Americas in the Spring 2013 #2

The second round of the Challenger in San Luis Potosi had Greg facing the No. 4 seed, the veteran Swiss, 31 year-old Marco Chiudinelli, from Basel in Switzerland, where he grew up with the maestro Roger Federer. The two players were good friends during their formative years and still are good mates. Currently ranked 151, Chiudinelli has a high ranking of 52, some 51 places above his good mates' best rank, and winnings of just $1.7 million compared to Roger's $71 million! Good on all surfaces Chiudinelli will be a tough match for Greg.

San Luis Potosi street scene

Playing with the "non-pressurised" balls it was Chiudinelli who served first. Greg says the balls are harder to control, as they do not take spin as well as the normally aspirated balls, so the 1st serve percentage is normally less and it is hard to kick the 2nd serve. The result is if you hit a 1st serve you normally win the point and the second serve gives the opponent a good look at the balland he normally wins the point, and double faults happen more often.
Both players started well but at 2-1 up Chiudinelli forced Greg to break point. Greg saved but then immediately faced another break point and lost that serve to go 1-3 down. He was unable to make any in-roads into Chiudinelli's serve and games went with serve to 6-3, with Chiudinelli pouching the first set.

San Luis Potosi at night

With Greg serving first in the second set, he held serve and the had Chiudinelli facing break point but Chiudinelli recovered and held serve, games then going to 2-2. Chiudinelli then broke Greg and held serve to go to a 4-2 lead. Things were not looking good for Greg but he dug deep and held serve and then, on the back of two double faults by Chiudinelli, he broke back and levelled the score at 4-4. Chiudinelli hit straight back and immediately had Greg facing three break points, converting to again go a break up at 5-4, and serve for the match. Greg repeated the dose though, denying Chiudinelli and breaking him again to level at 5-5. But in a see-sawing set, Chiudinelli got Greg to 15-40. Greg saved those and got to deuce, and had a game point, but Chiudinelli denied him and then broke Greg to lead 6-5, and again serve for the match. Greg was still not done and, in a break-a-thon, he again broke Chiudinelli and levelled the score at 6-6, taking the set into the tie-breaker.

Marco Chiudinelli

Greg was first to gain the advantage in the tie-break, with Chiudinelli serving a double fault to go 1-2 down, then Greg serving two 1st serves to take the score to 4-1. Then Chiudinelli served another double fault, for Greg to lead 5-1, then held for 5-2. Greg served another 1st serve to lead 6-2, and have four set points, the 1st on his serve. He missed the first serve and Chiudinelli pounced on the second serve, getting a break back at 3-6, then serving well to get to 4-6, then 5-6. Greg still had a set point on his serve but, again on a second serve, Chiudinelli denied him levelling the score at 6-6. After they changed ends Chiudinelli broke Greg again to take the advantage, and a match point at 7-6. A good serve saw him win his 6th point in a row and snaffle the set from Greg, winning the match 6-3, 7-6.
Greg was annoyed that he could not serve out the set, that he did not get the luck to take the match to a third set but conceded that he had some luck in getting to the tie-break. It would have been a great opportunity for Greg but given his recent bout of flu and resulting level of fitness, he in all likelyhood would have battled to win the match in the 3rd set.
Greg did not make the cut for the doubles so he and Dave Bidmeade will now head for Leon in Mexico for the next tournament, where Greg will have to play through the qualifying rounds to get into the tournament.