Anywho, here it is: 

My finely crafted analysis is as follows: it’s a pretty youngish bunch this week (average age: 22.42).  Lindell, Marti and Harrison are the teens, while the gramps of the group are Gensse and Dutra da Silva at age 27.  France and Germany lead the way with four players each nabbing a career high at the moment.  Interestingly, Artem Smirnov is this month’s ITF Featured Player.  So go have a gander at that if you’re interested in learning more about him.

p.s. if you’re interested in those muckety-mucks higher up in the Top 80, our friends at Shank Tennis usually give it a good whirl.

I see that Monza took the Teutonic mini-trend idea I floated in my midview and ran with it throughout quarterfinal Friday. All the Germans who played? Won. Ninth seed Simon Greul thrashed Meknes finalist Guillermo Olaso 6-2 6-1, Andreas Beck beat fourth seeded Marsel Ilhan 6-3 6-7(5) 6-1, and seventh seed Julian Reister ousted Casablanca champ Evgeny Donskoy 6-1 6-2.

The only spoiler in the semifinal lineup was Marrakech semifinalist Alessio di Mauro, who edged Martin Fischer 7-6(8) 4-6 6-4. But that’s OK – Fischer’s Austrian, so it wasn’t a true trend spoiler. Plus that’s di Mauro’s natural role anyway, that of the spoiler. He spoils every event he plays, simply by entering it, haha. (I kid because I love.)

In the semis, di Mauro (whose name is Italian for “The Spoiler”, I’m pretty sure) continued his spoiling ways, defeating Greul 6-4 2-6 6-2. Now, some might argue that this pleased the home crowd greatly, the Italian doing well in Monza. But I’m in no mood to argue. Reister squeaked past Beck 6-3 6-7(5) 6-1 in the other SF.

And so it was up to Reister to dash the Italian hopes and avenge his fallen Austrio-German comrades in the final. And dash and avenge he did, serving up a cold comeback win, 2-6 6-3 6-3 over the 33-year-old former Top 70 player. In doing so, the 25-year-old Reister arrives in the Top 100 for the very first time in his career, checking in at #100.

In the doubles final, third seeds Fred “The Perry” Nielsen and Johan “The Bruni” Brunstrom beat the fourth-seeded British pair of Jamie Delgado and Jonathan Marray 5-7 6-2 10-7. Freddie’s now at a career high #108 in dubs after floating around the Top 200 for a good four year or so.

Freddie and Bruni star in “The Italian Job”

In Recife, 18-year-old wild card Tiago Fernandes tried to extend the wave of homegrown Brazilian talent all the way through the final. In a battle of 18-year-old wild cards, he beat his friend and former junior dubs partner, Guilherme Clezar, 6-4 3-6 7-6(3) in what was, by all accounts, an epic encounter indeed. Clezar served for the match and a 2-0 H2H advantage. Instead, Fernandes’ victory evened up their head-to-head tally at one win apiece. “It was one of the best matches of my life,” said the winner (in Portuguese), “We both played at a very high level and a tie would be a fair result today.”

In the other quarterfinals, the three older Brazilians (two of them seeded) couldn’t do what Fernandes could. Seventh seed Caio Zampieri lost his quarterfinal 6-3 3-6 2-6 to fourth-seeded countryman Julio Silva, which set up a semifinal match with a 13.5 year age discrepancy vs. Tiago. 25-year-old fifth seed Ricardo Hocevar was beaten 4-6 6-1 6-1 by second seed Tatsuma Ito, while 28-year-old Andre Ghem was handed a 4&4 defeat by third seed Giovanni Lapentti.

That’s when things got weird. And rainy. But mostly weird. In the rain-delayed Fernandes v Silva semi, Silva won the first set 6-2, and Tiago was asking for a medical time out for back pain when the rains came again and moved play indoors to a different court surface!

Once they got on indoor clay instead of an outdoor hard court, the 18-year-old turned the match around, winning 2-6 7-5 7-6(2). In the other semi, Ito prevailed over Lapentti 7-6(7) 6-3.

