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Three Thrillers Today At Sarasota Open
No comments · Posted by Scoop Malinowski in Articles, Scoop
First on stadium was heavyweight clash with American Tristan Boyer vs. the young Austrian Joel Josef Schwaerzler, the ITF no. 1 junior in the world. Boyer overwhelmed the kid in the first set 62 with the firepower that eliminated Lucas Pouille and Jack Sock who was sent to retirement. But the big lefty found his rhythm in set two and showed flashes of a young Marat Safin, who he resembles facially especially from the profile. 64 for JJ. The decider a barnburner, Boyer served for it at 54 but JJ raised his intensity like his inspiration Nadal with bigger hitting and intensity. Boyer faltered but recovered 75. Coached by Jurgen Melzer, who is not here (Fed Cup duties for Austria), Schwaerzler had Gerald Melzer here with him. I said to Melzer, “the sky is the limit for this kid.” He replied, “I feel the same way. He has everything, he just needs to work on his head.”
ATP 598 Stefan Kozlov vs ATP 164 Denis Kudla on court 8 started in the early afternoon and was another rollercoaster battle. The two Americans entered this match with a 3-2 head to head for Kozlov and right off the bat, Kudla jumped to a 2-0 lead. But then Kozlov found his maestro matador level and reeled off six in a row. You know vintage Kozlov, the defensive counterpuncher master but now he has added considerable firepower when needed with his new Yonex 98 racquet. Second set was close all the way until 31 year old Kudla snatched it in the end 6-4. Third set continued this pattern of baseline chess but Kozlov’s arsenal had a little more extra dimensions of serve and volley, drop shots, lobs and frozen rope passing shot winners. At 2-2 Kozlov took over and then rolled to 6-2 despite injuries to his wrist, hip, cuts on knuckled of right hand, and some kind of leg issue in the last game which relegated the 26 year old to hobbling around the court virtually on one left though he still managed to hit two forehand winners in that final victory clinching game. Most of this match was watched by Mitchell Krueger and Thai Son Kwiatkowski. Next for Koz in R16 will be 20 year old American Ethan Quinn, who beat him in Cleveland in three sets earlier this year.
Thanasi Kokkinakis fended off the surging Matija Pecovic 76 63. The 34 year old won two qualifying matches in decisive and dominant manner and fought the 2022 Adelaide and 2023 Aussie Open doubles champion gallantly but fell just a little bit short. The difference appeared to be the next level heavyweight striking of Kokkinakis who was unable to play points yesterday in practice with Varillas due to some kind of foot problem. Kokkinakis is ranked 106 right now and he wants to return to the top 60 range where he stationed last year.
Notes: Melzer said when he was finalist here in 2014 his award was a beer mug with a tennis ball inside. The trophies now for the Elizabeth Moore Sarasota Open tournament are actually art sculptures created by a local artist. This year’s trophies will be different than last year’s won by Daniel Altmaier and Daniel Galan… Faces in the crowd today: Jimmy Arias, Brian Gottfried, Dave The Koz.
Denis Kudla · Stefan Kozlov · Thanasi Kokkinakis · Tristan Boyer
