Tennis Acumen

Benoit Paire in 269

PETE ZIEBRON

Benoit Paire, like Nick Kyrgios, plays his best tennis when the stadium is full, energized and enthusiastic.  Without being able to feed off fan support, the result of the match can be disappointing.

Paire squares off against Nikolai Davydenko in Cincinnati, 2013

photo by Karl Corbett   (c) Tennis Acumen

 

This May in Madrid, Paire elaborated: "When you play in front of people, the thing change a lot.....when the people are coming and watch the match, they support me and that's what I like."

Last night in Cincinnati, Paire converted his 4th match point to defeat #6 seed Denis Shapovalov to advance to the 3rd round.  The victory was Paire's first top ten win since 2017.

While waiting for French press to arrive in Cincinnati in 2015, I had the opportunity to conduct a seven minute one-on one interview with Paire.  He was most appreciative and I asked him about the fact that he not only played, but won a Futures event, a Challenger event as well as an ATP tour level event earlier in the year.  The Frenchman smiled and elaborated on the fact that he felt he needed more match play at the time.

When he won the Futures event in Bressuire, France in January of 2015, Paire's ranking was #135.  In February, he won the Bergamo, Italy Challenger to improve to world #121.  A run to the Cherbourg, France Challenger Final as well as winning the Quimper, France Challenger in late February and early March lifted Paire's ranking to #85 but more importantly, he was getting the match play he needed.

Entering the Bastad 250 event in July with a ranking of #62, Paire won the event and reached #42 in the world as a result.  

My favorite Paire memory: crushing a live ball out of Grandstand in Cincinnati when he was Match Point down in 2016.

Camila Giorgi in 269

PETE ZIEBRON

Camila Giorgi defeated Karolina Pliskova for the third time in less than two months to win the biggest title of her career yesterday in Montreal.  Ironically each win has come on a different continent: in Europe (England) at Eastbourne at the end of June, in Asia at the Tokyo Olympics a few weeks ago and in North America at the Montreal Final.

Camila Giorgi, the new Champion of Montreal.  Pete Ziebron Images

The Italian has a go-for-broke game plan which often results in excessive double faults.  That said, it is refreshing to see a WTA player absolutely go for it on a second serve - think of a Fernando Gonzalez style of play.  Following her quarterfinal win in Montreal over Cori Gauff, Giorgi was asked if she were playing the best tennis of her career at the moment.  She replied with:

"I think is the first time I don't have, like, interruption. I have consistent. I play many, many tournaments now in this year without stopping. So I think this is the key.  I didn't have in other years. I think I always had some issue physically or, like, injury or something. So I think now I'm playing my game really."

Following her win in Canada, Giorgi is scheduled to meet Jessica Pegula of the United State in her opening round match in Cincinnati.  This will be their second meeting in four days, as Giorgi defeated the American in the Montreal semifinals on Saturday 6-3 3-6 6-1. In that match, Giorgi hit nine double faults, after not hitting one against Gauff in the quarterfinals. 

Camila Giorgi plays pedal to the metal tennis - Cincinnati, enjoy the rematch on Tuesday!

 

 

 

Lloyd Harris in 269

PETE ZIEBRON

Twenty-nine months ago I watched Lloyd Harris lose in the first round on the brand new ATP Phoenix Challenger at the Phoenix Country Club.  The South African was ranked 92nd and went out  6-3 4-6 4-6 to American Ryan Harrison, ranked 104th.  The match did not stand out in any manner, as several other players were in Phoenix, namely: David Goffin, Ernests Gulbis, Jeremy Chardy, Casper Ruud, Dan Evans and eventual Champion Matteo Berrettini.

Yesterday, Harris stunned Rafael Nadal in the 3rd round of the Washington 500 to improve to 17-14 in 2021 and 49-47 in his career.  The 50th ranked Harris has recorded wins this year over: Stan Wawrinka, Dominic Thiem, Denis Shapovalov, Kei Nishikori, Grigor Dimitrov and Gael Monfils.  However, he also lost to: #423 Adrian Andreev and #192 Mackenzie McDonald.

Lloyd  Harris in the Lexington Challenger, 2017 (photo by Karl Corbett)

Harris has a 7-11 career record at majors, reaching the 3rd round of this year's Australian Open, as well as a 2-4 mark at Masters 1000 events.

Entering Washington, Harris lost 4 of his last 5 matches, with the lone win coming in the 1st round at Wimbledon.  This week in Washington, the South African received a first round bye as he is the tournament's 14th seed.  In his opening match, Tennys Sandgren retired in the second set and Harris advanced with a 604 1-0 RET result to then meet Nadal in the 3rd round.  

Next up is Nishikori, whom he defeated in the quarterfinals this year in Dubai 6-1 3-6 6-3.  Harris eventually reached the final, losing to Aslan Karatsev.  Denis Kudla or Mackenzie McDonald will await the winner in the Washington semifinals.

 

 

 

Photo of the Day: Stan Wawrinka

Stan Wawrinka has one of the most interesting stat lines in professional tennis - he has 3 Majors but just 1 Masters 1000.  The Swiss needs Wimbledon to complete the career Grand Slam.  Ironically, the lone Masters 1000 that he won was against Roger Federer at Monte-Carlo.  Federer has never won Monte-Carlo.

Working with coach Magnus Norman sparked confidence in Wawrinka's game and helped lead to his fantastic results on the ATP Tour and an eventual place in the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

 

Stan Wawrinka, one of the few players on tour with a Yonex racquet.

Peter Ziebron Images