Australian Summer 2014 - Burnie International #2

The second round of the Challenger tournament saw Greg, seeded No.8, facing up against fellow NSW player and sometimes training partner, 22 year-old Matt Barton, currently ranked 273, with a high ranking of 201. Barton had a very successful start to the year in Australia last year but then did not have any success for the rest of the year, being off for extended periods during the year with knee tendonitis. As Greg is also coming back from injury and still suffering from his shoulder injury it should be a close contest, although Greg will be confident of getting a win.

With Barton serving first Greg was quickly on the attack, breaking him in the first game. Barton hit back and forced Greg to save break points in his next two service games, but Greg was up to the task, holding serve and getting the score to 3-1. Greg then had another opportunity to break and go further ahead but a missed volley saw him lose the point, games going to 4-2. Greg then had Barton looking at 0-40 and three break points but four aces in five serves saw Barton squeak out again and go to 3-4. Then in a sloppy game, Greg produced some careless errors and dropped serve on the back of a double fault to allow Barton to level at 4-4. Greg's serving stats were dropping, as was his second serve speed, which was a worry, but his all court game was still good. A disputed line call, when Greg's lob over Barton hit the baseline, presented Greg with another break-point opportunity and he broke the disgruntled Barton to lead 5-4 and serve for the set, which Greg did winning the first set 6-4.

Matt Barton (pic courtesy of Aceland)

Both Barton and Greg saved a break point in getting to 3-3 in the second set. Greg was starting to show visible signs of distress on his second serve and it showed in his game, Barton getting Greg to 0-40. Greg fought off those break-points to get back to deuce but was unable to prevent Barton from getting another opportunity and converting to lead 4-3, then 5-2. Greg held serve to force Barton to serve for the set, then managed to get Barton to deuce, but in a mutiple five deuce game was unable to bring up break-point, Barton winning the game and the set 6-3.
Greg took a medical time-out and got treatment on his right shoulder during the second set and it continued to trouble him through the rest of the match.
At 1-1 in the third set, with Greg serving first, Barton got Greg to 0-40 and looked certain to break but Greg produced some good first serves and denied Barton. He then broke Barton to lead 3-1. Barton was not done and, with Greg struggling to serve, broke back immediately, Greg venting his frustration by yelling. Barton held to level at 3-3, then Greg inexplicably served four aces to get the score to 4-3. He then again broke Barton to lead 5-3 and serve for the match. But again he was unable to hold serve (needing some of those aces in this game), and Barton again denied him, breaking Greg again to get to 4-5. Greg continued to attack and forced Barton to 30-40, to bring up a match point but an ace by Barton saw Greg denied the win, Barton winning the game to draw level again at 5-5, games going with serve to the tie-break at 6-6.
Down on power on his serve it was a frustrated Greg who could not serve at his best and fell behind on the points count in the tie-break against a free-serving Barton, who got over the line in the tie-break7-4, winning a very tight, long, hard fought match 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(4).
A frustrating match for Greg who fought hard and had his chances but was increasingly frustrated by his inability to serve at his normal pace due to the continuing shoulder injury. Greg will now return to Melbourne to have his shoulder assessed again by the Tennis Australia doctor, and receive further further advice and treatment to continue his rehabilitation and get him back to 100 percent performance.