Time to start again #3

28 year-old Alex Kuznetsov

Playing with American Alex Kuznetsov, in the doubles at Winnetka, Greg and Alex received a favourable draw, up against youngster Mackenzie MacDonald and peer Nicolas Meister, both from the USA. With both opponents achieving good results in singles, it was not going to be a easy match to win.

Nicolas Meister

Greg and Alex got off to a confident start and dominated the first set, breaking serve early, holding serve well and then breaking again to lead 5-1. They however allowed their opponents to get back in the set, to break back and then gain in confidence after a couple of service games, getting broken again for the set to be levelled at 5-5, then go 6-5 down, on serve. Greg and Alex rallied to take the set into the tie-break at 6-6. They changed ends at 3-3 after swopping mini-breaks, then managed to skip away to win the tie-break 7-4 and take a 1-0 lead in sets.

Mackenzie MacDonald

Unfortunately for Greg and Alex, getting back into the match had seen their American opponents grow in confidence and they had Greg and Alex on the back foot, breaking three time in a row to lead 5-0. Greg and Alex tried to respond and broke back to get on the board at 1-5, but it was too little as the got broken again to lose the second set 1-6, and go to the match tie-break (first to 10) to decide the match.
In the match tie-break, mini-breaks were swopped twice in getting to 3-4 in favour of the opponents. From there the Americans skipped away and Greg and Alex lost the match tie-break 5-10, to lose the match and be bundled out of the tournament.
Not as much match practise as Greg had hoped for, but again his body had stood up to the rigours of playing, albeit in a doubles match. Next on his agenda is the qualifying for the Hall of Fame ATP250 event in Newport.