Front Office Football Central - View Single Post

Brian Swartz · 06-04-2019, 07:24 PM

Paris Masters

The headline was no surprise on the last Masters of the year, as John Hart put himself in a strong position to claim the YE #1 with his fourth straight title here. To win that many of anything in a row is most impressive, and a moment should be taken to savor the Irishman's achievement.

Now go away :P.

Srba Dogic continued his strong finish and proved that he's not just a one-trick pony. He beat crowd favorite and 9-seed Emilien Mathou, then 2nd-ranked Nicolas Perez, then Mike Rhodes, who reached the SF here for a second straight year, and then blanked Hart in a first-set TB in the final before fading meekly over the last two sets. That's a pretty impressive group of players. With this result, it's hard to see Dogic dropping out of the Top 4 for a while. The second half of this year he's really established himself as a rising force.

Barry Molyneaux was the other semifinalist, also pushing Hart to the distance, while Hughes, de Jong, and unseeded Harald Balzer who refuses to accept that it's over for him bowed out in the quarterfinals. A raft of would-be stars left earlier than that, many to unimpressive competition but some to the top players as well. Other than Dogic though, it wasn't a big week for the younger generation. Romanian qualifer Stanislav Dobos, currently 25 and already pretty much at his peak, surprised by knocking out Aviles and reaching the third round.

Amrik Kasaravalli suffered his third first-round Masters exit of the year to qualifier Algot Hakanson(SWE), 6-7(3), 6-3, 6-3. It was not entirely surprising given the surface, but once again it's a winnable match that he needed. Sushant Chiba narrowly avoided the same fate, splitting a pair of tiebreaks with Hakanson in the next round before a very tight 7-6(5), 6-7(2), 7-5 defeat to Molyneaux. If he'd pulled that off, Balzer would have been next Chiba could well have made the semis. That would have been something, but he fell a bit short.

Elsewhere ...

The young power couple entered CH2 Sao Leopoldo in Brazil, one of four tournaments at that level. It was an epic fail for Satyagit Guha, dropping his first qualifying match while in doubles they won the first set, lost a close second-set tiebreak, then lost the super TB 10-5 against the 3-seeds. Could have gone as far as the final probably if they pulled out that win. Nasir Chittoor cruised to the semifinals, where he pulled an upset of 2-seed Aleksander Boltanski(POL) out of his arse. He was a little better-prepped for it, but won only 29% of his return points compared to 37%, was 2 of 4 on BP compared to 3 of 15 for his opponent. 7-6(3), 3-6, 6-4 was the scoreline. Rarely is a win so clearly undeserved. Of course I'm not complaining in the slightest. Well-known Anilophile and defending home champion Joao Narcisco ensured he wouldn't get his first challenger title in this way, stopping Nasir in a straight-sets final.

06-04-2019, 07:24 PM	#1041
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	Paris Masters The headline was no surprise on the last Masters of the year, as John Hart put himself in a strong position to claim the YE #1 with his fourth straight title here. To win that many of anything in a row is most impressive, and a moment should be taken to savor the Irishman's achievement. Now go away :P. Srba Dogic continued his strong finish and proved that he's not just a one-trick pony. He beat crowd favorite and 9-seed Emilien Mathou, then 2nd-ranked Nicolas Perez, then Mike Rhodes, who reached the SF here for a second straight year, and then blanked Hart in a first-set TB in the final before fading meekly over the last two sets. That's a pretty impressive group of players. With this result, it's hard to see Dogic dropping out of the Top 4 for a while. The second half of this year he's really established himself as a rising force. Barry Molyneaux was the other semifinalist, also pushing Hart to the distance, while Hughes, de Jong, and unseeded Harald Balzer who refuses to accept that it's over for him bowed out in the quarterfinals. A raft of would-be stars left earlier than that, many to unimpressive competition but some to the top players as well. Other than Dogic though, it wasn't a big week for the younger generation. Romanian qualifer Stanislav Dobos, currently 25 and already pretty much at his peak, surprised by knocking out Aviles and reaching the third round. Amrik Kasaravalli suffered his third first-round Masters exit of the year to qualifier Algot Hakanson(SWE), 6-7(3), 6-3, 6-3. It was not entirely surprising given the surface, but once again it's a winnable match that he needed. Sushant Chiba narrowly avoided the same fate, splitting a pair of tiebreaks with Hakanson in the next round before a very tight 7-6(5), 6-7(2), 7-5 defeat to Molyneaux. If he'd pulled that off, Balzer would have been next Chiba could well have made the semis. That would have been something, but he fell a bit short. Elsewhere ... The young power couple entered CH2 Sao Leopoldo in Brazil, one of four tournaments at that level. It was an epic fail for Satyagit Guha, dropping his first qualifying match while in doubles they won the first set, lost a close second-set tiebreak, then lost the super TB 10-5 against the 3-seeds. Could have gone as far as the final probably if they pulled out that win. Nasir Chittoor cruised to the semifinals, where he pulled an upset of 2-seed Aleksander Boltanski(POL) out of his arse. He was a little better-prepped for it, but won only 29% of his return points compared to 37%, was 2 of 4 on BP compared to 3 of 15 for his opponent. 7-6(3), 3-6, 6-4 was the scoreline. Rarely is a win so clearly undeserved. Of course I'm not complaining in the slightest. Well-known Anilophile and defending home champion Joao Narcisco ensured he wouldn't get his first challenger title in this way, stopping Nasir in a straight-sets final.