Bratislava

Jono · Bratislava

Tough one agaist 6th seed Sluiter, but this is the highest challenger this week, and of course I'm hoping for the right result. Very Happy

reef

2-6 4-6 loss as I'm sure you all know by now. I watched live streaming of second set and Boggo played well but not in the same class as Sluiter.

admin

SLUITER OUTGUNS ALEX IN BRATISLAVA

Alex found the firepower of Dutch 8th seed Raemon Sluiter too hot to handle today. However, this was largely down to the carpet courts in Bratislava. The two courts being used are centre and court 3 and they vary quite dramatically in terms of speed. While court 3 is very quick and skiddy, centre is pretty slow and that caused Alex a lot of problems today in several areas.
Sluiter’s serve gets up into the mid 130s while Alex's is mainly in the low 120s and so he relies on variation and different spins to mix things up. On grass and fast indoor courts he’s at his best as the speed of the courts adds extra bite to his serve. Also because of Alex’s service action and the low bounce of those surfaces, the ball really skids off the court makes things difficult for the returner. On slower surfaces, the courts don't aiding his serve which makes things tricky if the returner starts to read it as Sluiter did today from early on in the match. In my opinion, this was the key factor. Sluiter was blasting service winnes and aces left, right and centre and rallies on his serve barely lasted more than 3 shots. He was winning 2-3 cheap points off his serve on most of his service games while Alex averaged about 1 cheap point per 2 service games. In order for Alex to win a point on serve he would have to grind out a rally of about 10-12 shots and it's tough mentally, to keep doing that when you're basically not playing on your opponent's service games.
Things started to go downhill at 2-2 in the first set. Alex went 0-30 down on his serve but then pulled things back to 30-30, outrallying Sluiter with some powerful play from the baseline. However, the Dutchman pulled out two massive returns, right onto the baseline to take the game. An easy hold made it 4-2 to Sluiter and he basically secured the set by breaking again in the next game; Alex went long with a backhand going down the line and then two blistering winners from Sluiter [one off the backhand when on the run] set up 2 break points and he took the first.
Alex started the 2nd set brightly, breaking to lead 2-0 as Sluiter’s concentration slipped. The Dutchman thought he’d hit an ace and spent quite a bit of time arguing with the umpire over the call and two double-faults followed – 1 handily on Alex’s second break point. Unfortunately Alex was broken straight back, paying the price for not making enough first serves and Sluiter’s shot-making proved too good. The set then went with serve until 4-4, Alex saved two break points with some courageous play from the back of the court, really going for some massive forehands and forcing errors. However, a double-fault at deuce gave Sluiter his third opportunity and he made no mistake with a return winner cross-court and then served out the match to love in the next game.
When they played in Mons and Kolding, Alex was the better player in both matches. This is because those were on faster courts and Alex was able to do more damage to Sluiter with his serve and groundstrokes. Alex is actually a bigger hitter from the baseline off both wings and he regularly forced Sluiter onto the back foot and opened up the court. However, as the surface was so slow, Sluiter was able to run down shots and get himself back in the rally. There were countless times Alex hit what would have been clean winners on a faster court but they kept coming back. Sluiter unleashed some particularly vicious forehands at unexpected moments and he's a great player on the defensive. He gets some superb angles turning defense into attack in an instant. I think that Alex needed to come into the net more, he hit some really booming forehands which Sluiter just floated back and he maybe should have been at the net trying to put them away but instead he was still at the back of the court, letting the ball bounce. This is something which he and Mike are trying to work on more, he put it to good use in Bangkok in September where the courts were just medium-paced indoor acrylic, Alex’s net approaches caused Henman quite a few problems.

Next up in a 125K+H challenger in the Ukraine next week.