Today I attended both semi final matches, Kendrick/De voest and Shabaz/Guccione.
First of I cant tell you how impressed with Michael Shabaz. For a 20 year old sophmore in college he was as poised as anyone. His serve is just as good, if not better than the player he will be facing in the final(kendrick). Shabaz had trouble getting any points of the aussie's serve.He actually only got 3 the entire first set, but the most important ones were in the tiebreak. Guccione couldnt even return shabaz's serve either all match. In the second set shabaz figured out his opponent, scoring enough points off the serve to break him and win in straights. Another thing Shabaz does well is construct points, once he got to return a few in play gucci was toast. You can really see in person how a player does this and for a young guy, michael is great at this. In addition the entire UVA tennis team was there supporting him as well as his coaches who was sitting 1 row in front of him offering support all match. He has played these courts and is very comfortable here I overheard him say. The sports club does not seat many but what it had was full and tomorrow its going to be standing room only(150 ppl) Major major home court edge. Has an amateur player ever won his home city challenger? It could happen!! This will be his 7th match in 9 days but there was no sign of fatigue at all from Shabaz. I did see his right shoulder wrapped in ice after the match. Most likely a routine thing.
Robert Kendrick(like EP said) is a Isner clone. He has a big serve,but doesn't move very good. The only thing is that compared to guccione he has a good return game and de voest had alot of trouble holding serve. I do think both players in the final will be very tough to break however Shabaz has a MAJOR advantage in the net game and movement. To be honest Kendrick is kind of a douche and was bitching about calls and that seemed to bother him a bit. The linesman were HORRIBLE and in the doubles match had like 10 calls that I saw from 15 feet above that were wrong,you can hear everything players are saying and they even conversed with some of us.
Kendrick has to play in the doubles final as well and if this is played before the singles that is another advantage for Shabaz.
5 matches played so far that were bettable for MS and he has won as a dog all of them
+300 vs monroe in round 3 qualies
+250 vs lapentti
+370 vs harrison
+328 vs nishikori
+165 vs guccione
vs kendrick he will be a dog again. I personally would make him a favorite in the match, but whoever makes lines hasn;t seen the players involved so anything over +100 is value as far as I'm concerned.
On other notes I got to meet Donald Young(who had a limo there to pick him up after the match)..Pretty neat to see players walking around in the stands right behind you.That wouldn't happen in the ATP!
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In person Charlottesville Challenger report..
..Pretty neat to see players walking around in the stands right behind you.That wouldn't happen in the ATP!
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