$125,000 Polish Challenger

Jono · $125,000 Polish Challenger

Alex beats No.2 seed Schuettler 6-3,6-4 in 1st Round. Very Happy

Jac

Alex followed up with a hard fought win over Klec, with all 3 sets going to tb's, Klec won the 1st, but alex fought hard and came good in the final tb, firing down at least 3 aces in the breaker Smile

Jono

How will Alex fare against Zib, 8 years older and only 1 place higher????

Jac

i think alex has a good chance, he feels his match in the 1st round was one of his best ever, so lets hope he can fidn that again, and even tho the klec match went all the way, alex served really well, with 16 aces, when alex isnt normally an ace machine. His new coach lundgern is watching there, so he might have some tips for alex on zib to help out.

Jono

Unfortunately,loses 6-4,6-4.May move up 8 places to 132,but quarters is better start for year so far.Hope Al can build on that for progression to enter top 100.

Jac

unfortunatrly alex will be out side the top 150 when the rankings are releasd as he was defending 60 points from his bergamo win last year.

the plus side is that he has no points to defend till april so can make up some gound

admin

Rd1: A Bogdanovic bt R Schuettler 6-3, 6-4

Alex secured an excellent 6-3, 6-4 win over former top 5 player and second seed Rainer Schuettler to reach the second round of the Wroclaw 125K+H challenger.

Schuettler was unhappy about playing this match today as he'd requested a Tuesday start and he didn't come on court with a particularly positive attitude. In contrast Alex started the match with plenty of verve, playing aggressive all-court tennis. He broke in the 2nd game and again in the 6th to open up a 5-1 lead. At this stage he'd dropped just 1 point in his opening 3 service games and Schuettler was looking a little bewildered. However, Alex was perhaps guilty of thinking that the set was already over and he let the German back into it, getting broken to 30 and Schuettler held to narrow the deficit to 5-3. Serving for the set for a second time, Alex slipped to 15-40 but came up with some big serves to save both break points and he took the set 6-3 on his second set point .

The second set was a lot closer, it was decided by a single break for Alex in the 3rd game to lead 2-1. He never gave Schuettler a chance to get back into it and sealed the match with a hold to love. Schuettler was simply unable to deal with Alex's precise and powerful hitting from the back and the British no 3 also mixed up his game well, regularly taking advantage of openings in the rallies to finish points at the net.

Alex's serving was also very impressive in this match, it's an area which he worked hard on during the off season and that certainly paid off today. In the first set, he got 83% first serves in and although that percentage dipped slightly in the second set, he more than made up for it by winning 79% of the points on his second serve.

admin

Rd2: A Bogdanovic bt I Klec 6-7, 7-6, 7-6

Alex reached the quarter-finals by the narrowest of margins, beating Slovakia's Ivo Klec 6-7(4), 7-6(6), 7-6(2) in a 3 hour thriller.

Alex put in a lot of work on his serve during the off season and it showed in this match. He fired down 16 aces in total and his first serve percentage was in the 70s.

The match was largely dominated by serve with only 4 breaks in total. Alex started shakily, being broken in the opening game but broke straight back to 15. He had the better chances for the rest of the set but Klec hung on and it went to a tiebreak. Alex had the early minibreak and led 3-1 but let it slip and then received two really bad line calls which meant that Klec won the breaker 7-4.

Alex had a break point in the opening game of the second set but again Klec got really lucky. Alex put up a high defensive lob on the run, and Klec's smash hit the top of the net and just bounced over onto Alex's side. Both players then held comfortably (Alex rattled off 3 successive love service games) till the 7th game when Alex broke to 15 to lead 4-3. However, having finally got the break his concetration slipped and he threw in a dreadful service game with 2 double faults to hand the break right back to Klec. Serving to stay in the match at 4-5 and 5-6, Alex was just two points from defeat but both times he came up with big serves on the key points and held on. The tiebreak saw a mixture of shaky play and brilliance from Alex, he double-faulted to give Klec the first minibreak and then retrieved it with a brilliant passing shot on the run. He wasn't playing as consistently in the rallies as against Schuettler and a forehand into the net gave Klec a minibreak to lead 4-3. The Slovak looked on course to win when he fired down an ace for 5-3 but the pressure got to him and he sent a simple volley long to let Alex get back to 4-5. A forehand winner made it 5-5 and then Alex won arguably the point of the tournament to earn his first set point, hitting another blistering winner down the line. Klec saved it with another incredibly lucky netcord but Alex wasn't to be denied, taking advantage of a poor volley from the Slovak to thread another passing shot and lead 7-6. He wrapped up the set with a big serve followed by a backhand volley into the open court, setting up a decider.

Both players had several half chances at the start of the 3rd but were serving well on the key points. Neither player even had a break point and so a 3rd successive tiebreak ensued. Alex blasted down 3 aces to take a 4-1 lead, a second minibreak made it 5-2 and Alex sealed the match with his next two service points

admin

QF: T Zib bt A Bogdanovic 6-4, 6-4

Alex lost 6-4, 6-4 to Tomas Zib in the quarters of the Wroclaw challenger today.

It was a superb performance from Zib (who was ranked 51 in the world in 2005) who hammered down 10 aces and showed how he's beaten players of the quality of Henman, Berdych, Enqvist and Schuettler on indoor courts in the past. His speed around the court consistently frustrated Alex, who found himself in long rallies when he thought he'd done enough to win the point 6 shots back !

Alex was broken in the 7th game of the first set and had 2 break back points in the next game but missed them both. He didn't get any further chances as Zib served out the set 6-4. Alex started the second set strongly and had 3 more break points in the 4th game but Zib's serve got him out of trouble and he levelled at 2-2. Alex was made to regret those missed chances in the next game, he quickly slipped down 15-40 and although he pulled it back to deuce, Zib went on to break and lead 3-2. Alex had two half-chances at 15-30 in the next couple of Zib service games but the Czech's serve was firing on all cylinders and both times he quickly averted the danger.

Unfortunately Alex wasn't able to maintain the form he showed against Schuettler at the start of the week. Although he served very well against Klec and Zib, his movement and play in the rallies wasn't at the same level in those two matches.

The bad news for Alex is that he will now drop down to just outside the top 150 as he was defending 60 points this week from winning the Bergamo challenger last year. The good news is that he doesn't have any more ranking points to defend until mid-April, so he's got plenty of opportunities to get back into the top 120 over the next couple of months.