Americas in the Spring 2013 #8

Greg spent the last week in Jacksonville, Florida, training with Dave and getting coaching from Todd Martin. Good mate and pro-tour player American Greg Oulette, who lives a couple of hours away, joined them for a hit on a few of the days. Both Gregs were on the alternate list for the next tournament, a $50k Challenger in Tallahassee in Florida, on green clay. Jonesie was the 3rd alternate but he unfortunately just missed out of the Main Draw this time and was the No.1 seed in the qualifying tournament. Tough luck this time.

The green clay Centre Court

Virtue of the draw and his seeding, Greg had a bye through the 1st round and so did not have to play on Saturday. His 2nd round match was against a Wild Card entrant, 25 year-old Artiom Podgainii, from the Republic of Moldova, who is a collegiate player, originally with the University of Tallahassee, who is unranked in the ATP ranking and has never won a Pro-tour main draw match, so on paper a fortunate draw for Greg.

With Podgainii serving first it was Greg who took the iniative, breaking Podgainii in the service game, then holding serve and breaking Podgainii again, to go to a double break 3-0 lead. Greg consolidated his lead, holding serve for 4-0.After that Greg turned off the after-burners and let the match take it's course, Podgainii holding serve twice to get to 2-5, before Greg served out the set 6-2, without facing a break-point in the set.

Collegiate player Artiom Podgainii

Podgainii started the second set well, holding his serve to lead 1-0  and the had Greg facing a break-point. Greg was in danger of losing concentration and giving his opponent a chance to recover, but he rallied to hold his serve and level the score at 1-1. Greg continued the rally as he broke Podgainii in the nex game to lead 2-1, then 3-1. Greg was cruising though and was forced to face six break-points in total in the second set but was able to save them comfortably, taking the socre to to 4-2. He then broke Podgainii for the second time in the set to lead 5-2, then served out the set, winning the match 6-2, 6-2.
Greg said it was comfortable match in which he was not stretched and although his 1st serve percentage was in the low 50%s he won a high percentage of his serves, winning 16 of 19 points on his serve in the first set. So, an easy start for Greg, who no doubt will face a lot tougher opponent in the final round of qualifying. One match down, one match to go to qualify.