Back in Oz - Traralgon Challenger 1 #6

After a couple of hours Greg took to the court again, in the unrelenting 30kph wind, for his second round match, up against another Aussie who he has known for half his life, the laconic Queenslander JP Smith, 25, currently ranked 229, with a high rank slightly better than Greg at 172. Greg and JP both represented Australia as 12 year olds and have known each other since, playing against and with each other on many occasions. It is JP who has had the upper hand lately, winning their last three encounters, generally in closely fought matches. A tough mental match for Greg against a player whose main weapon is his consistency and accuracy, who plays with guile and a clever change of pace.

Leftie JP Smith all concentration as he plays a backhand

Greg was immediately put on the back foot by Smith who had Greg at 0-40 in the first game. Greg saved one break point but Smith got the early break. Not to be left behind, Greg responded and broke back immediately to level at 1-1, only to miss a few first serves in the next game to get broken again , and give the ascendency back to Smith. Smith held this time to consolidate the break and force Greg to play catch up. Greg was starting to serve more first serves but Smith was in the groove, returning well and forcing Greg to play a lot of balls. Greg dropped serve to trail 1-4 but tried to fight back, having two break points on Smith's next serve but was unable to capitalise, Smith holding serve to stretch his lead to 5-1. Greg was then unable to prevent Smith from serving out the set 6-2.

Greg shows his frustration (Pics courtesy of Aceland)

The second set started in a similar fashion to the first set, with players swopping breaks of serve then holding to go to 2-2. A fatiguing Greg, who had played four matches in the horrible wind against Smith's single game, was getting frustrated with the conditions and his opponent's game style, and vented his spleen on a few occasions to relieve the pressure. But it was in vain as Greg could not prevent Smith breaking again, this time from a seemingly safe position of being 40-15 up, for Smith to lead 3-2, then 4-2. Greg tried to fight back back Smith held firm to get to 5-3 up. He then brought up match-point on Greg's serve, converting to win the match 6-2, 6-3.

JP about to claim the match

A frustrating match for Greg is which he did not serve at his best, allowing Smith to get a lot of balls into play and dictate the game. Again the wind was a factor but this time Smith handled it better than Greg. All in all not a bad week for Greg, still on the come-back from injury, in which he won three matches to qualify, then beat a player just ranked outside of 200.
Using his protected ranking Greg is in the main draw of the second challenger to be held at the same venue of Traralgon next week. Let's hope the wind will be blowing a lot less by then..