Malaysia Open

[VMoe86]

Yes, I have a lot of things to study in my new school and I'm in a new city - bigger.

Dimitrov falling in love with the attractions there and choosing Gulbis' path.

[PerfectAce]

Dimitrov falling in love with the attractions there and choosing Gulbis' path.

If he is a consistent guy, he should use just Gulbis from now on...

[costiiforzaa]

Dimitrov falling in love with the attractions there and choosing Gulbis' path.

If he is a consistent guy, he should use just Gulbis from now on...

I'm not choosing the player, he choose me.

[Ugadalou]

Ugadalou (Raonic) vs. Algo4 (Federer) 6-7/6-7.

A very tight and competitive match throughout with no breaks of serve, unfortunately littered with lag.
Algo is a nice guy and a great player with variety and smart shot selection.With Raonic as you can see from the stats I had no chance in the rallies,I got completely dominated,so I held on to my big serve.
Both sets were decided in T-B by only one mini-break on my serve.Algo didn't give me a single cheap error to get my nose in front.In the first t-b I had hit 8/8 first serves in but in 9-8* in my first 2nd serve I got a really bad screen freeze and my serve went flying.I should have pressed nothing and just let it roll in..

Either I get bad draws lately or the level has risen greatly on the tour because even my first round matches have become very difficult.
Best of luck to Algo in the rest of the tournament!

Stats:

[VMoe86]

In the first t-b I had hit 8/8 first serves in but in 9-8* in my first 2nd serve I got a really bad screen freeze and my serve went flying.I should have pressed nothing and just let it roll in..

That's a pity. I would have offered to get to 10-10 in this case, you missing a first serve on purpose at 10-10.

Either I get bad draws lately or the level has risen greatly on the tour because even my first round matches have become very difficult.

Well, Algo is an experienced and good player from MG Tour, so this is kind of a "bad" draw for you. On the other hand, he is not a good returner, so a "good" draw for someone using a big server.

The level definitely has risen, not just due to the "new" players already having a good level (thinking of those coming from MG Tour), but also the home-grown players here at ITST -- most of them having started about 6 months ago or having even less experience with TE -- are improving. Interesting times are awaiting us, I simply like seeing close results.

[Algo4]

Thing is that for that we would've needed to stop the game, and on a tie break, I don't know, it breaks the focus, on both players.
It's different from a desynched point, in which you can just move away and let the ball pass and there is no need to ask for anything, everyone knows that's the thing to do if the game desynched and the point was already over (and it actually happened and I gave it right away, probably in the first few games I don't remember).
Also, due to that screen freeze, which I recognize it happened (I didn't even know I had won until I saw the stats screen showing up), he lost the set with a double fault, so it actually would've required to re host to get to the same score.
Almost got on my nerves with those big serves but somehow managed that and could get the win, good match.

[C4iLL]

With Elias, fifth set of US Open quarter, I got a huge freeze of 40 seconds just at the moment where I rushed the net, and of course the voley was completely missed after : I asked him to give me the point and he was okay.

I think everybody must do like that. And personally, when I see a big freeze, and just because of that, my opponent gives me a weak ball, I give him a weak ball too in answer (on middle of court of something like that).

It should be a gentleman agreement everyone respects

[Elias]

With Elias, fifth set of US Open quarter, I got a huge freeze of 40 seconds just at the moment where I rushed the net, and of course the voley was completely missed after : I asked him to give me the point and he was okay.

yeah, right, and it was in the end tie-break. I threw a double on a match point to even the score ( ) or maybe it was only 6-6, can't remember exactly.

[VMoe86]

Also, due to that screen freeze, which I recognize it happened (I didn't even know I had won until I saw the stats screen showing up), he lost the set with a double fault, so it actually would've required to re host to get to the same score.

My fault, made a mistake with the TB score. In that case I agree with you, too much trouble rehosting the whole match. The adrenalin is away etc.

[Algo4]

spencercarlos d Algo4 6/3 2/6 6/2
Que "hpta" lag por Dios
Anyway, good game, but I know it could've been better

Stats from 3rd set (had to rehost due to lag)
http://i48.tinypic.com/28hfw2c.jpg

Stats from 1st and 2nd
http://i49.tinypic.com/14lkys.jpg

[Ugadalou]

Sorry about the whole misunderstanding but maybe I didn't describe it well enough.It wasn't up to Algo to do something about that point.After my double fault the set was over.
He is a fair player and a gentleman.When I got some desynchs at the beginning he gave me the point if I had hit an ace.