And then, in another strange twist, Tiago withdrew from the final – the young man citing exhaustion after two lengthy battles – making Ito the Recife titlist via walkover. He tweeted his anticlimactic concession, and added (in Portuguese), “`Tiredness is too great and prefer not to run the risk of suffering a major injury going into court without being able to play. I regret, because I wanted to play my very first final, but I’m young and I believe I will have other opportunities to fight for titles.” A bit of a sad end to a great tournament for him, but he did jump from ATP #509 right into the Top 400 on the strength of his epic week. As for Ito, he not only moved up to a career high #135 on the strength of his third career Challenger title win, but also earned a place into the 2012 Brazil Open, should he desire to play there.

And though he may be currently stinking up the singles court of late, the formerly unbeatable Fernando Romboli was able to team up with Giovanni Lapentti and take the doubles crown here, unseating the second seeded Finns Juho Paukku and Timo Nieminen in the second round and romping over the top seeds Andre Ghem and Rodrigo Guidolin in the final, 6-2 6-1.

When last we checked in on Pereira, a massive attenuation of seeds #1, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 8 through the first two rounds saw youngsters like Argies Facundo Bagnis and Marco Trungelliti, Colombian Eduardo Struvay and Spanish sensation Javier Marti poised to possibly pounce. So how did they fare?

Well, one fared well and the others just had to say “farewell.” Marti was the only young gun to not draw a blank in his quarterfinal, getting into the semis by virtue of a 6-3 6-3 win over Italian Riccardo Ghedin. Meanwhile, fifth seed Paolo Lorenzi bagged Bagnis 6-3 6-1, 24 year-old Colombian Juan Sebastian Cabal clipped Trungelliti 3-6 6-4 6-4, and seventh seeded Brazilian Rogerio Dutra Da Silva – not playing Recife for reasons I do not know – stopped Struvay’s S&V show 6-4 6-2.

One of my Challenger Tennis Players to Watch this year, Marti (accent on the “i”) almost carried his momentum into the final, leading 5-3 in the third set against RDDS before losing the last four games and succumbing 6-1 2-6 5-7 to the only Brazilian not in Recife. On the other side of the draw, Lorenzi took out the last remaining home hope, clobbering Cabal 6-0 6-4.

All that was left for the 29-year-old Italian to do was win 6-2 7-5 in the final and hoist a glass thing over his head. Which he did.

While the clouds still blanketed the ground in some sort of meteorological mercy, I started out beside Court 14 at the Forestmeadows Tennis Complex – a court which, despite its name, is really more like a grandstand/show court. It was there that 19-year-old Australian Mark Verryth, the former world junior #23 and 2009 Eddie Herr International doubles champ (with partner Harry Fowler), kicked off his long day, playing 22-year-old Macon, Georgia wild card Deo-Ray Brown.

Call It In The Air Like You Just Don’t Care

From the outset, it was clear that Brown was overmatched by the 6 foot 6 inch man from Melbourne (Australia, not Florida), as Verryth hammered home 11 aces and never faced a break point the entire match. Though he only put 50 percent of his first serves in, his kicking second delivery had Brown off balance throughout.

To his credit, Brown got more of a read on the Aussie’s serve toward the end, framing some short replies and delaying the point for at least one more shot, as Verryth supplemented his service profile with some blistering forehands.

But the match was over before 60 Minutes would’ve gotten to Andy Rooney. It wasn’t the most flawless performance (5 double faults, a number of unforced errors, and repeated self-admonishments that his serve was “too short”), but it didn’t need to be. It was still impressive enough that ball kids lined up for autographs afterwards.

And it was good that he conserved his energy, as the big man from the land Down Under would go on to play a 2 hour QR2 match in the midday sun, upsetting qualifying fifth seed Woong-Sun Jun 6-7(3) 7-6(5) 6-3. I didn’t get to see that one – as I can only be in so many places at once, you see - but I hoped to check out at least some of his final qualifying match against another Korean, Daniel Yoo. (Thank yoo verryth much.)

