eventually. There was little question that the championship match pitted the two most deserving clay players of not just the this year, but the past few combined. Calisto Aviles made it his second final here in three years; all three have featured Nicolas Perez. The Spaniard served brilliantly, with 13 aces against no double faults, while Perez was not so efficient. Nonetheless, he is #1 for a reason and had the better of it by a significant margin the rallies. A second straight RG title for Nicolas, 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-3.

Perez's lead in the rankings grows ever-larger over Wentz. Meanwhile Aviles moves up to #3, leaving Velilla and Mpakati to fight over the narrowest of margins for that crucial #4 spot, and de Jong is suddenly relevant again. Young Fabio Cagide was unable to replicate his showing from a year ago, so any outbreak on his part probably waits a while longer. This was a tournament for those who have been there, not the younger generation.

Elsewhere …

There was much going on in the Challenger circuit as well. Nasir Chittoor entered CH2 Nantes, where the toughest opposition came from 4-seed Ritwik Intodia, a fellow Sri Lankan, in a 6-4, 6-4 semifinal. The title match was against a familiar face, American Tim Gudsell. Three earlier meetings had gone Gudsell's way, but Chittoor showed clearly he'd surpassed him and allowed just three games. Satyagit Guha, along with playing doubles, had IMO a half-decent chance to qualify at RG. He lost in the second round though, so that hope was not to be fulfilled. The next week he headed off to his first and possibly only FT1 event. A couple of matches were somewhat competitive, but he was never seriously threatened and claimed the trophy to boost himself to just barely inside the Top 200 … for now. He may or may not need another futures tournament over the summer but he's close to escaping that level of play either way.

Meanwhile Chittoor had another challenger to pick. Normally I wouldn't play back-to-back events but during the next three weeks in the run-up to Wimbledon pickings will be slim. There was a lot more going on here. The main event was CH+ Prostejov, which had four Top-40 players. That field included Anilophiles Weigl, Narciso, and Fitzpatrick. Fitzpatrick topped Weigl in the semis, but neither he or Narciso could stop Russian Andrey Rublev in competitive matches. To my mind those who were modest upsets, but Rublev got the job done. Nasir had no intention of jumping into that fray, and Mark Smith was the prohibitive favorite, and eventually champion, at CH1 Nottingham. That left two CH2 clay events to choose from, in Furth and Rijeka. Furth had the more crowded field, but the strongest opposition figured to come from de Boer the Lesser in Rijeka. That's where I initially decided to play, but at the last minute changed my mind to Furth. I think it was the right choice; de Boer won Rijeka, while Chittoor met some resistance in the final couple of matches before taking the Furth trophy. The final against top-seeded Manuel Iruso had the hilarious scoreline of 6-7(11), 6-0, 6-1.

Overall, it was an excellent two weeks for my players. Kasaravalli wraps up a successful clay campaign, Chiba gets his doubles debut, and the youngsters both get tournament victories they needed to boost their respective rankings. I'm far less certain what will happen over the grass season that my charges are particularly ill-suited for, but after Wimbledon the picture of how the summer will play out should have gained significant clarity.

