Playing with Canadian Peter Polansky in the doubles, Greg was up against the No. 3 seeds, 25 year-olds Denys Molchanov of Moldovia and Nicolas Barrientos from Colombia. Molchanov is currently ranked at his highest ranking of 206 in singles with a current doubles ranking of 111, which has been as high as 85, whilst Barriento is ranked 287 in singles and 293 in doubles, both near his recent highest rankings. In comparison Gregs doubles ranking is 307, whilst Peter is at a high of 243, but their high singles ranking are both better than Molchanov and Barrientos, so it could be a close contest especially with Greg not having had much doubles action lately.
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| The green clay courts |
With Greg serving first, it was not a good start for the Canadian/Australian pairing, dropping serve in the first game to love to trail a break of serve at the start. But they bounced back immediately breaking back to level at 1-1. Games went with serve to 3-2 when Greg and Peter got their opponents to 15-40 and finally converted the break point opportunity on the 3rd chance at sudden death deuce, to lead 4-2, then 5-2. Barrientos and Molchanov held serve and then, with Greg serving for the set, got him to 30-40 and had two break points. Greg saved the first point but a double fault gifted their opponents the break, to get them back on serve at 4-5. Greg and Peter came back strong, getting Barrientos and Molchanov to 0-40 and converting the third set point to thankfully win the first set 6-4.
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| Nicolas Barrientos |
Services dominated early in the second set and games went with serve to 3-3. Greg and Peter then lost their serve at deuce, to trail 3-4 but hit back in the next game to break back and level the score at 4-4. Games then went with serve to the tie-break at 6-6. In the tie-break Barrientos and Molchanov got consecutive mini-breaks to lead 4-1. Greg and Peter pegged one break back to get to 4-2, but then dropped another break to trail 6-2, and face four set points. They saved two set points but could not stop their opponets from winning the tie-break 7-4, and the set 7-6, to level the match at one set all.
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| Denys Molchanov |
In the new doubles format (now three years old) the third set tie-break is a match tie-break, first to 10 points, by a margin of 2 points.
The momentum was with the Moldovain/Combian pair and things looked ominous for Greg and Peter, but they were straight back into it, breaking Barrientos and Molchanov three times to get to a 5-0 lead. Their opponents fought back, getting the score closer at 8-5, then broke again for 8-6 and put the pressure on Greg and Peter to hold serve, or be back on serve. They held to lead 9-6 and bring up match point, breaking their opponents again to win the match tie-break 10-6 and a topsy-turvey hard fought match 6-4, 6-7, 10-6.
A good win for Greg after his singles loss earlier and the second win for Peter on the day.
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