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Brian Swartz · 08-16-2022, 01:12 PM

Monte Carlo Masters

The clay season begins! The story of the early rounds was 30-year-old Sergi Vaeza of Spain. Even in his best years, Vaeza never got further than the quarterfinals at a big event. He equaled that here, eliminating (7) Solitris Papadias (GRC) by the narrowest of margins, then beating Urazov for good measure. It was the only early upset in an otherwhise by-the-numbers tournament, and Vaeza was given his medicine 6-2, 6-2 by Cananis in the quarterfinals.

Elsewhere (8) Ben Faille matched up with Polychroniadis and lost in a pretty close two-setter, Jochen Weigle was rather embarrassed with a first-set bagel against Reimann though he did bounce back for a better second set - not good enough though. And Toni Bardales knocked out (4) Themis Xanthos 7-5, 6-3.

In the semis, Bardales took a set off of (1) Leon Polychroniadis before eating a breadstick in the decider. On the other side, Alexander Riemann came up on the short end of a tight all-German semi against Cananis 7-6(8), 6-4. That left the final between #1 and #2, and try as he might (2) Renke Cananis couldn't pull off the upset. Polychroniadis claims his 8th Masters Shield, 7-6(6), 4-6, 6-3. The Greek world no. 1 relentlessly attacked when returning second serves, and that proved to be the difference.

Neither Polychroniadis or Cananis are particularly clay-focused; in fact neither has as much as a 30% focus on the surface. It looks like they're just that much better than everyone else. Bardales is in kind of a tough spot trying to move up into the Top 4. He's chosen to defend his Barcelona title next week, but that'll make him just that much more fatigued moving into Rome and Madrid. It looks like everyone else is just playing for getting far enough into the big events to lose to one of the top two players at this point other than the odd possible upset here or there.

Elsewhere ...

Sushant Srivastava had his first outing in a while, falling in the quarterfinals in both singles and doubles at Tunisia F3. Just ran into a player who is on the downside coming through and doesn't play much it looked like, a bad matchup. That happens a fair bit at this level. Amusingly Srivastava has only one result better than this; an out-of-left-field title at a futures in Luxembourg several months ago. It's probably going to hurt when that drops off, but he edges up slightly to a new career-best of 808th in singles with this result.

When we get to Rome, Raychaudhari will have played his first juniors event. As he's starting from absolute zero (0 skill, 0 service, 0 doubles) it's going to take him some time to build up. This week Manoj Datar is playing both singles and doubles at Barcelona, because apparently he thought that it was smart for a player barely ranked in the Top 500 to play a 500-level event. I don't think he understands what that 500 next to the tournament name means

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08-16-2022, 01:12 PM	#1262
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	Monte Carlo Masters The clay season begins! The story of the early rounds was 30-year-old Sergi Vaeza of Spain. Even in his best years, Vaeza never got further than the quarterfinals at a big event. He equaled that here, eliminating (7) Solitris Papadias (GRC) by the narrowest of margins, then beating Urazov for good measure. It was the only early upset in an otherwhise by-the-numbers tournament, and Vaeza was given his medicine 6-2, 6-2 by Cananis in the quarterfinals. Elsewhere (8) Ben Faille matched up with Polychroniadis and lost in a pretty close two-setter, Jochen Weigle was rather embarrassed with a first-set bagel against Reimann though he did bounce back for a better second set - not good enough though. And Toni Bardales knocked out (4) Themis Xanthos 7-5, 6-3. In the semis, Bardales took a set off of (1) Leon Polychroniadis before eating a breadstick in the decider. On the other side, Alexander Riemann came up on the short end of a tight all-German semi against Cananis 7-6(8), 6-4. That left the final between #1 and #2, and try as he might (2) Renke Cananis couldn't pull off the upset. Polychroniadis claims his 8th Masters Shield, 7-6(6), 4-6, 6-3. The Greek world no. 1 relentlessly attacked when returning second serves, and that proved to be the difference. Neither Polychroniadis or Cananis are particularly clay-focused; in fact neither has as much as a 30% focus on the surface. It looks like they're just that much better than everyone else. Bardales is in kind of a tough spot trying to move up into the Top 4. He's chosen to defend his Barcelona title next week, but that'll make him just that much more fatigued moving into Rome and Madrid. It looks like everyone else is just playing for getting far enough into the big events to lose to one of the top two players at this point other than the odd possible upset here or there. Elsewhere ... Sushant Srivastava had his first outing in a while, falling in the quarterfinals in both singles and doubles at Tunisia F3. Just ran into a player who is on the downside coming through and doesn't play much it looked like, a bad matchup. That happens a fair bit at this level. Amusingly Srivastava has only one result better than this; an out-of-left-field title at a futures in Luxembourg several months ago. It's probably going to hurt when that drops off, but he edges up slightly to a new career-best of 808th in singles with this result. When we get to Rome, Raychaudhari will have played his first juniors event. As he's starting from absolute zero (0 skill, 0 service, 0 doubles) it's going to take him some time to build up. This week Manoj Datar is playing both singles and doubles at Barcelona, because apparently he thought that it was smart for a player barely ranked in the Top 500 to play a 500-level event. I don't think he understands what that 500 next to the tournament name means . Last edited by Brian Swartz : 08-16-2022 at 01:14 PM.