Wroclaw Challenger Monday Report
My trip to Wroclaw started with the flight from Bergamo: Nedovyesov, recent finalist at Bergamo Challenger was on the same flight. I had a quick chat with him but he didn’t look in the mood for an interview, just replying “Ok” so I let him alone after a couple of minutes together.
The Wroclaw main venue (Orbita) is big (spectators are pretty distant from the court) and the attendance was good, some hundreds people. Entrance is free.
I met as planned the best tennis storyteller you could ever meet, Nathii and watched with her a few matches.
Huta Galung def. Bachinger 61 67 63
I arrived at the venue just for the last couple of games, where Huta tried to choke several times but Bachinger was too erratic and very unhappy with his performance, throwing the racquet after almost every rally. I could notice quite a big difference between this surface speed and that in Bergamo. Here serve is not gifting so many easy points as in the last italian challenger so we will see a lot of rallies despite being indoors.
Berrer def. Michon 46 62 63
I watched Michon last week and he was solid from baseline so I expected him to give some trouble to the obvious favourite Berrer. In the first set Michon managed to play very deep and didn’t allow Berrer to attack him: he won the set thanks to a truly bad serve game by the german. Berrer showed that he isn’t here on holiday, he became more aggressive and could take the second set very easily. First two sets were very quick, with just a couple of games that went to deuce.
In the beginning of third set both players lost focus on serve and surprisingly there were 3 breaks in the first 3 games. Despite being a break down, Berrer was still fighting, fist pumping and complaining with the umpire especially for a couple of overrules. From the middle of the set you understood why Michon has the ranking that he has, he started playing very short and he hit some very slow second serves (as you can see in the video below).
Berrer was just waiting for his opponent to choke and took the match with a powerful smash.
Kapas def. Delic 64 62
Good chance for Delic in this match as in this tournament with high prize-money had to face a local wild card, ranked outside top 400. Kapas had the support of the public and of his strong serve throughout the match but he had not to do anything special to take the win. Delic started complaining about the court conditions after a few rallies and played the whole match with a bad attitude, he looked ready to tank already in the middle of first set. As soon as Kapas managed to break him, the match virtually ended: Delic kept hitting serial unforced errors and got broken twice in the second set (once to 0). I really don’t understand how players that have to fight at every round to economically survive at this level can play with such a terrible attitude and lack of fighting spirit. However I give merit to Kapas that played a solid match and didn’t let Delic come back in the match.
I was told that in the other venue of the tournament courts are quicker than here so today I will go to watch a couple of match there and let you know.
Today Michał Przysiężny turned 31 and polish journalists prepared for him a funny cake in the press room.
Brescia Challenger Wednesday Report
I arrived at the tournament venue just in time to follow the first match: yesterday I forgot to mention that I really liked the venue even if I have been only in the main one (doubles and quali have been played in another venue).
Marti def. Licciardi 75 76
Marti was not in his best shape and missed a lot during the whole match while Licciardi tried his best but he was clearly not at the same level of the swiss. Generally this kind of matches ends with a close first set won by the better player and a pretty easy second one: history was repeating until 75 53 then Marti had a terrible black-out and went 75 *56 0-30. A player with killer instinct would have put a lot of pressure on Marti but Licciardi didn’t, hitting some unforced errors and in the tiebreak Marti regrouped. Licciardi is currently coached by Renzo Furlan, former ATP top 20 and now working within Italian Tennis Federation, I appreciated his attitude on court and I know he is working hard to improve his ranking.
Krajicek def. Delic 76 76
My dark horse for the tournament showed again that he wants it, oh yes he really wants it.
Krajcek was really unreturnable as he lost just 9 points on serve, especially when serving from left Delic couldn’t do anything. I expected a worse performance from the croat but he played quite decently.
In the end this has been a sort of servefest (18 – 17 Aces) but Krajicek kept calm and positive while Delic got angry quite often especially for calls on Austin’s serves: I have to say that on a fast surface it is really not easy to be a line judge.
A 76 76 result could look like a sort of lottery but I was pretty sure Krajicek would have won both tiebreaks.
Dustov def. Kavcic 64 36 76
Kavcic had a quite terrible start (first official match after US Open 3rd round walkover) and Dustov took advantage outpowering the slovenian. First set was one way (Dustov could have broken at least one more time) but in the end of the set Kavcic became more solid. Dustov started the second set looking more and more tired (coming from a long week in Bratislava) and got broken for 64 13: after that break everything was pointing to a Kavcic’s win in 3 sets. I even thought that Dustov could have started tanking but in fact even if tired he hanged on his serve (3 aces Set 1 – 2 Aces set 2 – 10 Aces set 3) and he managed to win the tiebreak probably because more used than Kavcic playing big points recently.
Not a bad comeback on tour for the slovenian, he fought a lot but after 2 months of inactivity it is not easy to play a long and close match.
Dustov showed the most powerful baseline shots in these two days but I am not sure he can have a long run also here after Bratislava final.
Artunedo Martinavarr def. Travaglia 64 62
Both players have to be admired because they managed to come back on tour after terrible injuries (especially Stefano’s one). I was looking forward to watch Travaglia because he is at his best ranking and still quite young (22 yo) so I was excited to look his progresses.
The match started with Travaglia serving 0-40 and that was a clear sign about what was waiting for me. The support of the crowd was decent at the beginning but after a few games Steto started having a pretty bad attitude on court so in the end he didn’t deserve a big help.
There is not so much to say about the match because Artunedo was extremely solid while Travaglia was terrible: he got very angry for a bad call (ace Artunedo on *5-4 30-0 1st set) and shouted “It’s my fault, I should have not come here”. Well, this sentence represented exactly his feelings: he played like he didn’t want to be there.
I don’t know if this was just a bad day in the office for him but I was really disappointed by his performance: of course I am not a coach but in my opinion Travaglia has to work on attitude, shot selection, patience and backhand. It’s really a shame watching him in these conditions as he surely has a way better potential and I am sure that with the right help he can reach the top 100.
If you look at stats, Artunedo could seem a serve bot (27/28 1st serve & 9/12 2nd serve) but his serve is not so effective.
I have been really impressed by the spaniard defensive skills, he always obliged Travaglia to hit one more shot and Travaglia often missed it. I think that Dustov could outpower him tomorrow but in case the uzbek will not be 100% fit the spaniard could have his chances because he is really a big fighter.
I hope you enjoyed my reports and live tweeting, I am planning to attend more and more tournaments in the future.
Special thanks to Brescia Challenger organizers: it has been a pleasure for me to be there, I really hope to come back next year for the second edition of the tournament.
Last but not least the blog owner with Seppi, he could not play but was on the stands.
I am looking for contributors for ITF/Challenger reports (we can discuss about the reward), if you are interested just write a comment and I will contact you.
I should be able to offer some reports from the Zawada ITF starting this weekend, thanks in advance to my dear friend Nathii for the help.
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