Australia in the Spring 2016 - Canberra #4

Having won three matches in a row for the first time in a long time, could Greg stretch that run to four? Playing in the second round of the Canberra Challenger, he was up against up and coming Aussie teenager, 18 year-old Max Purcell, from Sydney's Northern Beaches area, already ranked 360, near his high ranking of 355 achieved recently. Greg and Purcell have trained together in the past, when Greg was at Homebush on a rare occasion, so it will be an difficult but interesting clash.
Greg served first and both players opened confidently to get to 2-2, with Greg having slightly better of the play. Then Purcell brought up two break point opportunities on Greg's serve, but Greg responded, getting back to deuce and then holding serve. Purcell held for 3-3, then with the momentum in his favour again brought up break-point opportunity on Greg's serve. And again Greg was able to save the point and get to 4-3 up. He then forced Purcell to 0-40, to have three break point opportunities. Purcell saved the first but Greg won the next point to break Purcell and go 5-3 up, with a chance to serve for the set, which he did, winning the set 6-3.

 Max Purcell

With Purcell now serving first in the second set, Greg was playing catch-up. Purcell had also picked up his serve percentage, to match Greg's good serving at around 65-70%, and serve dominated the early part of the set, games going with serve to 2-2. Greg then had a break point opportunity but was denied by Purcell. Then at 4-3 it was Purcell's turn to have Greg under pressure and facing break-point, but he too was up to the task and saved to level at 4-4. Greg served to stay in the set at 4-5 and 5-6 but did so confidently, taking the set to the tie-break at 6-6.

Greg sends down a serve

With both players serving a high percentage of first serves, Purcell got the early mini-break for a 2-0 lead. Greg pegged him back to 2-2, then got another mini-break to go 3-2 up on his serve, changing ends at 4-2 and then holding serve again for a 5-2 lead, Purcell to serve. Greg gained another mini-break to have four match points at 6-2. Purcell saved the first match point to get to 3-6, but now it was on Greg's serve. Greg converted on his next serve to win the tie-breal 7-3, and the match 6-3, 7-6, and advance to the quarter-final round.

So a run of four wins for Greg, some valuable ranking points and hopefully a confidence boost for the next matches and tournaments to be played. Greg said it was the best he had played all week and he was very pleased with his performance. Hopefully his body is all ok after all the tennis played, and thankfully he opted not to play doubles this week, to conserve himself, and will also most probably have a rest day tomorrow before tackling the quarter-final round on Friday.