For the next match, I was intrigued to see how Devin Britton was doing these days, as the young American’s been struggling since he made his big splash against some dude named Federer in the 2009 US Open (losing twice as many matches as he’s won since that day). DevBritt came out a bit disheveled (TM Brad Gilbert) and never seemed quite at ease against his 23-year-old formerly Greek (now American) opponent, Vlademyros Mavropoulos-Stoliarenko (a spirited guy whom I unfortunately could not tweet about by name, as his name alone accounts for half a tweet as it is).

For his part, Stoliarenko (as the chair ump called him) came out guns blazing, breaking Britton at 15 with an inside-in forehand and a blistering forehand return winner up the line for an early 2-0 advantage.

Of course, he immediately was broken back to love, thanks to a double fault, a grunty drop shot wide, and a couple of D.Britted forehand winners. And that’s about how the whole first set went. Five breaks of service in all, with VMS getting the last of them for a 6-4 first set victory. Britton’s reviews of various parts of the first set: “That is so bad. So bad.” And “that’s embarrassing!” Can’t say as I disagree, especially since Devin missed a few fairly easy volleys, and his net play is supposed to be the strength of his game.

After the set, I overhear an awesome conversation between ballkids about their chosen craft. Highlight: “If it’s coming right at us, can we move or do we just have to wear it?” “You can move.” “OK, but are we allowed to wear it? I wanna leave with a battle bruise.”

Heh. Tough kid.

Meanwhile, back to the bruising battle on court: the second frame found Britton landing all the punches. And Stoliarenko sufferered from a few self-inflicted blows, to add to the punishment. For instance, when he smacked a groundie long down break point in the first game. Or threw in his only double fault of the set to help the Britton to a double break lead.

For his part, Devin tightened up his game just enough to be effective. Serving at 3-0, 30-all, he consolidated his second break with a solid forehand crosscourt volley winner (on this, VMS told himself, “Just pass him once. If I hit right to his hand then I have to run.” Heh.) and an ace. After a few more errant Stoliarenko’ed groundstrokes, Britton got the triple break with a backhand down the line return winner and cruised to a 6-0 second stanza.

It seemed like Vlademyros was losing steam as the day itself got steamier. His tiniest bit of a gut indicated that fitness might be an issue. Further evidence: his four forehand errors that led to a break in the first game of the third set. During the change of ends, he did some dips on his chair and looked to be trying to stretch out his upper back as well – he’s had problems in the past with a dislocated vertebrae. Britton consolidated from 30-all next game with a rifled backhand up the line, putting an exclamation point at the end of a 20-shot rally, followed by an ace.

And just when it seemed he couldn’t break down anymore, Stoliarenko broke himself again: four more forehand errors, and the match was all but over.  Sure, Britton made the final score a lot closer than it should have been, mucking up some games from 5-1* in the third, but in the end he was able to finally knock his opponent out, 4-6 6-0 6-4.

The beleaguered former NCAA champ never could get his game going, but he got better as the match progressed and played just well enough to win.

After that match, I was able to duck over to the lovely, shaded tents next to Forestmeadows Center Court to catch the second set of Wayne Odesnik’s match against the perpetually-petulant Daniel Garza, qualifying seventh seed from Mexico. As readers of this site well know, I was there for Odesnik’s first victory since coming back on the tour at the USA F4 Palm Coast. At the time, I was touched by how humbled and rededicated he seemed, how glad to be back he was, and I wanted to see how those good spirits were holding up here, in his second Challenger event since his return (he had qualified but then lost first round to Juan Pablo Brzezicki in Barranquilla).

Turns out, they weren’t holding up so great. I mean, Wayne got the “W”, sure, but he seemed a bit prickly and less thrilled to be back than he was when I’d last seen him. Granted, that was 14 matches and two continents ago, and I’m pretty sure it’s not fair to judge someone’s attitude based on behavior exhibited at the end of long match on a sweltering day. But it bears noting, I think: Wayne really struggled with the officiating (and, in turn, his temper) throughout the second set. (“Who’s calling this ball? How slow do you need it to be going before you overrule?! This lady’s missed two straight calls – you had to overrule off the net cord and it was THIS FAR OUT!”)