08-26-2019, 07:59 PM	#1161
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	2068 Roland Garros I'll start off with a bit of doubles this time, as Guha/Chiba officially made their debut. They progressed smoothly through qualifying and won their first match in the main draw as well, before getting pummeled by (11) Fantoni/Aubry 6-3, 6-1. A quality start, but we still have quite a bit of work to do there. That pairing ended up in the semifinals, so perhaps they are better than their seeding would indicate. Seamus/Hughes lost a close match to the eventual runners-up in the quarterfinals, while Karl Kaspar is apparently doing just fine without Chiba as he paired with Krasjoe Godinic to take the title - there were a few close calls though. The doubles scene appears to be highly competitive, and we'll aim to make it even more so before Chiba's time is done. On the singles scene, Anilophiles progressed through the first round without incident, even a couple of unseeded entrants - and more than ever before earned themselves seeded protection. Shakti Vemireddy is still out there causing mischief, taking a set from Velilla before submitting. Veteran Jorge Campos was the only seed to lose. In the second round we saw how vulnerable Odimos Csollang is on clay, with the 20-seed bowing meekly to Jaak Christ of the USA. (30) Willy Weigl survived his first-test in a four-setter against a journeyman from Italy, while 7th-ranked John Hart unceremoniously departed in straight sets to Pieter de Boer, aka de Boer the Lesser. Tommy Fitzpatrick went out in three to Haas, and Seamus Hughes came up short in a match against Dogic that went the distance. Those were the only unseeded members of our club in the main draw. (11) Clavet Moniotte played an epic against rising Argentine (yes, another one) Pedro Perez, same guy I recently tapped to join the elite ranks soon, and came up short in five sets. That's a disappointing result for Moniotte, who made the quarterfinals here last year. Heating up a bit per usual in the third, we saw Weigl push Rhodes to five sets although he was served breadsticks in the final two frames, an unfortunate close to a promising start there. Kasaravalli was pushed to four by Argentine Hugo Licona but he got through, and Chiba knocked out (10) Srba Dogic with surprising ease, a straight-set conquest. (32) Joao Narciso and (28) Helmut Edlund both bowed out to higher-ranked opposition in three sets apiece, Jung and L. Perez respectively. There were only two matches in the round, out of 16, that the higher-ranked player did not win. In the fourth, de Boer the Lesser finally hit a wall, with Kasaravalli surrendering eight total games to take advantadge of the hole his opponent had created in the draw. Sushant Chiba's surprising push came to a swift end against an apparently-resurgent Haas, but making the final 16 at age 32 is still not bad. (21) Algot Hakanson also did well here but found himself outclassed by Aviles. And there were a couple of upsets on the bottom half of the draw; Il-Sung Jung is unpredictable but lost meekly to L. Perez, while last year's finalist (2) Harald Wentz was defeated in four sets by de Jong of all people. What has gotten into him? Amrik Kasaravalli, in his second straight and second-ever Slam quarterfinal, faced off against the best player in the world and acquitted himself respectably. He played just well enough to have a chance at stealing the match, taking a third-set tiebreak and holding a break point opportunity at 4-all in the fourth that would have given him a chance to serve his way into a 5th set where anything could happen. Perez held though, and quickly broke himself to take the match. Ollie Haas showed signs of continuing to push onwards, taking a couple of close sets against Mpakati before the world no. 3 found another gear to rally for the comeback victory. Lucas Perez was the latest to find out that de Jong is playing his best tennis right now, dropping both tiebreak opportunities in a four-set defeat. Tobias Velilla was the latest routine victim of Aviles in the final matchup. The semifinals had two matchups with a clear favorite, and there were no surprises. Perez dismissed Chisulo Mpakati though the latter played served well enough to be competitive, and Tim de Jong snagged an opening-set tiebreak only to win just two games in the next two sets combined. He fell in four eventually. There was little question that the championship match pitted the two most deserving clay players of not just the this year, but the past few combined. Calisto Aviles made it his second final here in three years; all three have featured Nicolas Perez. The Spaniard served brilliantly, with 13 aces against no double faults, while Perez was not so efficient. Nonetheless, he is #1 for a reason and had the better of it by a significant margin the rallies. A second straight RG title for Nicolas, 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-3. Perez's lead in the rankings grows ever-larger over Wentz. Meanwhile Aviles moves up to #3, leaving Velilla and Mpakati to fight over the narrowest of margins for that crucial #4 spot, and de Jong is suddenly relevant again. Young Fabio Cagide was unable to replicate his showing from a year ago, so any outbreak on his part probably waits a while longer. This was a tournament for those who have been there, not the younger generation. Elsewhere … There was much going on in the Challenger circuit as well. Nasir Chittoor entered CH2 Nantes, where the toughest opposition came from 4-seed Ritwik Intodia, a fellow Sri Lankan, in a 6-4, 6-4 semifinal. The title match was against a familiar face, American Tim Gudsell. Three earlier meetings had gone Gudsell's way, but Chittoor showed clearly he'd surpassed him and allowed just three games. Satyagit Guha, along with playing doubles, had IMO a half-decent chance to qualify at RG. He lost in the second round though, so that hope was not to be fulfilled. The next week he headed off to his first and possibly only FT1 event. A couple of matches were somewhat competitive, but he was never seriously threatened and claimed the trophy to boost himself to just barely inside the Top 200 … for now. He may or may not need another futures tournament over the summer but he's close to escaping that level of play either way. Meanwhile Chittoor had another challenger to pick. Normally I wouldn't play back-to-back events but during the next three weeks in the run-up to Wimbledon pickings will be slim. There was a lot more going on here. The main event was CH+ Prostejov, which had four Top-40 players. That field included Anilophiles Weigl, Narciso, and Fitzpatrick. Fitzpatrick topped Weigl in the semis, but neither he or Narciso could stop Russian Andrey Rublev in competitive matches. To my mind those who were modest upsets, but Rublev got the job done. Nasir had no intention of jumping into that fray, and Mark Smith was the prohibitive favorite, and eventually champion, at CH1 Nottingham. That left two CH2 clay events to choose from, in Furth and Rijeka. Furth had the more crowded field, but the strongest opposition figured to come from de Boer the Lesser in Rijeka. That's where I initially decided to play, but at the last minute changed my mind to Furth. I think it was the right choice; de Boer won Rijeka, while Chittoor met some resistance in the final couple of matches before taking the Furth trophy. The final against top-seeded Manuel Iruso had the hilarious scoreline of 6-7(11), 6-0, 6-1. Overall, it was an excellent two weeks for my players. Kasaravalli wraps up a successful clay campaign, Chiba gets his doubles debut, and the youngsters both get tournament victories they needed to boost their respective rankings. I'm far less certain what will happen over the grass season that my charges are particularly ill-suited for, but after Wimbledon the picture of how the summer will play out should have gained significant clarity.