2nd and 3rd round of Qualies

Economidis vs. Dupuis

The second round clash of the big Greek and the oui oui Dupuis who isn’t playing as much these days, though capable of doing some good work on this kind of surface.

The big Greek started slowly, though he has slimmed down quite a lot from his previous beefy frame. Oui oui Dupuis was hitting flat solid strokes and was more consistent and took the 1st set. There were a small Greek contingent there and in the 2nd set they started making more noise and Kostas improved his serving and was hitting better length in the rallies and at 5-4 had a multitude of set points and through a combination of tentative play and excellent serving from “oui oui” he wasn’t able to convert them.

Dupuis led 4-0 in the tiebreaker, but Kostas started going for more shots and they went in and was able to take it 7-5. Then in the 3rd set the big Greek was hitting through the ball and Dupuis become “non non” instead of ‘oui oui” and he got a breadstick for his trouble in the final set.

Koellerer vs. Bolelli

Bolelli was the seeded player in this section, but he went to 13-11 the previous day and it wasn’t surprising that he was a bit flat in this match. In spite of this, the two key factors in this match were the very low unforced errors and the excellent behaviour from Dani in this match. It was such a surprise even he admitted how shocked he was at the way he behaved in this match. Dani was using his forehand to dominate and move Bolelli around and just like most players he wants the tempo to be fast when he is dominating and he tries all the tricks when he is behind in the match or bored cause he likes a sideshow.

One funny thing he even thanked me for coming to his matches, well I am not a fan, more interested in the theatre that he brings to the game.

Silva vs. Moodie

The Brazilians were out in force for this match, Ghem, Alves, Dutra Silva and a few other fans as well and it’s good that the Brazilians do this and the Serbs are very good at supporting their own players. Silva was solid from the baseline and Moodie is a serve/volleyer and he sucks away from those two aspects of the game. Moodie wasn’t serving as well as he can and Silva was returning well and once he had Moodie pinned to the baseline, then he was able to dominate with his groundstrokes and mixing up the passing shots as well and in the 2nd set he got a late break and was able to serve it out and win in 2 sets.

Last Round of Qualies

Chiudinelli vs. Economidis

The big Greek once again was slow out of the blocks and seemed to forget the significance of the match in which he would make his first main draw of a Slam. Chiudinelli was fired up from the start and took advantage and he won the 1st set 6-0. The Greek fans were pissed off and giving Economidis some crap about being lazy, in the second set he made more of an effort and while the set was competitive, nothing was going to deny Chiudinelli a place in the main draw and his play during the 3 days deserved it.

Koellerer vs. Brian Wilson (Beach Boy)

It was a sad Saturday as the Dani show is over for another year. Once again he missed the main draw by one match and he needs to get over that psychological hurdle. Dani started well and so did Beach Boy who was serving well especially on the big points. The 1st set was an arm wrestle, Dani with the forehand and Beach Boy with his serve/volley game.

Dani was playing up as usual blaming everyone and everything. In the tiebreaker there was a funny moment, well not taking the set point wasn’t one of them. After a hard fought point and Dani hits a passing shot winner. He then screams in English “that’s a good one baby”, then Wilson says something and Dani answers “since you are the greatest volleyer ever, I have to hit it that close to the lines.

Beach Boy took the 1st set and then raced off to a double break after Dani took a timeout, he tried to come back, but the Beach Boy had too many good vibrations and was able to seal his main draw spot.

Random sightings later.