Odesnik was able to nab a break as Garza served at three all, with a forehand return down the line past a second-serve-and-volleying Daniel (the 26 year-old man from Mexico served and volleyed on almost every point of that game). Garza got the break back with a few fiery forehands in the very next game, but gave it away again with a dodgy double fault and an even dodgier drop shot that didn’t even make it halfway to the net. Three straight breaks then.

At 5-4, as Odesnik tried to serve out his match, he exhibited a fairly graceful-looking level of disdain at a particular baseline call…

Odesnik’s Dance Step Dispute

…then had a lively extended debate about it with the chair.

Wayne Dares You To Caption This Photo

Odesnik was able to serve the match out for a 6-4 6-4 win and then went on to play Britton later that day, winning handily 6-1 6-1. The latter result really didn’t surprise me based on the form I’d seen from both players in their previous matches. But I didn’t get to watch that one because I was witnessing by far the longest (and probably the most dramatic) match of the day: 20 year-old Canadian Vasek Pospisil vs. 24-year-old Hungarian Denes Lukacs (of course – what else would it be?).

Heck, just the first game was longer and more dramatic than most matches: eleven deuces, almost thirty minutes, two line-call controversies, and six break points saved before Pospisil held for 1-0 in the first set. Amazing. Vasek was tres exasperated, thinking he should’ve gotten out of the game a lot earlier but had been jobbed by a call. He kept saying something about “3 a.m.” which I took to be his estimate of what time the match would end. Which didn’t seem like a bad guess at the time.

Nothing Is Impospisil

The match picked up the pace slightly from there (hard not to do), but both players seemed sluggish and not altogether scintillating on the now-searing surface at 1:30pm. Lukacs, who played for four years as a Baylor Bear (which might be a key reason that Mate Zsiga is slated to play ball in Waco as well, as both are Hungarian), missed a sitter of a forehand on break point in the fifth game, and Vasek stood for long amounts of time between points, hunched over, hands on knees.

Such a slog it was, that I wrote the following sentence atop my trusty reporter’s notebook: “Whoever wins this first set, wins the match.” It seemed impossible at the time that either guy would be able to rebound from a first set loss to take a final two sets – Lukacs had already played an earlier match, beating Britain’s Matthew Short 6-3 6-3, and Pospisil already seemed worse for wear six games into his day.

This seemed to make the seventh game particularly crucial, as the Canadian made three errors off the ground from 3-all 30-0, and Denes got the first break with an inside-in forehand winner. A tired-looking, melting Pospisil barely moved for some serves in the following game, as the Hungarian easily consolidated to 5-3.

But then: with the Hungarian serving for the set at 5-4 deuce, Pospisil ripped a crosscourt backhand pass that was substantially slowed by the net cord but still landed in; Lukacs could’ve made a play on it, but he had stopped playing the point, figuring Vasek’s shot had beaten him off the racquet. By the time he realized he was still in the point, he wasn’t any longer. He followed with a forehand over the baseline and we were back all square in the first set, five games apiece.

The Canadian, bakin’, held to love for 5-6, and the Hungarian nibbled his way into a tiebreak with a point here and a point there, and – once in the TB – the man behind only Benjamin Becker on Baylor’s all-time wins list came roaring back from 1-3* down to take the next six points. First set to Lukacs, 76(3).

But the second set was when it really got interesting. That 30-minute first game from the first set? Yeah, that was merely an appetizer for all the drama to come. The second set began innocently enough, with three straight holds, during which time Lukacs good-naturedly asked the ump if he could get some salt sent to court, in an attempt to stave off cramps. I could tell Denes was looking a little stiff-legged and rickety out there, and one got the sense that Vasek might be able to find his way through his wavering foe, a set down or no.

