Greg's first round singles match in Bangkok was supposed to be played on Tuesday afternoon but some long matches before forced his match to be postponed to the next day. So on Wednesday Greg was off bright and early against up and coming Taiwan player, 20 year old Liang-Chi Huang, currently at his highest ranking of 429 and no doubt keen to improve that. Greg will have other ideas about that.
On a hot, humid day Huang led off the match and was made to fight for the first game but held on to his serve to open the score. Greg followed suit and games went uneventfully with serve, even though Greg was serving at below 50%, to 4-4. Huang then held to go ahead 5-4 and put the pressure on Greg to hold his serve. Greg had game point at 40-30 but Huang won the next two points bringing up the first break point of the set and a set point at that. Greg was feeling the pressure and a double fault gifted the set to Huang 6-4.
After a long comfort break between sets, Greg set about righting the ship and immediately attacked Huang's serve, breaking him and going 1-0 up. Greg was forced to save a break-point on his next serve before consolidating the break and go 2-0 up. Greg's serve was up in the 70%'s and the score reflected that stat, Greg holding easily to get to 5-3 and then serve out the set 6-3, levelling the match and taking it into a 3rd set.
With Huang again serving first, Greg got the early advantage at 1-1, breaking Huang to go 2-1 up. But he did not reckon on Huang's fighting qualities and Huang immediately had Greg, serving with old balls, at 15-40 and then broke Greg to level the score at 2-2. Huang strung together four games in a row, breaking Greg again, this time serving with the new balls, to take a stranglehold on the match at 5-3. Greg saved one match point but was unable to deny Huang the win, losing a close match, again, 4-6, 6-4, 3-6.
Greg will not be happy with that result in his first match back after some hard training, and will need to improve in the week's to come and work his way back into form. That match will not do much for his confidence. The surprising thing is that his service stats were good in the 3rd set, at over 65%, but he only won 45% of those first serves. Greg said that Huang was returning well, and just started teeing off and riding his luck with nothing to lose at a break down. His luck held and he turned the match around.
Huang won his next match 6-1, 6-1, showing that Greg had performed well against a good player.
On a hot, humid day Huang led off the match and was made to fight for the first game but held on to his serve to open the score. Greg followed suit and games went uneventfully with serve, even though Greg was serving at below 50%, to 4-4. Huang then held to go ahead 5-4 and put the pressure on Greg to hold his serve. Greg had game point at 40-30 but Huang won the next two points bringing up the first break point of the set and a set point at that. Greg was feeling the pressure and a double fault gifted the set to Huang 6-4.
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| Liang-Chi Huang |
With Huang again serving first, Greg got the early advantage at 1-1, breaking Huang to go 2-1 up. But he did not reckon on Huang's fighting qualities and Huang immediately had Greg, serving with old balls, at 15-40 and then broke Greg to level the score at 2-2. Huang strung together four games in a row, breaking Greg again, this time serving with the new balls, to take a stranglehold on the match at 5-3. Greg saved one match point but was unable to deny Huang the win, losing a close match, again, 4-6, 6-4, 3-6.
Greg will not be happy with that result in his first match back after some hard training, and will need to improve in the week's to come and work his way back into form. That match will not do much for his confidence. The surprising thing is that his service stats were good in the 3rd set, at over 65%, but he only won 45% of those first serves. Greg said that Huang was returning well, and just started teeing off and riding his luck with nothing to lose at a break down. His luck held and he turned the match around.
Huang won his next match 6-1, 6-1, showing that Greg had performed well against a good player.
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