Carreno-Busta vs Burquier, both keep living different dreams

It will be the final that you wouldn't expect, mostly because of the French player, who clearly played some of the best tennis of his career to get this far. Burquier will have to face for the first time in this tournament a player who's not from Italy as in his way to this final played Virgili and Giannessi, before upsetting two of the favourite players for the title Volandri and Starace. Especially in his semifinal, Gregoire showed a great mental attitude towards the match, contrary to what Starace did.
The French player seemed to exactly know what to do and when, staying focused for most of the match, but a small black-out when he got an early break in the second set and suffered the Italian comeback. Gregoire was really solid from the baseline and only the dropshots from Starace seemed to be able to hurt him, but even that didn't last long and the Italian lost the cool and ended up losing a match that probably considered a good match up for a semifinal.
The other semifinal featured the biggest favourite for the title, Italian reigning champion and first seed Paolo Lorenzi, playing the most in-form player of this season, Spanish Pablo Carreno-Busta. The Spaniard, who was close to the top 100 no longer than two springs ago, he found himself out of the top 600 at the start of this season, but with humility he went back to futures and week after week, title on title he got back to top 100 and with other great results he conquered his best ranking last week at n°90 in the world, but will go further next week, whatever the outcome of this final will be.
His defensive game that reminds a little of his compatriot Ferrer, made him a built a wall which forced Lorenzi to go more and more for high-risk shots. The Italian hence, could find some peak moments in which he looked on the verge of taking a decisive lead, but those moments would soon be followed by moments in which all the risks didn't pay off and the level of the Spaniard barely ever changed for good nor bad and in the end it was his consistency that paid off the most, giving him a 7-6 (5) 7-5 and a place as a clear favourite in the final.

Starace halts Semrajc dream run, Carreno too solid for Gombos

(3) Pablo Carreno-Busta def Norbert Gombos 6-7 (5) 6-3 6-3

It needed two and a half hours for the 3rd seed to pass over the promising Slovak Gombos, but in the distance the more solid and less risky game of the Spaniard resulted into a good win and a place in the semifinals of the ATP Challenger of Cordenons.
Huge credits are to be given to Norbert Gombos though, who kept fighting for every point until the very end, even when many others would have given up. The Slovak played a good match and was satisfied with his game, though he admitted he wasted too many chances in the second set.
In the first set Carreno-Busta was the first one to break, but the Slovak could break back after a few games and in the end it was necessary to play a tiebreak to give the set and there the powerful game of Gombos let him dictate the rallies and in the end win the first set.
The constant pressure put on the Slovak by the amazing defense of Carreno and probably a bit of frustration for the mistakes adding one to another by the need of breaking the wall that was put up by the Spaniard -and probably a little of that given by the annoying cheering on his mistakes provided by Busta's dad- started to weight on Gombos shoulders and on the other side of the net the Spanish seed kept his calm and by risking very little went on winning the next two sets.

Potito Starace def. (Q) Janez Semrajc 4-6 6-4 6-2

It's been a terrific run the one that the young Slovene had lived here in Cordenons (you can find two interviews with him in the previous posts), starting from being unseeded in the qualies he reached the Quarter-finals and today had a lot of chances to go further by playing an awesome match against a very inspired Potito Starace. The Italian, who himself didn't have a good year so far, seemed to have found his game this week and sailed up to this match, but eventually found a great opponent on the other side of the net.
Janez started very solid from the baseline, dictating most of the points, but being able to make Potito play extra balls when forced into defence. The Slovenian could also count on a strong and solid serve and that helped him to keep the break conquered early in the first set, up to finally take the first set 6 games to 4.
The second set started with a very bad moment of lack of focus from Semrajc, who found himself fast down 3-0, but eventually tied it up to 3-all. Starace started to feel the pressure of being on the verge of an upset from a much lower-ranked player in front of the home crowd and tried new ways out, because his baseline game was simply useless against Semrajc. The Italian bad moment channelled in a warning given for a ball being sent probably in the swimming pool a dozen meters outside of the stadium, but that reaction lead to a change into his game, he started to rush more to the net and use a lot of dropshots to take the Slovene out of his comfort zone. The last games of the set where the quality-wise best of the match, but despite his chance, Semrajc couldn't close it and in the end it was Starace who found the right acceleration to take the set and level the score.
As Janez said after his match, by the end of the second set he started to feel tired and his legs didn't react as fast as he hoped for, but in the third set everyone could tell and Potito tried his best to take advantage of that, by forcing Semrajc to chase a lot of balls and on the other side of the net, the Slovene started to go for winners earlier in the rally in the desperate attempt to shorten the rallies.
The final game summed it up with Semrajc serving 4 big serves, making one silly mistake on a basic putaway and finally being broken from 40-15 up. Starace's reaction for this win wasn't as much of an example to follow as most of kids watching deserved to see, with the Italian giving one last loud fist-pump after the hand-shake.