A trainer was then called to the court, and the Hungarian began to receive treatment on the change of ends. The stated reason was a “left quad” injury. Pospisil was none too pleased by this turn of events: “You’re not allowed to call for a trainer before the opponent serves, you know? You realize you just made a mistake, right?” he inquired of the ch/ump. The chair said there was a distinction to be made between taking a medical time out for cramping or for another injury sustained during the match.

Meanwhile, the trainer asked the chair to start the clock for a MTO, his initial examination complete. After his discussion with Vasek, the chair ump wandered over to the trainer at Lukacs’ chair. “Is this a changeover or a medical time out?” he asked. “I told you to start the clock,” said the trainer. “And I did,” the ch/ump responded. “Well, I wouldn’t have told you to start it if it weren’t a medical time out.”

What a mess. The trainer assured Vasek that the time out was not for cramping.

Unsurprisingly enough, Pospisil was broken to love in the game immediately after these exchanges, and Lukacs held to 4-1* in the second. “I got here at three in the morning for this!” Vasek yelled. And at this point, I was all but planning my escape, as I was starting to overheat and I wasn’t even doing anything.

Denes really did look on his last legs at this point, however, and sure enough handed Posipil the break back with a double fault on break point serving at 4-2. The Canadian held to 15 to tie up the second set at 4-all, as Lukacs gimpily wandered around the baseline between points, looking lost.

Two holds later, the tension ever increasing, the Hungarian began to go for broke, realizing this was his last stand and if he could end points early and rip a couple of winners, he might still eke out a victory, bad quad and all. Lukacs fought his way back to deuce from 5-all 0-40, but wasn’t able to string enough points together to put together another hold. Instead, Vasek dug in and finally broke on his 6^th break point chance of the game, then served out a dicey, deucey game, serving two aces from down 0-30 and taking the second set 7-5 on a netted Lukacs backhand.

From there, it was all but academic, as the Hungarian was a beaten man, spent both physically and mentally. Pospisil cruised in the final frame, winning 6-7(3) 7-5 6-1 in a mere 2 hours and 55 minutes. All of which means: I was totally wrong about what I wrote on top of my notebook.

Afterwards, when I asked him about the “3 a.m.” mentions, Vasek told me he had gotten in really late the night before, and that he “was really frustrated. I powered through, somehow. It’s tough – you don’t always get it the way you want it. I hadn’t played in the heat in a while. It wasn’t a great day for me but I pulled through, so I was lucky to do that.”

When I told him the “Fred Express” should have gotten him in a bit faster than 3am (for those not in the know, Vasek writes hilarious blog entries for Tennis Canada in which the driving habits of his coach, Fred Niemeyer, are called into question).  Vasek told me Freddie wasn’t actually there yet, but was coming in later and after that he “won’t be late” anymore.  Get out of the way if you see him coming, Tallahassee drivers!

So that’s day one in the books for me. Stay tuned more more just-as-riveting tales from Day Two – coming soon to a monitor near you!

Their website is one of the better sites on the Challenger Tour, and they have a very active Twitter account that will no doubt keep you updated on the latest happenings. In addition, they’ve had a strong media presence already in the lead up to the tournament, and that bodes well as far as their online presence as the event unfolds. Tournament director Karen Vogter has already been featured prominently on local TV, even taking a turn as a celebrity chef! Anyone for goat cheese with sun-dried tomatoes? Karen’s got you covered.

The Tall Chall is in their 12^th year, and they have a rich roster of past champions: Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Mardy Fish, and John Isner among them. Brian Dabul beat Robbie Ginepri in the final of last year’s event, when Ginepri was felled by injury and had to retire in the second set. The big news this year, of course, is that James Blake has accepted a wild card into the tourney.

James will be joined by such players as Donald Young, Sarajevo Challenger titlist Amer Delic, Dallas Challenger champ (and, along with Young, another Andy Murray conquerer) Alex Bogomolov Jr., Ryan Sweeting – who’s still alive in the ATP Houston quarterfinals, having just taken out Sam Querrey – and Rainer Schuettler. You can check out the full roster at the bottom of my tournament entry list page. In addition to hosting some great tennis action, they have an amazingly altruistic community presence, hosting free clinics and giving money they raise back to the community.

