After almost weeks off from tournament playing, spent training and hitting, it was off to Dallas, Texas for a $50k Challenger tournament. Greg's first round draw presented him with a very tough assignment, up against the No.7 seed, 23 year-old Turk Ilhan Marsel. Ilhan is currently ranked 120 but recently became the first Turkish player to break into the top 100, with a high ranking of 87 in January this year.Greg served first and was immediately under the hammer, saving break point twice to get to 1-0 up. Games went with serve after that, with Greg struggling to hold. He was slowly getting on top of Ilhan's serve but was not able to a number of 0-15 and 0-30 cnahce to break-point, games going to 6-6. Greg's serve was not firing in the tie-break and he was broken multiple times, keeping close initially to Ilhan by breaking him back, but Ilhand prevailed, winning the tie-break 7-4 and the first set 7-6.
A change of racquet for the second set saw Greg get immediate results and he broke Ilhan first game to go 1-0 up. Greg held serve and then broke Ilhan again to get a double break up 3-0. Greg then was forced to save break-point to hold for a 4-0 lead, serving out the set 6-2 and levelling the match at one set all.
Ihand held his first serve in the second set, before Greg again broke him to take a 2-1 lead. Greg held and then broke Ilhan again to take a stanglehold 4-1 lead. He served out the set 6-2, to record a very good win against a top 100 player. A great result.
Greg plays his first round doubles match later today, partnering fellow Aussie Marinko Matosevic.
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