Week 7: Rotterdam [Boros], Brazil [Altman], San Jose [Murdoch], Bergamo [Cobos]

[Simon]

Smeltz the king of losing the first set but still winning.

 

[vic_orthdox]

Rivers runs red with Burgundy's blood.

 

[Magrat Garlick]

Rivers runs red with Burgundy's blood.

14th-century jokes ftw...

 

[Magrat Garlick]

Internazionali di Tennis di Bergamo
Day 3 - Second Round singles - Bergamo

Men's singles: Seeds - Finals - Quarter 1 - Quarter 2 - Quarter 3 - Quarter 4

Serve champion Marcuss Deane and Indian Leander Solent went head-to-head in a clash where breaks of serve were a rarity. Twenty points went against serve in the first set, of a total of 76; two of those fell in the tie-breaker, where Deane got off to a bad start and visibily tightened up. Trailing by a set, Deane rallied to a 3-0-lead, but was pegged back to 4-4 before breaking Solent again to take a 6-5-lead and serve home. In the third set, it was back to business as usual, with only one break point which Deane saved thanks to Solent putting a relatively simple return in the net. Deane earned a mini-break early on, but again failed to close things out, as Solent served one ace and provided a forehand winner to turn the breaker around to 7-6. Deane had a decent second serve, but Solent kept the ball in play and eventually triumphed as Deane whiffed a backhand wide to lose 6-7(3) 7-5 6-7(6).

Solent will face the CWLand Democratic Republic's sole representative, Matt Bre who overcame a slow start to dominate the encounter with Stefan Vicini. Two uninteresting final sets, where Vicini was clearly short of class against the World No. 97, meant the match ended in 4-6 6-1 6-1.

Pierre Rose was not quite so lucky as he fought the odds against second-seed Néstor Moreno, who has decided on an early trip over to Europe instead of chasing ATP points in the South American heat. Rose started well in the match, holding serve easily, but failed to threaten the Ecuadorian significantly on his serve. That was to become his undoing, as a couple of first service errors was pounced upon with the score 5-all, and Moreno triumphed 7-5. In the second set, Moreno was buoyed by the triumph, and broke Rose's serve again in the fourth game. From then on, the set stayed with serve, and Moreno went through in straight sets 7-5 6-4.

Finally, qualifier Jack Loughman celebrated one of his more notable victories of his so far short career when he completed a tug of war with Rick Langley, who looked slightly overconfident as he took the court. Loughman ran out to a 4-1-lead with two early breaks, and despite surrendering one, he held on to the first set. Langley was given a lifeline when Loughman started the second set with a few double faults, but with the score 5-3 Langley had three break points against and it looked like Loughman would come back into the match. Langley then won five points in a row to secure the set and the three-digit crowd assembled thought the match was all but over. However, Loughman looked nothing but dejected as he came back onto the court for the third set, blistering forehand returns all over the court and staying with Langley until 4-4. Once again Loughman got two break points in a key situation, but this time guessed right as Langley served down the middle, and with Langley fluffing a forehand into the net it was the upstart who could celebrate after taking the match 6-4 3-6 6-4.

12th seed Guilermo Crespo continued his charge through the draw, failing to drop a game against tired wildcard player Dino Abondio, while Moreno is left as the only seed in the fourth quarter as both 6th seed Pablo Scalforo and 10th seed Felipe Pelayo bowed out in straight sets.

Day 3 - First Round doubles - Bergamo
Men's doubles: Finals

Doubles action began today with six matches, but there was yet more heartbreak for CWLand as Rick Langley and Pierre Rose were swept aside by fiery locals Ciano and Vicini. Rose looked particularly tired after the morning's encounter with the No. 2 seed, and gave up two breaks of serve in a 5-7 3-6 defeat.

In other action, David Lebègue teamed up with Henri Ducard to make up for his shock defeat yesterday. A solid performance resulted in a comfortable 6-2 6-2 win over the highly ranked Swedish pair Johan Engström and Erik Viksten

 

[Mister Wright]

Always good to get through the first round...

 

[roseboy64]

 

[Paid The Umpire]

Got to love being over confident. Serves me right.

Next time gadget. Next time!

 

[Number 11]

Can't get past the first round of a tournament yet.

 

[Luffers]

What a win! Brilliant! Hoping to make the quarters now!!

 

[Luffers]

Just seen I'm playing the #1 seed. Just great!!