Ryan Swatting: Sweeting at the Tally Chally

But however much the tournament hosts cover, I intend to supplement it. ‘Cause I’m that kind of guy. I’ll be keeping close tabs on the qualifying action this weekend, and if you live in the area, you can too. Qualifying rounds are free to the public, and feature some of the next great up-and-coming stars of the future. I highly suggest you check it out if you’re anywhere nearby (or even moderately far away – I myself am driving six hours to the event, so if you live closer than that I expect to see you there, haha).

The tournament takes place at the Forestmeadows Tennis Complex, located at 4750 North Meridian Road (in Tallahassee, of course). I’ll be the guy with the dorky Vero Beach baseball cap and the black rimmed glasses – feel free to approach/accost me as needed!

Monza – It’s been hard for me to get a handle on any definitive general trends taking place at this event, other than the fact I get “The Monster Mash” stuck in my head every time I think about it – which is more annoying than it is trendy.

I mean, three Germans made the quarterfinals – does that count for anything? It may, but as general trends go, it’s lukewarm at best. I guess I’ll just have to examine results here on a more case-by-case basis. Which sounds awfully labor intensive, but whatever.

The top half of the draw features one of them Germans, ninth seed Simon Greul, who beat unseeded Italian Andrea Arnaboldi 76(2) 63 to advance. Greul is the only remaining seed in the top half, and he wasn’t even meant to be seeded in the first place (erstwhile fifth seed Andreas Haider-Maurer withdrew with a right knee problem, so the seeds were all re-jiggered). Which means: the top of this draw is mild sauce, y’all. But also means: a big opportunity for one of the four remaining topside. Let’s meet them! *cues Dating Game theme song*

Guillermo Olaso is a 23-year-old Spaniard who’s currently ranked #205, who – with a win against Gruel – could very close to his career high of #193 (which he achieved when he made the final of the Meknes Challenger in February). According to a friend of mind on the Twitter, Olaso plays exactly like Rafael Nadal, only right-handed. And lower-level. And more inconsistent. But, you know. He lost 1 and 2 to Greul in their only previous meeting, but that was three years ago.

Whoa, that tired me out. I don’t think I wanna do introductions like that for Italian 33-year-old Alessio di Mauro or 24-year-old Austrian Martin Fischer, save to say their ages, nationalities and that they’ve never played. I premise to do a better profile of the guy who comes out the victor in this one, OK? (my money’s on Crivoi)

The bottom half of the draw features players who need less of an introduction. Former 33rd-ranked player in the world Andreas Beck continues his comeback from a bad back, taking out sixth seed Lukasz Kubot 7-5 7-6(6) in very circuitous fashion, having led 3-0 in both sets and having served for the match at 5-1 and 5-3 in the 2^nd set. But a win’s a win, and now he’ll face The Turkish Delight, 4^th seed Marsel Ilhan – a 6-2 7-6(4) winner over Victor Crivoi – in the quarters. It will be their first meeting.

Andi Beck Does The Monza Mash

Federico Delbonis will be kicking himself that he’s not in the QF’s, as he led seventh seed Julian Reister a set and a break, and led 5-2* in the second set breaker before going down 6-4 6-7(7) 1-6, his spirit all but broken in that third set, for all the opportunities missed. Reister will play Casablanca Challenger champ Evgeny Donskoy, winner of 15 of his last 16 matches, thanks in part to the 20-year-old Russian’s 6-2 7-5 victory over big French lefty qualifier Kenny de Schepper in round two here. It will be their first meeting as well.

Recife – Now this is a tourney that has the common decency to provide me with a good general trend into which I can sink my narrative-demanding teeth. You see: a tournament that started very well for the home favorites continues through the second round; though Brazilians accounted for “only” just over half the main draw (17 of 32) spots, they comprise 6 of 8 quarterfinalists, upping their percentage considerably. Four of these six reside in the top half of the draw, meaning (I’m pretty sure) that a Brazilian finalist is guaranteed.

