Greg did not have much time to relax and celebrate his silver medal. After a compulsory drug test he chilled out for awhile and watched the mixed doubles match, but then had to depart before the third set to get to the airport, along with Luczak and Ebden, for a 2:30am flight to Frankfurt, for a connecting flight on to Tiburon, California to play in a Challenger Tournament.
Russell, his dad, was also departing in the wee hours on a 3:30am flight to Hong Kong and met up with Greg at Delhi International airport and the news was not good, with poor Greg hobbling along in much discomfort. He had jarred his heel into the court surface which in turn twisted and jarred his left knee. Luckily the knee appeared unharmed but the achilles tendon was inflamed and very tender. Hopefully it would settle down in the next two days, as the Tiburon tournament had kindly granted him a Wednesday start for his 1st round match.
The Tiburon draw however was not kind and Greg faced the No. 1 seed, 24 year-old German Tobias Kamke, currently near his ATP best ranking at 88. We were not sure if Greg was going to play but he said his heel, whilst not 100%, was a lot better and that he felt obliged to play as Kamke had been waiting for the match. Greg said he did not play badly but did not have his full range of movement, going down to Kamke 6-2, 6-2.
Greg was not too upset and was glad that his achilles heel and knee came through the match well. He will relax and then continue on to the next tournament at Calabasas, California on the weekend, where he will begin training again. His coach James Trottman will join him again then, after having a weeks break, after a full week in Delhi as the Australian Men's team coach.
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