 

[Jarquis]

 

[SirBloody Idiot]

Brasil Open
2nd Round - Costa do Sauípe (Brazil)

Men's singles (Seeds - Finals - Top Half - Bottom Half)
Men's doubles (Seeds - Draw)

• Second seed Randy Smeltz has survived another tough clash in Brazil to advance to the quarter finals of the Brasil Open. Much like the first round, Smeltz's opponent has not lived up to his talent; Johan Ortiz was seeded 20 back at the first Australian Open. That showed early, too, as he managed to match and even best the East CWLander to bring up two break points at 2-2 in the first set. Smeltz, however, fought both off and then broke service in the very next game to set up what was ultimately a set-winning lead. But after finally breaking through to win a first set, Smeltz was set back early as a double fault handed Ortiz three break points. This time he succeeded, but after a long rally involving twenty-eight shots Smeltz broke back immediately to level the match at a set each. In seventy-eight minutes, Ortiz finally managed to come back from his earlier missed opportunity to send the match to a deciding third as he slammed a forehand down the line and just caught the chalk. The third set was every bit as intense as the second as both players looked nervous on the trigger and instead waged wars of attrition. Both broke serve twice each to be 5-5, before Smeltz forced Ortiz to serve to stay in the match. He could not, though, as the world No. 16 edged a fantastic battle 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 to set up a quarter final against Spain's Javier Villaneuva. Villaneuva came from a set down to upset seventh seed and Santiago champion Sergio Joaquín 4-6, 7-6(2), 6-1 to snap his streak of wins at six.

• Meanwhile, Jarkko Maxum picked up one of the biggest victories of his career with a three-set upset of in form Italian Antonio Bachunelli. The fourth seed came in on the back of a near-miss against local no name Diogo Santo, but was expected to advance at the expense of the East CWLander whose form is iffy at the moment. Nevertheless, Maxum took the game right to Bachunelli and managed to snare the first set with an expertly constructed point that ended with an easy put away volley. Nevertheless, Bachunelli continued to plug away at the unseeded Easterner and in a quick second set looked to have taken all of the momentum heading into the decider. But disaster struck as he gave up a 40-15 lead in his second service game to allow Maxum to claim five points in a row to set up a 3-1 lead. That proved too much for Bachunelli to reign in - particularly when it became 5-1 two games later - as Maxum advanced 6-4, 2-6, 6-2. He will face Luxembourg's Oliver Engel who eased past Oleg Puder 7-6(2), 6-3.

• A finalist last week in Santiago, Kasper Buur moved further into the Costa do Sauípe draw with a 6-3, 6-3 win over eighth seed János Varga. The Hungarian had escaped with a win in the first round, but looked sub par against the Danish player who continued his raging form with a straight sets win.

• Seeded players out:
  
  Antonio Bachunelli;
  
  János Varga.

 

[Simon]

Good result for Smeltz there, is looking pretty well place in this tournament.

 

[SirBloody Idiot]

SAP Open
2nd Round - San Jose, CA (United States)

Men's singles (Seeds - Finals - Top Half - Bottom Half)
Men's doubles (Seeds - Draw)

• Unseeded CWLander Scotland Rivers will get his chance to avenge his Chennai semi final loss against Davis Kennedy after winning through to the quarter finals with a 6-0, 6-2 thrashing of Waylon Jones. The American, who won the Carson Challenger a fortnight ago, was a big step down from Henry Charles for Rivers, but a dangerous matchup in any event after a first round win over Finland's Lari Färkkilä. But it has taken top twenty players to stop Rivers this year, and Jones clearly was not one of them as the West CWLand continued his fantastic run of form with a dominant straight sets win. His best career performance came in a run to the semi finals of Chennai, and he will get a chance tomorrow to get back at Canadian fifth seed Davis Kennedy who beat him there. Kennedy was made to scrap in his second round match, but ultimately did just enough to beat Israel's Tal Cohen 6-1, 6-7(7), 7-6(3).

• In other results, eighth seed Jason Bradley was ousted in three sets by defending champion Wayne Boyd. Not seeded, Boyd came from a set down to beat his compatriot 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 and to help keep his chances of going back-to-back alive. In the bottom half, Zagreb semi finalist Aksu Emrem had his recent good form come to a skidding halt as he was upset 6-2, 7-6(2) by qualifier Oliver Thursfield.

• Seeded players out:
  
  Jason Bradley.

• The one big upset in the doubles draw saw fourth seeds Ashim & Seby Kumar fail to back up their semi final appearance last week in Johannesburg as they were stunned 6-4, 6-3 by wildcards Dean Delgado & Andrew Madera. In the biggest match, top seeds Hugh James & Ralph Robinson were too good on Centre Court as they beat Eric Henson & Davis Kennedy 6-3, 6-3.

• Seeded players out:
  
  Ashim Kumar &
  
  Seby Kumar.

