His first round opponent was 27 year-old Colombian Carlos Salamanca, currently at a career high ranking of 146. A clay court player, Salamanca has reached three Challenger level finals this year, winning two of them, so will be tough opposition for Greg. Sitting courtside and lending support to Greg were the Roys, Greg's old school-mate friends, currently living in DC, with Cathy active in the Obama administration.
Greg got off to a nervous start and found himself 15-40 down in the first service game. Some good serving saved the break points and Greg was able to hold. He then got break-point on Salamanca's serve the next game and converted to take a 2-0 lead. A long service game then ensued but Greg was eventually able to win game point and go to a 3-0 lead. Salamanca's service game improved and he was able to hold serve easily for the rest of the set, while Greg continued to struggle on serve, but able to hang on and serve for the set at 5-3 up. He went 0-30 down but again righted the score with some aggressive serves, bringing up set point and converting to win the first set 6-3.The second set saw Salamanca hold his first serve this time and again pressurise Greg to again bring up break point on Greg's serve. Greg again managed to get back to deuce then win the game to even at 1-1. A frustrated Salamanca then started to hit out a little more and Greg took advantage of some errors to break Salamanca and go a break up at 2-1. Greg held his next service game to go to a 3-1 lead. Salamanca again applied the pressure, holding his serve to go to 3-2 and then 4-3 down but, despite getting a few mini-opportunities, with Greg serving much better, Salamanca was not able to break Greg. At 5-4 up Greg served for the match and went on with it, winning the 2nd set 6-4 and the match 6-3, 6-4.
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