Knoxville Racquet Club was the venue for the next Challenger tournament, played indoors. Greg's opening round opponent was former American player 28 year old Amer Delic, now playing under the Bosnian flag. A top 100 player with a high ranking of 60, Delic had been off through injury for 5 months through the mid part of the year. His ranking has dropped to 782 and is on the come-back trail, so watch out Greg. A big game player, the courts would suit Delic, as they would Greg, so long points would not be the norm.
Greg served first and at 3-2 up it was he who brought up the first break-point opportunity at 15-40 on Delic's serve. Two aces later by Delic and the score was back to deuce. Greg won the next point to have another chance but Delic again served a big serve and won the point, then levelled the match at 3-3. At 4-4 Greg was serving at 30-all when Delic shanked a return and Greg was unable to deal with it effectively, just putting the spinning ball into court and allowing Delic to easily past him, bringing up break point. Greg served and volleyed the next point only to see another shanked forehand pop over his head and land in court, converting the break, with Delic going up 5-4. A little bit of luck either way, good or bad, makes the difference in some of these matches.
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| Bosnian Amer Delic |
The second set was another close affair, serves dominating and games going with serve to 5-4, Greg leading. Greg then brought up set-point on Delic's serve but another massive serve closed out that opportunity. On Greg's next serve he missed a couple of first serves and Delic used the opportunity to take the game to Greg and get him to 0-30. Another good point from Delic and Greg faced three break-points. He saved two to get to 30-40 but could not win the 3rd point, Delic breaking to go 6-5 up. Greg tried to fight back but could only get to 40-30 and Delic converted the match point to win the set 7-5 and the match 6-4, 7-5.
Another close loss against a top player for Greg. He said he had played well but was frustrated again by some of the points which could have gone either way and made the difference between winning and losing.
Greg had six break-point opportunites on Delic's serve and was not able to convert any. Delic only created two break-point opportunies on Greg's serve and was able to convert both. Delic played the big points better and that was the essential difference in the match
Greg unfortunately did not get into the doubles event, which had a very low entry cut-off, so will have a day off before preparing for the next tournament in Champaign, Illinois.
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