Opportunity beckoned for Greg in the final round of qualifying for the French Open on another sunny day. Again on Court 6, Greg's opponent was another Frenchman, unseeded veteran 32 year-old Nicolas Devilder, who had knocked out the No.18 seed Turkey's Marsel Ilhan in the previous round. Diminutive 5'8" Devilder, currently ranked 281 after a poor season last year, with a high ranking of 60 in 2008, has had a good start to 2012, with a Challenger title and a final on clay earlier in the year on clay in the USA. An experienced typical clay court player who makes few errors, with two wins under his belt, Devilder will present a challenge to Greg, with either player in with a chance to win, depending on who takes their chances and stamps their authority on the match.
 |
| View of Court Six |
Both Devilder, serving first, and Greg started confidently in the 2nd set, games going quickly to 2-1. Devilder then got Greg to 15-40 but Greg managed to save both break points and hold serve, games going with serve to 3-3. In the next game Greg managed to peg Devilder back to deuce and then after another few deuces brought up break point but Devilder saved and held serve to lead 4-3. As so often happens when a player does not convert that break-point opportunity, they face break point in their next service game and, with new balls, Greg was quickly facing three break points at 0-40 down. He saved two, but was unable to stop Devilder converting the opportunity, for Devilder to go 5-3 up.
 |
| Greg at Roland Garros |
Greg was not giving up and he immediately forced Devilder to 15-40, breaking back against the Frenchman and then holding serve to level the set at 5-5. Devilder held for 6-5 and then again applied pressure on Greg, serving to stay in the set, getting Greg to 15-40 and two set points. This time Greg could not save those points and Devilder won the 1st set 7-5.
 |
| Leftie Devilder plays a backhand |
Serving first in the 2nd set, Devilder now asserted his clay court experience, holding serve and then breaking Greg to love to lead 2-0. Greg fought back getting Devilder to deuce but could not force a break-point opportunity and the score was 3-0 to Devilder. Greg then again faced break points and Devilder broke Greg again to take a decisive 4-0, then 5-0 lead. Greg got on the scoreboard in the next game but, although he saved one match point on Devilder's serve, could not deny Devilder serving out the match, for a comprehensive 7-5, 6-1 win, for him to advance to the Main Draw.
A disappointing end to a good qualifying campaign which promised a lot, but the clay court experience of Devilder was enough to blunt the power of Greg who committed more than double the unforced errors than Devilder did. Greg lacked penetration on his serve in the 2nd set, despite serving at 73% he only won 32% of those serves, with Devilder returning very well from way behind the baseline.
At least Greg will gets 16 valuable ranking points which should bring him back to under 300 in the rankings and a chance to make the main draw for future Challenger events.
Footnote: Devlider showed his clay court prowess by winning his way to the third round of the French Open, losing to world No.1 Novak Djokovic.
Opportunity beckoned for Greg in the final round of qualifying for the French Open on another sunny day. Again on Court 6, Greg's opponent was another Frenchman, unseeded veteran 32 year-old Nicolas Devilder, who had knocked out the No.18 seed Turkey's Marsel Ilhan in the previous round. Diminutive 5'8" Devilder, currently ranked 281 after a poor season last year, with a high ranking of 60 in 2008, has had a good start to 2012, with a Challenger title and a final on clay earlier in the year on clay in the USA. An experienced typical clay court player who makes few errors, with two wins under his belt, Devilder will present a challenge to Greg, with either player in with a chance to win, depending on who takes their chances and stamps their authority on the match. 
No comments:
Post a Comment