[spencercarlos]

spencercarlos d Algo4 6/3 2/6 6/2
Que "hpta" lag por Dios
Anyway, good game, but I know it could've been better

Stats from 3rd set (had to rehost due to lag)
http://i48.tinypic.com/28hfw2c.jpg

Stats from 1st and 2nd
http://i49.tinypic.com/14lkys.jpg

Indeed it was so rare the whole match and we broke our serves a lot in the first couple of sets. I started 4-0 and serve, and you put it back to 2-4 and held up for the set 6-3. In the second Algo was 3-0, then got it back to 2-3 then he ran out with the next 3 games, 2 games with breaks.
Thanks god i went into an errorless form in the third set, but it was really close.

[VMoe86]

I don't feel like reporting about my two matches thus far, but since I reached the SF I kind of feel obliged to say a couple of words.

R16 was against DRII (del Potro), who is a former Top Spin 3 player and had really good results there. He is relatively new to TE, so he especially had problems on return. His movement is quite solid already. I'm pretty sure he'll become a good TE player if he invests time and practice.

Then in the QF I awaited inseedious (Gasquet). I was nervous before the match, because I was aware of his potential (he had some good results, look at US Open, tough loss there), so I took it quite seriously. He really was not there in the beginning, it did not even take 2 minutes to get up 2-0 in the first set. Keeping in mind what happened to Robbin the other day in the second set, I was focused on keeping the match under control, displaying probably my best serve performance ever with Melzer (offline and online). I hope to see inseedious returning to his best level soon!

In the SF I'll face a Federer, who would have thought that?

EDIT: Robbin, I guess the other QF won't take place on Saturday. I won't have time to play until late on Wednesday (and then I'd be in bad shape ), so I'd appreciate a deadline extension until Thursday.

[C4iLL]

Quarter final : El Croato (Fed) vs C4iLL (Llodra) = 3-6, 7-6, 6-7.

An awesome match from both side, I think it's my new reference in terms of level. I didn't know El Croato plays so well, but trust me, this guy is among the most strong and solid of the tour ! The match lasts 45 minutes ^^

First set : I directly played at a perfect level, breaking him to lead 3-0. At that moment he played at a good level, but not incredible, I had the control, I could have won 6-2, but relax a bit. I was very surprised he didn''t make a lot of fault anyway.

Second set : he became a machine Like a robot, ultra solid, he never gives up in the long exchangesn, a pure rock who is ALWAYS well placed !
On my side, hopefully I was in a great day, playing perfectly in baseline in the exchange, good anticipation, no stress.
The exchanges were then very violent sometimes ^^ And extremely tactic

We came to tie-break, and here we played amazing points : I think I managed to dominate 3 exchanges where I then came 3 times to the net, thinking I could finish the point, but I took 3 times the wrong side and he hit 3 great passing shot... Rarely someone did this against me in such moments, it's like the guy doesn't feel pressure

I had one match point on his service but he hit an ace. Afterwards, I made a fault on my serve, which meant the end of the set... I was really hurt mentally at that moment.

Third set : beginning of third set was hard, he kept playing at a very high level, I had no opportunity to break. Hopefully I made several aces and stayed in the match. I also had 2 break point opportunuties but not convert them.

We then went to tie-break and finally, he made 1 fault on his service ! I wanted to win a new break, and I think I played an wonderful point to break him another time (mixing between slice, spins, acceleration, volley).

With 2 breaks in advance I conclude the tie-break and the match. El Croato is officially another nightmare to play against in the tour

Stats of the match :
- he only did 28 faults on the whole match
- I had 89% of first serve in second set, 11 aces, 0 double fault

[El Croato]

Thank you C4iLL for your very detailed match report, I enjoy reading it. It was my second tournament on the tour and I have been quite happy with my results so far. Furthermore I have to say that my match against C4iLL, who is for sure one of the very best serve-and-vollyers - if not the best - on the tour, was amongst the most amazing ones I have played so far : intensity, pressure, incredible rallies; in other words, all the stars were aligned for a perfect tennis encounter. A pity that I forgot to set the record option on '1' in the tennis.ini file because some points were really worth watching. Anyway, I will record all my matches from now on

In any case, I wish C4iLL the best of luck for the rest of the tournament; hopefully I will be able to play against him again in the future. and would like to congratulate all the organizers of the tour on the great job accomplished. My first ITST matches strengthens me in my view that it was a very good thing for me to have joined the ITST community.

Keep it up the good work buddies!

Cheers,

Youri aka El Croato