American Summer 2016 - Kelowna #1

Still in Canada, Kelowna was the next stop for Greg, and first up was the doubles, partnered this week with American Raymond Sarmiento, ranked 409 in the doubles and seeded No.4 for the tournament. Their opponents were Frenchman Sebastien Boltz and Israeli Edan Lesham, ranked 881 and 1136 respectively.


Partner Raymond Sarmiento

Greg and Raymond got off to a good start breaking their opponents in their first service game, to lead 1-0, then went on serve to 3-1 up, then lead 4-2. Boltz and Lesham were working their way back into the match and broke Greg and Raymond to level at 4-4. They denied Greg and Raymond a deciding point break opportunity to lead 5-4, then won deciding point in the next game to pouch the set 6-4.

Israeli Edan Lesham

Greg and Raymond hit back im the second set, again breaking their opponents at the start of the set, but were then themselves broken to give back the advantage. They stuck to the task and managed to break their opponents again, maintaining the advantage to the end and winning the second set 6-4, to level the match and take it into the third set match tie-breaker, first to 10 points.

Frenchman Sebastien Boltz

It was a slow start for them though, Boltz and Lesham winning the first three points, going 3-0, then 4-1, and 5-2 up. But Greg and Raymond did not give up, pegging the score back to change ends at 6-6. Both teams held serve to get to 8-7, Greg and Raymond leading. They then broke to lead 9-7 and have two match points, one on their opponents serve and one on their own serve. Boltz and Lesham  held their serve then cruelly broke Greg and Raymond twice, firstly denying them the win and then setting up match point on their own serve. Greg and Raymond were not done though breaking back and swopping match point opportunities until serving at 13-12 in favour of Boltz and Lesham. And this time their opponents broke to steal the match away, winning the tie-break 14-12, and the match 6-4, 4-6, (14-12).
Another match of chances created and not taken for Greg and his partner. They should have gone on with serve in the first set, but serving at only 50% were unable to do so. They did well to get back into the match, win the second set, recovered in the tie-break but just did not have the luck to win the match points created. Another close match for Greg.