In the first set it was obvious he was going to win it. It was a miracle I almost made it to the tiebreak, with only 3 points won on his service and under constant pressure in my own service games. Though I was able to work away the break chances, but on the fourth one (at 5-5) he won the game and served it home without trouble.
The second set was more interesting, I could take iniative some more from the baseline and did put myself in the position to go to the net. Unfortunately my net play wasn't really good today, but I still made a decent amount of points there (24/39). We played a really long game at 1-0 at his service, which he took home in the end. Though I missed some chances I felt stronger because I was able to put some pressure at his serve for the first time. I was playing better tennis at that moment and I broke at 3-2. After that I made three SV attempts, all failed and Richie broke me back immediately. Momentum shoved back to him and he was dominating again. This time, again facing break points at 5-5, I managed to hold my service and get to 6-5. At this point I wasn't able to get in his service games again, but somehow I managed to come back from 40-0 and I got the set at my second set point.
Third set started really well with long games at both sides. Our stamina kept depleting as the match lasted longer and longer. My serve let me down in the final set (46%) and Richie did make the first break at 2-2. I got in his game at 4-3, but from 30-30 we played two 30+ strokes points which he both won. In the next game Richie could take some more risk which led to some big FH winners and he won it on his first match point.
I'm happy with my level in this match, though I have to feeling I can do better at the moment, but he probably has the same feeling. Anyways, key to the match was his huge FH which caused me a lot of trouble, almost every ball hit to his FH led to me defending. Good luck in the final against clay court specialist Almagro!
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