2010 AEGON Masters Tennis: Thursday Afternoon Session Review
Last day of the round-robin (RR) stage at the 2010 AEGON Masters Tennis! With Aussie Patrick Rafter, American Todd Martin, Swede Thomas Enqvist and French Cedric Pioline already in the quarterfinals, the remaining “Old Ones” take
to the courts one last time to ensure their qualification in the quarterfinal.
Although the RR stage and groups are designed as such to get almost everyone of them into the quarters, in respect of their legendary careers, one person from each group however, will exit the event. Having lost both his RR matches,
Aussie Pat Cash has already exited the tournament with a 0-2 mark.
Enqvist and Pioline moved ahead with a 2-0 mark while Rafter and Martin moved ahead automatically following Cash’s exit. Rafter and Martin are still scheduled to play later in the day.
Kicking off the afternoon session were Brit Canadian Greg Rusedski and Russian Yevgeny Kafelnikov. Playing in his third event of the season, Rusedski currently holds the ninth spot in the Champions Tour Rankings with 550 points.
He finished fourth in eight at the Algarve event after losing the 3rd/4th match to Croat Goran Ivanisevic. This was his first event of the season. He then played at the Chengdu event where he won the final defeating Pete Sampras in straight
sets.
Kafelnikov, on the other hand, is playing in his sixth of eleven events of the season. Although he did make it past the first round at Delray Beach and Zurich, he has failed to make it to the final of any event this season. He
currently ranks higher than Rusedski in the ATP Champions Tour rankings holding the seventh position with 710 points.
Rusedski defeated Kafelnikov in straight sets as they played their second RR match on Thursday afternoon. The Russian put up some fight in the first set, keeping the score tied for eight games. However, at 4-4 Rusedski caught a
break and managed to win two consecutive games winning the set 6-4. With one set lead, Rusedski practically sailed through the second set with minimum resistance from the Russian. Winning the second set 6-2, Rusedski sealed his victory and ensured a spot for
himself in the quarterfinals joining group mate Pioline.
Following his defeat, Kafelnikov exited the event with a 0-2 mark. However, hearing the news of Russia winning the bid for the FIFA World Cup 2018, Kafelnikov met with mixed feelings as did Rusedski (England failed to make the
bid, even though they expected it).
Following these two on the courts was a doubles performance by the team of Mansour Bahrami and Mark Woodforde as they played the pair of Peter McNamara and Peter Fleming. These doubles performances hold no standing in the event
and are merely exhibition matches for entertainment purposes.
After the doubles performance, French Henri Leconte played local Jeremy Bates. Having lost their opening matches to Swede Thomas Enqvist, both professionals currently enjoy a 0-1 mark in the event.
In a close battle between the two, Leconte finally pulled off a straight, yet not so simple, set win over the local favourite. In the opener, Bates evenly matched Leconte for eight games keeping the score tied at 4-4. However,
Leconte caught a break in the ninth game and winning two consecutive games won the set 6-4. Despite being one set down in the match, Bates would not give up the fight and this time managed to keep the score tied for ten games. At 5-5, Leconte pulled off another
two consecutive wins to win the set 7-5.
With the afternoon session wrapped up, Leconte and Rusedski move into the quarterfinals to join the already qualified champions. Two spots now remain in the quarterfinals, which would be filled after the match between Goran Ivanisevic
and Younes El Aynaoui.
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