The Off Season 2014 - #3

After much consideration Greg decided to withdraw from the Australian Open Wild Card Play-off due to the continuing problem he has been having with his back after extended periods of play. He would not be able to last through a best of five set match at this time,, never mind four matches in a week, and would be in danger of doing more harm to his back. He has arranged to get the help of a specialist back physiotherapist, commencing this week and will be working hard thereafter to get his back right and his fitness level to the requisite level to hopefully recommence competitive tennis in January 2015.
But before this week began he had some other tennis commitments to fulfil. Greg had agreed to play for the Kooyong Classic team in the final game of their conference rounds. The Classics were in with a good chance of making the South East Conference final if they performed well in this final round. Headed up by Greg's good mate Dave Bidmeade and backed up by AndrewWhittington, Daniel Byrnes and doubles ace John Peers, with young Marc Polmans also on the team list but busy with the 18&U National tournament, it was a tough task as they were up against the leaders of the conference, the star-studded team of the Royal South Yarras. The Yarras line up far outranked Greg's team, with Luke Saville at 158 in the ATP, Alex Bolt closing in on a top 200 ranking and Dane Propoggia and Adam Hubble both ranked in singles and even better in doubles.

Greg up against Luke

It was a close affair on Friday night but the Kooyong team did just enough to make the finals, even though they lost narrowly to Saville's Yarras team on a count back, by a mere 3 games 46-43, after games and sets were shared 3-8 each. Greg played against Luke Saville, and after a slow start on the unfamiliar en-to-cout surface, losing the first set 0-4, he bounced back to take the second set 4-1, but Saville was not to be denied and won the match by taking the final set 4-1. Greg then combined with John Peers to topple Saville and Bolt 4-3, 4-2. Whittington and Bidmeade both recorded wins but Peers lost in 3 sets to Propoggia.
Ironically both teams topped the SE Conference table and so were to face-off against each other just two days later, this time on Indoor Hard Court at Melbourne Park, to determine who would win the Conference and gain the right to play at Melbourne Park in the second week of the Australian Open against the other Conference winners.

Victorious Kooyong

Greg and Peers led off the final for the Classics, in two critical matches, both needing to improve on their Friday evening showing against the same players against whom they lost. And they came through well, Peers first finished with a straight set 4-2, 4-2 win over Dane Propoggia, whilst Greg did well to come from a set and a break down to tough out a 2-4, 4-3, 4-2 win over Luke Saville. With Whittington winning his match against Alex Bolt 4-2, 4-2 but Dan Byrnes going down to Adam Hubble in two tiebreak sets 4-3, 4-3, the Classics led 3-1 and only needed to win two sets in the doubles to win the final.

Post win celebrations at Kooyong

Teamed together again in the doubles, John and Greg dropped the first set against Saville and Bolt, but on the other court Byrnes and Whittington snared the first set to settle the nerves. Greg and John responed and won the second set, and the final was decided. In the end the Classics lost both the doubles matches in the deciding tie-break set but the Final has been won, the Classics causing an upset winning by virtue of winning more set, final score 3 matches all, 8 set to 7.
Greg and the Kooyong team were delighted and will be preparing hard to be in good shape to play the ATL Finals at Melbourne Park in the last week of January.

The Off Season 2014 - #2

After the Nepean event Greg spent a few days recuperating in Sydney then headed off to Auckland. Greg, along with good Kiwi mate Ruben Statham, young Jordan Thompson from NSW, Artem Sitak and the other top New Zealand players were invited to play in the Wither Hills West End Cup tennis tournament in Auckland, the first event in the NZ Festival of Tennis. Greg was keen to play in the event as he had missed out playing there last year due to other commitments and also to give his back a good test prior to making a decision to play in the Australian Open Wild Card Play-off in December.


