Greg had a busy three week break at home in Australia, recuperating from niggling shoulder and other injuries, applying for a USA visa which will give him more options for playing and travelling in the USA, \testing different racquet and string combinations and also training hard at Kooyong and Melbourne Park. Then Greg was again off to the USA for a series of Challenger tournaments. His first stop was Tiburon, just north of San Francisco city, for the $100,000 Wells Fargo tournament. Due to his current ranking, around 598, Greg was in qualifying and in the first round faced up against young 21 year old Italian Lorenzo Sonego, currently ranked 281, who will be a stern test for Greg.
Serving first, it was Greg who dominated the play, winning 100% of his first serves and 67% of his second serves, to not face a break point in the first set. He was returning well too, forcing Sonego to face three break points. Sonego managed to save one of those points but Greg converted the other two opportunities, breaking Sonego twice and serving out the first set 6-2.
Sonego fought back and got a better look at Greg's serve in the second set, winning more points and matching Greg. They both broke once in a tightly fought sets, with games going to the tie-break at 6-6. In the tie-break Sonego got an early mini-break to go to the first change of ends at 4-2 up. Greg served to get to 3-4, then broke Sonegro to get back on serve at 4-5. Remaining aggressive, Greg served an ace to level at 5-5 but then produced a double fault to present Sonego with set point at 5-6, rather than perhaps having match point. Sonego then snaffled the tie-break 7-5 and the second set 7-6, to tie the match up at a set-all.
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| Young Italian Lorenzo Sonego |
Seeing the chance to win the match in straight sets disappear, Greg was undeterred, serving a good first game in the third set, then attacking Sonego's serve, forcing him to break point and converting, to lead 2-0. Sonego responded and immediately broke back, much to Greg's annoyance. Greg upped the pressure on Sonego's serve, returning well and again breaking the Italian to lead 3-1, then holding serve fro a 4-1 lead. But Sonego's resolve was not broken and he held serve himself, then proceeded to break Greg's serve again to get to 3-4. He then held again to level the third set at 4-4. In a critical game which went to deuce, Greg managed to hold serve to lead 5-4. He then put as much pressure on Sonego as possible, and at 40-30 Sonego buckled to Greg's returning pressure, and served two double faults in a row to hand match point to Greg. Greg was up to the task and thankfully broke the young Italian to win the third set 6-4, and a hard fought match 6-2, 6-7(5), 6-4.
Still two matches to win to qualify but a good first match for Greg. He was happy with his performance and his ability to go the three sets and win, and also happy with his new racquets and string combination.
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