QF Heinrich von Westphalen def. Maryanucci 6/3 4/6 6/3 6/1Amidst the mood of the recently aborted and, sad but true, annoying semifinal it wasn't that easy to find some pleasure to finish the quarterfinals (which prompted me to avoid reserve matches in future). But after a few minutes I could recover the enthusiasm of this game and tried to come into play.
Maryan, known for his high-quality consistency on baseline but withering focus, did everything he could to challenge me and my game. He was intense, he fired himself up, and he played smart, positive tennis. Hitting through my backhand, I began to target Maryanucci's weakness, which is his tendency to sometimes neglect his stability on the sliced ball down the middle to his forehand. But in second set, while I was serving at 3/3, I lost the plot and consequentially the serve as well. And although I earned two break points to 5/5 in second set he remained steadfast and got it.
Afterwards I was the one who played more controlled tennis and, obviously my vulnerabilities were died down, I got my teeth into the match and had much less unforced errors.
In 4th set I felt great and was able to play throughout at a high level mentally. He tried to stick with longer points, which was 50-50, so started to mix everything. His focus dropped off and I used my chance to finish the match as soon as possible. Surprisingly (and which proved his high potential) he had the balls to avert two break points for a 4th set bagel.
In summary, I'm very thankful for this match which showed me again, why I'm here ... to enjoy great matches on court, no matter who win, and, which is much more important for me, talking off court about tennis etc. pp.
Kind regards,
Heinrich von Westphalen.