Greg and David decided to play the last Challenger Tournament in Mexico City even though Greg had not entered, as he thought his chances of winning were better here than in the Sarasota Tournament. He had not planned on playing Mexico City so had not entered, and therefore had to go through qualifying, though he would have made the Main Draw cut if he had entered. At an outside chance, as the highest ranked player to sign in for qualifying, there was a chance Greg may move up into the main draw if a main draw player withdrew after the qualifying sign-in commenced. Not sure of the exact rule but Greg was lucky and a player did withdraw (Aussie Sam Groth I think) and Greg took his place in the main draw, so did not have to play qualifying.
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| View of Mexico City |
Greg also snuck into the double draw, playing with Aussie Matt Barton, as the last acceptance, so lets hope his luck continues this week. On the health side it was a different story as Greg was afflicted with yet another lurgy, this time chronic diarrhoea, and it was touch and go whether he would recover enough to take the court. Again luckily he was not scheduled to play his singles on Monday, but did have to play in the doubles.
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| Taipei's Hsin-Han Lee |
The first round opponents for the doubles was the unseeded Taipei pairing of 24 year-old Hsin-Han Lee and 23 year-old Hsien-Yin Peng. Lee has a very good rank of 102 in doubles, whilst Peng is a creditable 167, although both players are ranked worse than 850 in singles.
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| Hsien-Yin Peng |
In the sudden death deuce format, both teams faced five break points in the first set and, whilst Greg and Matt could not get the decisive break, Lee and Peng managed to snaffle a break of serve, going on to win the 1st set 6-4.
In the second set Greg and Matt managed to break Lee and Peng but then, with a low percentage of 1st serves, struggled to hold their own set, and lost their serve twice, eventually losing the set 6-4, and a disappointing match 6-4, 6-4.
Greg said although he did not feel very well, with his ailing stomach still giving problems, he had played well but unfortunately Matt's serve was not firing well at all and that dragged down the 1si serve percentage and contributed largely to the final result. Greg is hoping he continues to improve health wise and that he will be much better to take the court in the singles on Tuesday.
Greg and David decided to play the last Challenger Tournament in Mexico City even though Greg had not entered, as he thought his chances of winning were better here than in the Sarasota Tournament. He had not planned on playing Mexico City so had not entered, and therefore had to go through qualifying, though he would have made the Main Draw cut if he had entered. At an outside chance, as the highest ranked player to sign in for qualifying, there was a chance Greg may move up into the main draw if a main draw player withdrew after the qualifying sign-in commenced. Not sure of the exact rule but Greg was lucky and a player did withdraw (Aussie Sam Groth I think) and Greg took his place in the main draw, so did not have to play qualifying.
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