My R32 was against MaxBou: Conditions were a bit tricky at some points, I got my game together and delivered a flawless 2nd set making not a single fault.
In R16 my first clash with Fez Azulay happened! Result: Fez has stopped playing TE (or the ITST Tour) afterwards.
Well, it was not about feel of "lack of power" in this match, but rather how rallies are turned around with deep shots and which I did very often. They are part of how the game is designed and I can understand if someone does not like that part. Always enjoyed the discussions with Fez, even though they were tedious at times. 
The QF was against pigrosofo, the Italian match delayer! We scheduled for Thursday night and -- what a surprise -- he felt sick.
Well, I think he was honest, and so we rescheduled for Friday night. I won 6-1, 6-4, where I played really well in the 1st set and in the 2nd set he managed to win some very important points, putting up a good fight. I had double break point in the first game of the 2nd set, he escaped with good serves. Then I held serve and broke, even had game point for a 3-1 lead, but once again he managed to win some important points to break and thus it went to 4-4 without break points for either of us. In that game I started well, getting to 0-30 on his serve. Then I hit a very good shot, followed at the net and somehow he got the ball back in a weird way that my character missed the ball completely.
Instead of 0-40 it was 15-30 and he got to 40-30, but then he misses an easy BH. As he said after the match "It was destiny that you break me here." and so I did. I served it out without much problems. Good match pigro, keep it up, you made a good analysis of your faults!So, in the SF it was time for the first official match with pidzi. We have played quite a few exhibitions and especially recently I could get closer to him again. This gave me a good feeling going into the match, but still I knew that he is in very good form ever since Wimbledon.
The match started well for me, him maybe a bit cold, so I could break and consolidate for a 2-0 lead. He recovered quickly from that and played on his high level, getting to 3-2. Then I was up 30-0 on serve and in some weird TE exchange I make a fault, 30-15. Of course he then breaks and consolidates for 5-2! I somehow held serve for 5-3 and gave it all to make it difficult for him and so it was -- triple break point... On the first two he only got a 2nd serve, but I was not sharp enough on the return and he got control of the rallies. Then he served a good 1st serve and that was it, he won this game and this set. I felt that there was more in this set, at least one more game was in there. However, I was happy with how the match went: We both were hitting the ball well, hitting winners, nice net approaches here and there, it was a fun match on very high level.
2nd set continued where the 1st set left off: Both of us holding until 3-3 without much troubles. Then at 3-3 I got 2 or 3 of my 4 2nd serves in the whole 2nd set and he broke me (after I was 40-15, if I recall correctly). Again, felt a bit gutted about the way I lost this game, but since I was playing well, I just continued and tried to make it difficult for him. Here it was really just a try, he was closer to breaking a 2nd time than me getting the break back in his last two service games.
Overall, I am not diappointed at all. The stats of this match are very good, I had my chances and played some of my best tennis this season, but pidzi was better in some situations and deservedly won in the end. Congrats and good luck in the final!
