Thanks for the feedback guys and gals, just had a bit of a busy day today, well yesterday now. Get the update on later on today as I'm just going to head to bed now.

-- Edited by Vonce at 02:45, 2006-11-29

Day 4:

QF match today against a home player by the name of E. Selvetti who's ranked quite a bit above me at 210. So it might give me a bit of challenge I thought before I went for the match.

Set 1: So the match was pretty even in the 1st set as it was 3-3 and I was serving. Won the game to love and broke my opponent at 5-5 and went on to seal the 1st set 7-5 with a few good forehands and backhands which he seemed to struggle to return or reach.

Set 2: 2-0 up in the 2nd set after breaking him in the last game and I was looking down at 30-40 down. I just upped a gear and just took the next 3 pts with ease to win the game and ware off the little scare of Selvetti having a break point to get back in this set. Pretty much cruised the rest of the set and won 6-1.

Set 3: Up 4-2 with a break and I'm returning at this point. With complete suprise my opponent didn't seem to be up to much in this game and handed me a few points with unforced errors and I won to love to go 5-2 up. Won my service game after and took the match 7-5, 6-1, 6-2. Another SF fo' me, yeah.



Day 5:

Day of rest and some training really as I look forward to my Semi-Final tomorrow. Done some training on my serve and my play at the net which I need to improve quite a bit. I seem to be progressing well on that front and I'm becoming more confident to go to the net but not too sure if I should do it on cruicial points in big matches yet.

After that went out to a local Argentinian restaurant and decided to have some Steak, yeah I know I shouldn't being an athelete but I could resist


Day 6:

QF match today against a Dutchman by the name of G. Klein who's ranked a bit above me at 230. So I felt he was beatable.

Set 1: Sadly I struggled through the 1st set and didn't really get going. Had quite a few unforced errors and my opponent seemed to play quite well, I lost 6-2.

Set 2: This set was a bit more promising as I upped my game from the 1st which was pretty poor. As I eased the pain a bit winning the opening game of the set and ended up winning the set to level 1 set all by 6 games to 3 (6-3)

Set 3: Was 1-1 in the 3rd while my opponent was serving and I hit one blistering forehand return which he couldn't get to and it shook him up a bit and struggled a bit on serve. So I capitalised and took the break and went 2-1 up. Went on to win the set 6-2.


Set 4: 2-3 serving and I'm pretty much cruising on serve. As everything I hit seems to going my way and won to love to level at 3-3. I took a break at 5-5 and went 6-5 up so I was serving for the match and I'm 40-15 up with 2 match points. I hit a blistering cross court forehand and well Klein struggled to reach it and I'm into another final, happy days


Final up tomorrow folks.

Final

Opponent: M. Diebel (USA).
Ranking: 224


Set 1: 1st set I'd say had to be pretty even and was at 4-4 and I was serving to go 5-4 up... In the game I played flawlessly and didn't drop a point at all in the game and won to love with 2 aces within the game. Had to pull out all the stops though in the set tie-breaker where I struggled a bit with us exchanging mini-breaks here and there but I got the crucial points towards the end to take the set 7-6 and have a 1 set to love advantage.

Set 2: Early in the 2nd 1-1 and I'm returning and well I was pretty much on form here. As totally blasted through the guys serve and hit 3 forehand winners during this game and took it to love and pretty much cruised the rest of the set only dropping one game in the process. So it finished 6-2 and now 2 sets to love up and 1 hand on the title I suppose.

Set 3: 2-3 in this set while I'm serving and it's 15 all. Had a few tense exchanges within this game but in the end I didn't lose a point onwards from 15 all. So I took the next 3 pts to seal the game and level at 3 games all. Then broke him in the next game when he served as he hit some unforced errors which I felt he should have really made and kind of sealed the match almost for me. Didn't look back and took the set 6-4 and sealed the title in a suprising straight sets win for myself.

So it's great to know I stepped up a level from my last tournament and was able to get through this far and actually win. I didn't expect to have such a good week, so it's upwards and onwards from here on in


Rankings update:

Jan week 1: 250
Jan week 2: 219 (+31)