 

[SirBloody Idiot]

ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament
2nd Round - Rotterdam (The Netherlands)

Men's singles (Seeds - Finals - Top Half - Bottom Half)
Men's doubles (Seeds - Draw)

• Seventh seed Jojo Mustard was part of the seeded field that all made it to the final eight in Rotterdam with a tight three-set win over the Czech Republic's Petr Brožik. The 26-year old Czech player needed a good start but did not get it as an aggressive clinical Mustard made the most of all his opportunities in contrast to Brožik's waywardness. But after dropping the first set, Brožik steadied and started to fire his weapons to put the pressure back on Mustard. One criticism of Mustard is his serving under pressure, and the two double faults in the sixth game to hand Brožik the break showed just why he's ranked about 30 in the world. Nevertheless, he managed to regain some confidence in the decider and began to put away all the shots he needed to as the West CWLander escaped with a 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 victory. He'll need to vastly improve in the next round as he faces second seed and quality returner József Boros who eased past Cameron van der Cleer 6-2, 6-0.

• In the match of the day, third seed Rasmus Olesen was able to outlast Russia's Dmitry Orlov in a match full of missed opportunities for the Russian. Orlov had five set points in the first set tiebreaker, but was ultimately outgunned by Olesen 14-12 who went on to drop the second set 3-6. That should have been it for Orlov, but his failure to capitalise on his first set opportunities hurt him as the Dane won 7-6(12), 3-6, 6-2. He'll face fifth seed Zoltán Varga who beat the returning Maarten Berg 6-1, 6-3. Top seed Radivoj Daneu looks in ominous form after his fifty minute exhibition against Taavi Aleksejev that saw him win 6-0, 6-0.

• Seeded players out: None.

• Jojo Mustard and partner Danijel Micic made a winning start to their Rotterdam campaign with a 6-0, 6-4 thrashing of Mikel Fosdike & Christian Mary. Mustard, who needed to bounce back from a Davis Cup disappointment last weekend, came out looking determined to get back on the winners list and with a quality - if not tempramental - player in his corner got the chance to do so in straight sets. The test for he and his Serbian partner increases tomorrow as they face Andrej Konc & Evgeny Maximov as well as their respective singles quarter finals.

• Elsewhere, Roman Dorogan & Tom Vollan were too good for Gai Kai & Lu Xun as they won 6-2, 2-6, (11-9).

• Seeded players out:
  
  Gai Kai &
  
  Lu Xun.

 

[vic_orthdox]

Just in case you were wondering. **** yeah.

 

[Mister Wright]

Happy to be through to the QFs. Also, good to see my new doubles combination fire pretty well in the first round.

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

Also, good to see my new doubles combination fire pretty well in the first round.

Don't get too used to him. I'll get jealous.

 

[luffy]

Have to win this tournament, no excuses.

 

[SirBloody Idiot]

Brasil Open
Quarter Finals - Costa do Sauípe (Brazil)

Men's singles (Seeds - Finals - Top Half - Bottom Half)
Men's doubles (Seeds - Draw)

• Whilst he might not be getting any easy matches, second seed Randy Smeltz continues to do enough as he overcame yet another slow start to beat Spain's Javier Villaneuva. Villaneuva, who upset Santiago champion Sergio Joaquín in the second round, started strongly against the World No. 16 and with some good returning managed to break the first set wide open at 4-1. Smeltz managed to scrap back to 4-4, but failed to press his advantage as the Spaniard held on to take the first set with a swinging backhand across court. Smeltz needed a quicker start in the second set, and this time got it as he worked the ball around to earn a break of service straight away. That proved enough as he clung on to his own serve with some economical hitting to level the match at a set each. The game seemed to be won there for him as Villaneuva was outgunned in rallies by his older and stronger opponent who gathered steam and surged into the semi finals 4-6, 6-4, 6-1. His opponent in the semi will be third seed Diego Hurtado, but it might very well have been Kasper Buur had he not blown a massive opportunity. After last week making the final in Santiago, Buur brought up two match points at 5-2 in the third set but was thwarted by some typically powerful forehand winners from Hurtado. The missed opportunities were telling as the sensational Colombian dropped just four more points as he ran away with a 6-4, 6-7(4), 7-5 win.

• The other East CWLander in quarter final action, Jarkko Maxum, was not as impressive as anyone in the bottom half as he was smashed by Luxembourg's Oliver Engel. The rapidly rising Luxembourgish player proved too good for Maxum as he moved to his second semi final of the year; picking up a 6-2, 6-3 victory in decisive style. Maxum, who picked up one of the most impressive wins of his career in the second round, would be bitterly disappointed as he was unable to make any real inroads against the strong serve of Engel. Meanwhile, Engel made the most of some ordinary serving from Maxum to break three times during the match and to bring up another nine opportunities to advance in straight sets. He now faces top seed Illya Altman who survived a slight scare against Niko Ulemek to win 6-3, 4-6, 6-3.

• Seeded players out: None.