Back in Oz - Australia Futures 8 #2

Panoramic view from Toowoomba

The second round of the Toowoomba Futures tournament had Greg matched up against the No.7 seed, 28 year-old Japanese Yuya Kibi, currently at his ranking high of 377. Kibi has had his best year since 2007 on the tour and won back to back $10k Futures titles in Japan this year, but has struggled to get any decent results away from his native country.
On a wind swept cool day, unusual for Toowoomba this time of year, it was Greg who served first and found himself facing two break-points in that first game. Greg  rallied, saving the points and getting his name on the scoreboard, and then immediately forced  Yuya onto the back-foot at 15-40. Yuya saved the first break-point but could not stop Greg from converting the next, giving Greg a 2-0 lead. Greg repeated the dose, holding serve then breaking Yuya again to hold for 4-0. He was on a roll and held serve to love then broke Yuya a third time to close out the set 6-0.

Jap Yuya Kibi

Yuya started finding his rhythm and confidence and after Greg held serve to lead th second set 1-0, Yuya managed to win his first game, and then two more service games to take the score to 3-3. He then forced Greg to face a break-point at 30-40 and converted the opportunity to lead the second set 4-3. Greg regained his focus and concentration and hit back immediately, getting Yuya to 15-40 but Yuya recovered to deuce before a determined Greg got the advantage and broke Yuya to level the score at 4-4.
Greg then held his serve to love, to go 5-4 up. He applied the prrsue again on Yuya to have two match-points at 15-40. Yuya managed to save those two match points and level the game score at deuce but Greg was determined to break and did so, converting the third match point to win the set 6-4 and the match 6-0, 6-4.
Greg said the conditions were very windy, but not as bad as the previous day. He had played well in the conditions and was pleased with the way he had closed out the match.