American Summer 2016 - Charlottesville #3

The second round of the singles in the Charlottesville Futures saw Greg up against the fourth seed, 24 year American Tennys Sandgren, currently ranked 307, but with a high rank similar to Greg of 183. Greg and Sandgren had not played each other in the singles main draw of a Pro-tour event, so it would be an interesting encounter.
Greg started off well, holding serve, then crafting an early break point opportunity on Sandgren's first service game. But a back hand down the line by Sandgren which caught the line, saved the point and Sandgren held. After that he served really well and Greg was unable to make any inroads into the Sandgren serve. Games went with serve to 3-3, then Greg's serve deserted him, serving 3 double faults in dropping his serve, to go 3-4 down. He tried to fight back but Sandgren held firm to pouch the first set 6-4.

Aptly named Tennys Sandgren

The second set saw Greg again serve two double faults, in the first game, the second of which was on break-point, gifting Sandgren another break. Sandgren held confidently, and then with the momentum with him played a really good game to break Greg again, and take a stranglehold on the match. Greg was kind of shell-shocked after that, and with a low percentage of first serves, the match got away from him, Sandgren holding and breaking again, then serving out the match to win the second set comprehensively 6-0, and the match 6-4, 6-0.
Greg said he had played ok but had not given himself any chance of winning the match by serving so poorly. Sandgren in comparison had served really well on the fast courts and only given Greg that one chance in the match, and was too good on the day, bundling Greg out of the singles. Sandgren went on to win the tournament.
Greg and Rubin will play their semi-finals in the doubles tomorrow.