Another rising star of USA tennis faced Greg in the second round of the singles in Tampa, Florida. 19 year-old Mitchell Krueger was ranked No.5 in the ITF Juniors in 2012, with a semi-final appearance at Junior Wimbledon, and was the No.1 ranked junior in the USA when he decided to tackle the Pro-tour. He already has some good wins under his belt, with a SF final in an F10 tournament his best result to-date. With his ranking already up to 696, Krueger will be looking to topple the No.1 seeded Greg and build on an impressive start to his professional career.
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| Amenities at the Club |
In a close-first set, it was Krueger who went ahead, forcing a break of serve on Greg's serve, to lead 4-2. Greg hit back immediately, breaking Krueger and holding serve to level the match. He then took the iniative with another break of Krueger's serve, winning four games in a row to pouch the first set 6-4.
In the second set games went with serve to 4-4. Greg however was feeling the effects of a stomach muscle strain and was having trouble with his serve. Krueger was able to break Greg to go ahead 5-4 and serve for the set. Greg denied him and broke back to level at 5-5, but under duress again dropped his serve to trail 5-6. This time Krueger served out the set 7-5, to level the match at 1 set all.
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| Teenager Mitcehll Krueger |
In the third set an ailing Greg, serving first, had his serve broken early in the set to trail 1-2. At that point he remarked to Dave, his hitting partner, that "I'll will just break him here then pull out". Break back he did, to level at 2-2, and thought he might just keep going, give it one more try. He held serve, just rolling them in due to his sore stomach, for 3-2, then suddenly it was 4-3. Greg thought "break, hold and it's done, so just continue". It did not work out that way, Krueger holding serve for 4-4, then 5-4 and 5-5. Greg stepped up and held a vital service game to lead 6-5 and put the pressure on Krueger to stay in the match. Greg got the better of the rallies and got Krueger to break-point, match point, converting to win the 3rd set 7-5 and a hard fought match 6-4, 5-7, 7-5.
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| Greg's big serve neutralised |
Greg said that he considered that he got lucky in the match, having the better of the close decisions. He lamented that "tennis is so unfair, I didn't deserve to win. I could'nt serve, got soo lucky on some things, which was the opposite of Mexico when I could not take a trick" and lost matches he should have won. Such is life. Greg will assess the extent of his abdominal strain before taking to the court in the QF round tomorrow.
In the doubles, the day prior, Greg and Dave Bidmeade went down, after losing a close first set 7-1 in the tie-breaker, and the second set 6-2, to American ex-college pairing Jean-Yes Aubone and Ryan Rowe.
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