ATP Challenger Cordenons: day 2 review

After the unexpected death of the creator of this tournament and chief of the venue, the event struggled to find money and the prize money suffered a downgrade, but in spite of that the Open del Friuli welcomed quite a strong field with 4 top 100 players and Volandri, number 102.
Tuesday witnessed quite a nice number of enjoyable matches and surprises:

Alessandro Giannessi def (4) Adrian Ungur 3-6 7-6 (2) 6-1

The 23 year-old Italian came to this match with the knowledge that despite the huge gap between his ranking and his opponent he could have his chances, as in the previous matches they were tied with one win each. Giannessi started well and could take a break lead early in the set, but the Romanian couldn't react any better: his one handed backhand grew harder and more accurate and there was little the Italian could do whenever Ungur was accelerating from this wing.
In no time Ungur won the break back and started to sail full speed to take the first set, while Giannessi fell in a cloud on negativity, swearing, complaining on calls a smashing balls to the back fence. From 3-2 up, the Italian suddenly found himself 6-3 down and with the desperate need for a reaction in the second set, which eventually came.
Most of the games saw no risks for the one serving, because both guys served really well and up to 3-3 no break points were given. Then in the 7th game Giannessi let his negativity haunt him again and Ungur tried his best to finally break his opponent's serve by chasing after every ball and attacking whenever he had a chance. Giannessi seemed to suffer this situation and was forced to face several break points, but thanks to inspired drop shots he could save them and finally hold. Ungur struggled a bit on his serve too, but in the end there were no breaks and only a tie-break could close the set.
As to follow the path of the last games Giannessi finally got rid of his negative thoughts and attitude and played an awesome tie, whilst Ungur looked tired and there was little he could do from that moment on.
Once he lost the tiebreak he went on serving his first game out in the third, but he immediately called the trainer for some back pain and once back on court he completely gave up the fight, as it was impossible for him to chase Giannessi's sharp angles the match was set for a fast ending in favor of the Italian that moves to the second round.

 (Q) Janez Semrajc def (6) Antonio Veic 4-6 6-4 6-4

Probably the biggest surprise of the day, considering the very unlucky seasons that the Slovene has just left behind and the good results that Veic reached in the past weeks. All in all, Janez came from two tough battles in the qualies, but knew he could have chances against Veic, because he had won their only match before on a future, but that was before the illness that forced Semrajc out.
The match was very intense and it needed almost three hours to finally decide the winner, but it was a great quality one, with the Slovene finding energy everyone thought he might simply not have in the third set, when Veic could get a break lead and he started to be more effective and powerful with his shots. In that moment Semrajc reacted with a good service game and finally by fighting point-to-point to break back by passing with superb backhands all the attempts of the Croat to close at the n
et. The Slovene himself showed great touch at the net and once he finally hold for 5-4 in the decider, he gave everything on return and he finally could snatch this great win to boost his confidence and hopes in this comeback. After the match Semrajc agreed for an interview where you can hear a lot more about his come back and his thoughts on this match, you can find it here.

Potito Starace def (WC) Filippo Baldi 6-2 6-2

There's really very little to be said about this match, because the match itself was never in doubt to end in straight easy sets for the more experienced Starace, who's clearly on a bad moment of his career, but he still has the shots and the consistency to be safe from being upsetted by a youngster, not even as talented as Baldi.
As for Filippo, there's a lot of raw talent for sure, he has a great first serve for his age as he hit a couple of 195+ km/h serves, he has a good shot selection, but he still lacks of a general view of the game and a bigger consistency as he often gives away points he should not. What's more he should find a calmer attitude, because smashing rackets, swearing and self-mockeries channel way too much energy and concentration onto the wrong aspects of the game and in the end he can't play as well as he is capable of.