The start of February 2010 sees Greg in Burnie Tasmania for a Challenger event, the only one in Australia. (And they don’t know what’s wrong in Australian tennis? – more tennis events in Oz for the mid ranked player’s please!!!)
Seeded No. 7 in a rather strong Men’s line-up event, Greg’s 1st round match was the feature match of the day, on the Centre Court at 6pm. He was up against fellow Aussie, giant 22 year-old Sam Groth, recently returned from a 4 month lay-off for an arm injury. Sam has dropped down the rankings as a result, currently ranked 279, but with a high ranking of 220. A tough 1st round for both players...
Greg said Sam appeared very nervous for the match held in front of a large evening crowd. It was Greg, serving first, who got the 1st break and went to a 5-2 lead. He had a set point on Sam’s serve but a loss of concentration and a few loose shots saw Sam hold serve to go to 5-3. Greg then served out the set confidently 6-3, to go a set up.
Greg said he recognised that he was a bit flat at the start of the 2nd set and was playing to Sam’s forehand too much. He rectified the matter and went to Sam’s backhand more and then switched up to the forehand. Sam was playing a lot better than the 1st set and games went with serve to 3-3, Greg then had a break-point on Sam’s serve but could not convert, holding his own serve as well, to get to 4-4. Greg then stepped up his attack, returning well and again forcing breakpoint, this time converting to go 5-4 up. He served out the next game confidently to love, for a solid 6-3, 6-4 win.
Greg said he had served well, never giving up a deuce game, nor a break-point opportunity, on his serve and returning very well to put Sam under pressure. No doubt his excellent match against big serving Ivo Karlovic in the doubles at the Oz Open helped, where Greg returned very well. The experience of playing before large crowds also helped him with playing the feature match before a crowd at Burnie.
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