The crowd and concessions

Greg, seeded No.3, had a bye in the first round so did not play until Saturday, which was a quarter-final match. His opponent was 24 year-old Finn Tearney from NZ, ranked 1591, but who had a handy game, having taken a set off Jordan Thompson earlier in the year. Again on a synthetic grass surface Greg struggled with his movement and adapting to the surface.

Greg steadies for a forehand

However in the normal set format he was able to slowly work his way into the match and get used to the surface under match conditions, eeking out a 7-5, 7-5 win over Tearney.

Lunch with the spectators

In the semi-finals on Sunday Greg faced up against the No.2 seed Ruben Statham, winner of the tournament last year. Ruben was on fire early on and took advantage of Greg's hesitancy on the synthetic surface, delivering a bagel first set 6-0 score over Greg. He then went an early break up in the second set but Greg fought back, levelling the score and getting the score to 5-5. Ruben held for 6-5, then broke Greg to register a 6-0, 7-5 win over Greg to advance to the final for the second year in a row.


Ruben launching into a serve

Later that afternoon Ruben went on to beat the No.1 seed Jordan Thompson to win back-to-back titles.
Greg said it was an enjoyable tournament, with plenty of hard fought competitive tennis, played in good spirit. His only problem was that his back is still causing him some pain and will most probably cause him to not contest the AO Wild card play-off and the rigours of playing the best of five-set matches on the hard courts of Melbourne Park. He will rather get some expert advice and treatment or physiotherapy, in an attempt to be fully fit and ready for the 2015 tennis year.

The Off Season 2014 - #1

After returning from Toyota Greg had a few days off in Melbourne, primarily to try and sort out a niggling problem with his back before heading back to Sydney to play in the Nepean Tie-break Shoot-out in Penrith and the associated AMT Money tournament. Greg was the winner of the inaugural Tiebreak shootout a couple of years ago, which was then a winner take-all $10,000 affair, and was keen to have another go. The only problem for Greg is that the event was played on a synthetic grass surface, generally only found in NSW, which is a very slippery surface compared to the surfaces on which he normally plays.The last time he had played on the surface was in 2011, the previous time he had won the shoot-out, and then his big serve won him the day.
Greg was extremely pleased to see all his old NSW mates like Matt Reid and Matt Barton and a few of the younger players like Jake Eames and Chris O'Connell . Seeded No.5, Greg's first round match was against 20 year-old Sydney player Dimitri Vidin, unranked in the ATP,  a player who had a few wins in qualifying, but against whom Greg would be confident in winning - on a hard court and in a normal set scoring system. But this was a tiebreak format and a lottery as such.

The Nepean Tennis Centre

In the warm-up the big serving Vidim was smacking the skin off the ball, but nervously started with a double-fault and then gifted Greg the tie-break by hardly hitting a first set and double faulting again, Greg winning the first set 7-3 without hardly a rally being played.
Vidim then settled down and got more into the tie-break, hitting a few more first serve bombs and moving Greg around on the slippery, half-patched synthetic surface. Greg was having trouble with his balance and in trying to turn and actually fell over once, gifting Vidim a couple of easy points and conceding the second tiebreak to him. One tiebreak each and now it was really a lottery with a deciding tie-break to be played.
Still uncertain on the surface, and with Vidim teeing off on virtually every point with nothing to lose, Greg fell behind a double break twice, but each time managed to pull back a break. But he could not stop Vidim serving for the match at 6-5, only to see him serve a double-fault, for Greg to level the score. But a few points later Vidim again had break-point, this time breaking Greg to win the tie-break 11-9 and dump Greg out of the tournament before he could even find his feet on what was for him a treacherous surface.
Coupled with the Tiebreak tournament, there was a fast serve competition. Greg stepped up and served four serves all over 200kph, the fastest 207kph, but with much leeway given with the legitimacy of all the serves he did not make the top five final, the quickest serve being over 220kph.
It was well organised fun event put on by the Nepean Tennis Association and enjoyed by all.
Greg was not able to play in the AMT event, pulling out due to his niggling back injury which is restricting his ability to serve and move properly.