It was a tough day for the Aussie boys, Boehm-McHugh in the qualifier, playing the polish team; Fijalek-Prudel POL in their first round match. Although I could not watch the match myself (more about that later), by all accounts the guys played close to their best and did well to take it to three sets. Chris McHugh showed some good strength on the net and served well. Sam Boehm also was hitting well and sided out fairly consistently. At the end of the day, perhaps just out played by a slightly better team.
I think if we keep in mind that these guys are only 19 and 21 years old, they put in a pretty good performance against a solid opponent.
The other thing to keep in mind about qualifying for the Klagenfurt Grand Slam is that the qualification tournament is almost as strong as some of the main draws were 5 or 10 years ago.
Here are top 7 teams from the men’s qualifiers:
- Marcio Araujo-Fabio Luiz – BRA – These guys won the silver medal in Beijing… need to introduction, say no more
- Geor-Gia – GEO – 4th in the Olympics Beijing
- Mesa-Lario – ESP – A regular main draw team. both players have won previous World Tour events with different partners
- Baracetti-Salema – ARG – Both these guys have been on the tour since 1996 and have had many podium finishes
- Redmann-Van Huizen – CAN – 5th in Moscow, 9th in Norway
- Gabathuler-Schnider – SUI – Both these guys have played in the main draw dozens of times
- Samoilovs-Sorokins – LAT – One of these guys was 9th in Beijing
Out of the guys who eventually qualified, there were no young and upcoming players. It’s only the seasoned campaigners who are getting through to the main draw.