Australia in the Spring 2016 - Traralgon #1

From Las Vegas it was back to Los Angeles for a few days and then on a plane back to a very chilly Melbourne for Greg. The weather back in Melbourne was that wet, windy and cold that Greg opted to train indoors at Melbourne, rather than head for the outdoor courts of Traralgon, and wait around for hours between rain showers waiting for the courts to dry, if the rain stopped. It did mean he would not get to train in the windy, East Gippsland conditions, but he had enough of that experience in Las Vegas!
He had managed to get into the main draw of both the singles and doubles of the Challenger tournament, so was bouyant about the week coming up, hoping to earn some valuable points.

Finn Tearney

His doubles partner was Kiwi Finn Tearney, with whom Greg had played a couple of times and thier opponents where his fellow Northern Beaches mate from Sydney, Matt Barton and his sand-groper West Australian partner Matt Ebden. Both teams were unseeded in the doubles, but Barton and Ebden were the better credentialed in singles, with Matt currently ranked under 200 at 189 and Ebden, a former top 100 ranked player who has been off injured for awhile now, ranked in the 200's.
Greg and Finn led off the serving in the short-format sudden death deuce best of two sets format and both teams saved break-point deuce games to get to 1-1. then at 2-2, Greg and Finn failed to close out a game at 40-30 and subsequently lost the sudden death deuce point, to fall 2-3 behind. They fought hard  to get the break back but were unable to do so, losing the first set 4-6.

Matt Barton

They were immediately in trouble in the second set, again failing to close out the game and dropping serve to another sudden death deuce. This time they were able to hit back immediately, breaking the "Matts" at deuce to level at 1-1. Games then went to 4-4, where Greg and Finn were forced to 15-40, facing three break points. They saved two points to get to deuce but again were broken at deuce, to fall 4-5 down, with Barton and Ebden to serve for the match. But Greg and Finn hit back, breaking to level at 5-5. Unfortunately they were again broken, to again face Barton and Matt serving for the match. But Greg and Finn denied them again, breaking serve to take the set to a tie-break at 6-6.

Matt Ebden

Barton and Ebden were straight back into the tie-break - breaking, holding and breaking again to go 4-0, then 5-1 up. Greg and Finn were not done, breaking then holding both serves to get to 4-5. They then broke again to level at 5-5, but then faced match point, on their own serve, at 5-6. A good point saw them save that point and then change ends 6-6. But Barton and Ebden broke, to bring up another match point, this time on their serve at 7-6, converting to bundle a disappointed Greg and Finn out of the doubles, winning the match 6-4, 7-6(6).
Greg said they had played well in a high quality match, but were just a tad unlucky being broken a few times at deuce, not having the luck on the day. Greg plays his first round singes match tomorrow.