Australian Autumn 2017 - Canberra #3

On a surprising windless day in Canberra Greg was up against big serving Victorian  Dayne Kelly. 26 year old Kelly, currently ranked 369, has a 2-1 win record against Greg, having won their last two encounters last year, and is in good form having won the Futures title on grass last week in Mildura.
Serving first Greg was quick off the mark, breaking Kelly and going to a 3-0 lead. Kelly then held to love but Greg was serving well and had no trouble in serving out the rest of the set, to win it 6-3.

Greg serving for the "pot of Gold"

He then had a frustrated Kelly facing break points at 15-40 in the first game of the second set but Kelly responded and a few big serves saw him get out of trouble. Then at 3-2 Kelly had Greg in trouble at 0-40, breaking Greg on the second opportunity to lead 4-2. He consolidated to go 5-2 up, forcing Greg to serve to stay in the set. Greg saved two break points to get back to deuce but Kelly applied the pressure, bringing up another set point in Greg's serve, this time converting to win the set 6-2. One set all.
Greg was not done though, and at 1-1 in the third set he broke Kelly to take the advantage and lead 2-1. Kelly hit back, forcing Greg to 15-40 but Greg was serving well, getting back to deuce then holding serve to lead 3-1. He broke an agitated Kelly again to go 4-1 up. Greg was playing with confidence now and two love service games later closed out the match, winning the third set 6-2, for a 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 win, to advance to the quarterfinals.
Greg said he had served and played well, and was pleased with the win. He had managed to shake off the effects of his fall yesterday, and although his knees showed signs of bruising, he was able to play through some early stiffness and moved better and better throughout the match.