(photo from Olé)
Last year, David won the Copa Argentina at the Buenos Aires Lawn Tennis Club (where the Copa Telmex is also held). But this this time, his visit turned out to be a rather short one. David lost his opening match against Juan Ignacio Chela, who prevailed 6-4, 4-6, 7-5.
Before the match, there had been speculations about how the crowd would welcome David after the Davis Cup final. And initially, their greeting didn't seem to go beyond a token display of respect. But the crowd warmed to him again during the match and in the end bid David a very friendly goodbye.
Chela, who hasn't played an official match since Roland Garros, was dominant in the first set, making well over 80% first serves and hardly losing any points on serve. David on the other hand struggled with his serve from the start and also made quite a lot of unforced errors.
The beginning of the second set saw Chela's serve grow a little weaker while David played a little better and went up an early break he then handed back to Chela, thanks to a poor service game at 4-2. But David managed to break again when Chela served to stay in the match.
In the third set David again went up an early break and then gave it back. They stayed on serve until David got broken to make it 6-5 Chela, who then went on to serve out the match.
As far as I can tell from watching the match on a rather poor stream David seemed tired and somewhat lacklustre. Perhaps, it's not too bad that the Copa Argentina is over for him.
So this was it, David's last match this year.
Goodbye 2008...
1 comments:
I also think it better that he call it a year. Overall, despite a couple of titles, it was a disappointing let-down from the enthusiasm engendered by the double Masters Series wins last year.
He needs time to reflect and decide what he might do differently. And if he concludes that he's already done all he could, then accept his status as a not-quite-grand-slam winner.
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