Oz Open Summary - Doubles Round #1

Greg and his partner, 23 year-old Queenslander Kaden Hensel, were fortunate enough to be granted a wild card into the Main Draw doubles tournament. Kaden is an ex-American College player (Tennesee) who, after graduating (bright lad), had his first year on the tournament circuit last year, improving both his singles (444) and doubles (185) rankings considerably. Greg by comparison is 250 and 495 respectively, Kaden having played a lot more doubles events than Greg.

In the first round they were up against a very solid and experienced pairing of 31 year-old Belgium Christophe Rochus and 28 year-old Italian Paolo Lorenzi, currently ranked 85 and 83 in the ATP singles respectively. With Kaden and Greg both over 6 foot 3 inches, they towered over the European pair who are both under 6 foot tall.

Greg and Kaden played some excellent tennis in the 1st set, going up an early break, but then being pegged back by the opposition, but holding their own serves to get the set to the tie-break at 6 all in games. They played an excellent tie-break, getting the mini-breaks without giving up ground on their own serve and won the tie-break 7-3 and the set 7-6.

The second set saw our lads a bit flat, giving up a break of serve mid-set and not being able to recover, losing the set 3-6. Match tied at 1-set-all.

The 3rd set saw Greg and Kaden playing at their best again but unable to convert half-chances and break-point opportunities, also saving a break-point opportunity, to get to 5-5 in games. They held easily for a 6-5 lead and then forced two match points on the opposition serve at 15-40. The first match point was well saved but on the next match point Kaden missed a good volley chance to win the match and that opportunity disappeared, games going to 6-6.

Unperturbed by the missed match points, Kaden and Greg again played a very solid tie-break, going ahead early, holding their own serves and breaking their opponents again to get ahead 5-2 and then serving out the tie-break 7-2 to win the 3rd set and the match 7-6(3), 3-6, 7-6(2), to progress to the 2nd round.