The first task was the newcomer Quasar, who played TE Vanilla before and only had less than 5 matches with ITST Mod under his belt. Thus it was a straightforward match for me, but only time will tell how good he will become at ITST Mod.
Then it was time to play against VAMOSRAFA, who behaved well on court (which he did not when we met earlier in the season at Rio Open!). He was a bit out of practice, but when he found some groove he had a nice game that was fun to play against.
In the QF I played against the Diva of ITST: tdbchess! We recently met at Wimbledon, where he did not give a good performance. This time he gave 100% and gave a good fight at the beginning, where it was 2-2 and 40-0 on his serve. Somehow I broke him there and got away with the first set 6-2. I continued in the 2nd set how I finished the 1st one, but tdbchess started to get better towards the end, holding nicely for 2-5 and then he got triple break point when I served for the match. Luckily I saved all of them and won the match here, but he could have or should have won two more games in total. I hope he can draw the positives from this!
Afterwards it was time to meet The Dude, with whom I've played many exhibitions and we know each other quite well. Our first official match was the dead rubber from Davis Cup, which he won in 5 sets. So, for official matches he was leading the H2H.
I came into this match very focused on serve, even if it was difficult against his good returns. I felt in control on serve in the 1st set and had first break points, which he saved with good serving. He also had one break chance then, but I stepped my game up a bit then and at 4-3 I was determined to break, served it out without troubles, 6-3. He was not yet playing his best tennis, thus it was important to win the 1st set.
I continued to get into his service games, although he served really well with Murray. His returns started to get a bit better in 2nd set, deep and high bouncing, difficult to deal with. We both had games with break points until he held for 5-4 (no breaks happened) and then he finally broke for the first time in this match, taking the 2nd set 6-4. Even though I had my chances, it was a deserved set for him.
Apparently it took some energy out of him, he started flat in the 3rd set and I could break immediately for 1-0, confirmed it, up 2-0. I continued putting pressure on him, it felt like I had him down and I got two more break points at 2-0, 15-40. I did not hit deep returns off his good serves and he saved both of them. Eventually he held, where he was back in the match. Him raising his level I tried to do more than previously in the set -- perhaps too much, because I got broken for 2-2!
"You are not letting this one slip away from you!" I told myself, refocused, and broke again for 3-2. A couple of errors later I found myself 0-40 down on my serve. I was like "Hit the display or smash the virtual racquet?" and let the emotions out on the court, beautifully smashing my racquet.
Whether it had positive effect on me or a negative one on him, I saved all break points and held for 4-2, phew. Perhaps it had more positive effect on me, because I managed to break him again for 5-2, having two chances to serve it out, after all. The first chance to serve it out, I was not really focused. Perhaps the break for 5-2 took too much out of me, so I kind of let the game go when I noticed it was not going well. At 5-4, the second chance, I did not make any fault and finished in style with a smash winner!Really good level by The Dude, who is looking to do damage at US Open Series once again.
In the final my 2nd official encounter with MaGav was awaiting me. He had Nadal and me Djokovic, so it was pretty clear what I had to do: Hit to his BH over and over again, when I get a sufficiently low-bouncing ball go quickly to the FH, rinse and repeat (as main tactic). Of course there are some variations to that, but this is the bread and butter against Nadal.
We both started sloppy on serve: I broke him immediately because he was making positioning mistakes, he broke me because I was taking shots too early and made faults. It was then all on serve until 5-5, but I felt in control, was holding a bit easier than him. Up to the game at 5-5 he made only 1 fault with Nadal's BH and I threw some good shots at him. Why I mention that? Because he made a fault for 0-30 in that game and another one for 0-40, I think. It was the moment to break him and so I did. He fought well to disturb me serving it out, but I managed to win the 1st set and it was then all about keeping up the gameplan. In more or less the same way I managed the last games of the 1st set, a bit less patient and less focused MaGav lost the next couple of games, until he managed to avoid the bagel when I served for the match. Fortunately I got another good return game in me and finished the match 7-5, 6-1.
It was a good match by MaGav with Nadal, but the match-up was in my favour.
It is a good feeling to have won a title again and I don't want to wait another one and a half years for the next one! Looking forward to the US Open Series, where I want to perform better than last year and see how far I can go this time. Maybe my fanboys will use variations of my nickname soon again (I saw some "N.VMoe" in the lobby after the match against MaGav).
Thanks to C4iLL, The Dude, Vramvrim and MaGav, who played their matches quickly at perhaps unfavourable times, I could play all my matches before leaving on July 31st -- I really appreciate this!
