Greg and Filip Peliwo
were unable to play their second round doubles match in An-Ning as Greg had a
bit of tenderness in his right shoulder,
so did not want to
aggravate the shoulder in a doubles match when he had the singles to play in
qualifying on the weekend, in the next tournament in Busan, Korea. A $100k +
hospitality challenger, the opposition would be a lot tougher in this higher
level event. And so it proved to be.
They managed to get
to Busan to get in a couple of practise sessions on the hard court surface,
having been on clay for the past two week, so at least were adjusting to the
different surface. Greg avoided a seeded player in the first round but was
still up against a difficult opponent, 28 year old Australian riding star
Oliver Anderson, who had created a stir in Australia in the beginning of the
year, winning the Australian Open Junior singles title and showing a lot of
promised the Men's tour, getting his ranking down to 670. Unfortunately he tore
a muscle in his hip in the final and has been out of tennis since mid February
recuperating. This would be his first match back and would be a quite unknown
quantity for Greg to play.
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| Australian Open Junior Champion |
With Anderson serving
first Greg was quickly on the front foot, breaking Anderson, then consolidating
the break with a quick hold of serve to lead 2-0. Greg then capitalised further
on a nervous start by Anderson, and serving well himself broke Anderson twice
more. Greg shut Anderson out completely on his serve, denying him a single point,
to win the set 6-0.
He again broke
Anderson in the first game of the second set but the served a shocker with the
new balls and allowed Anderson to break back to level at 1-1,
giving Anderson a sniff at getting back into the match. Greg righted the
situation be breaking Anderson a fifth time to again have he break advantage in
the set. But in what he described as the worst set he has played Greg served
poorly, play badly and was broken twice more to get to 3-5 down, giving the
Aussie junior a chance to serve for the set. Greg fought back breaking Anderson
again to get back to 4-5 but then again dropped his serve for the fourth time
in the set, losing the set 4-6 and presenting
Anderson the chance
of winning the match.
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| Oliver Anderson at the Open |
After a comfort
break, Greg was determined to start the set well and knuckle down to play some
decent tennis again. He broke Anderson early to lead 1-2,
then saved a break-point in consolidating the break. He was back in the zone
and broke Anderson once more before serving out the set 6-2, to win the match
6-0, 4-6, 6-2.
Greg said he should
have won in straight sets but was troubled by a slight groin strain he had
picked up in training the previous day and it had distracted him in the second
set. He was worried about it after the match, as it had progressively hampered
his movement, but he was able to turn into around and get the win. Now to see the physio to get some treatment on that groin strain.
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