You may recall the Brazilian young guns, Guilherme Clezar, Tiago Fernandes, Bruno Sant’Anna, Jose Pereira, and Christian Lindell (via Sweden), making a big impact in round one. In the top quarter, at least, that success continued. The 18-year-old wildcard Clezar put a 6-1 6-3 beating on someone ranked 439 spots higher, Russia’s Ilya Belyaev. And 18-year-old Fernandes won a closer-than-I-anticipated battle against his friend, 17-year-old Sant’Anna 7-6(5) 6-4, in which “Bolinho” served for the first set but couldn’t close it out despite having two set points.

Smooth operator Sant’anna (photo credit: Nelson Oliveira)

So that sets up a battle of 18-year-old Brazilian wildcards, who – oh, by the way – got to quarterfinals of Wimbledon and the semis of the US Open (Boys, that is) playing doubles together last summer. They never met in the juniors, but Clezar holds a 1-0 edge in the “pros” (winning 6-3 6-2 at the ’09 Brazil F25 when they were both merely 17). One of them is now guaranteed a semifinal spot here – exciting!

For his part, Pereira put up a good fight against 3^rd seed Giovanni Lapentti before losing 2-6 6-2 4-6. Lindell didn’t fare quite so well against friend and training partner, fifth seeded Ricardo Hocevar, succumbing 1-6 1-6.

Which leaves us with mostly crafty veterans, most of them seeded. And Brazilian, of course. Fourth seed Julio Silva (a 6-4 4-2 ret. winner over Gastao Elias, who slept wrong and woke up with a sore neck) meets 7^th seed Caio Zampieri (6-2 6-4 over Timo Nieminen) in one all-Brazilian QF (H2H 1-0 Silva).  Unseeded Brazilian Andre Ghem will play Lapentti (H2H 1-0 Ghem in ’06), and Hocevar meets second seed Tatsuma Ito (H2H 1-0 Ito).

Pereira – The second round saw a massive attenuation of seeded players, as Alejandro Falla, Eduardo Schwank, Joao Souza, Eric Prodon, and Diego Junqueira – the #1, 2, 3, 4 and 6^th seeds, respectively – joined 8^th seed Leonardo Mayer on the seeded sidelines by the time the quarters were set.

This seed hemorrhage leaves a number of young talents poised to possibly pounce. 21-year-old Barranquilla Challenger champ Facundo Bagnis was the Falla feller, and he’ll face fifth seed Paolo Lorenzi in the quarterfinals (the Italian was a 5-7 6-4 6-4 winner over Sebastian Decoud in a tidy three hours, seven minutes and 35 seconds). They’ve split their two previous meetings, with Facu winning their most recent encounter in the Barranquilla quarters. Bagnis already entered the tourney sitting on a career high ranking at #190, and – having no points to defend – any win he gets will send him ever closer to the Top 150.

Another 21-year-old Argie, qualifier Marco Trungelliti, will meet one of the two Colombians remaining in the draw, 24-year-old Juan Sebastian Cabal (the Souza slayer). Both are perilously close to their career high rankings as well, and likely have already via achieved new ones vis a vis their quarterfine showings here.

The other Colombian, 20-year-old Eduardo Struvay, was a surprise 4-6 7-6(5) 6-2 winner over Prodon, a finalist in the Santiago Challenger last month. He’ll meet Brazilian (wait, what? Why isn’t he in Recife?) seventh seed, Rogerio Dutra da Silva in their quarter. RDDS holds a 2-1 head-to-head edge, but Struvay took the most recent showdown, 6-2 7-6(0) in Bogota July 2010.

Finally, we have 19-year-old Spaniard Javier Marti, who won one of the strangest matches of the second round when Schwank just walked off the court with seemingly nothing wrong with him, at 3-all deuce, after Marti had smacked a backhand down-the-line winner. We to the eared. Marti will face Junqueira vanquisher, 25 year-old Italian Riccardo Ghedin. T’will be their first on-court scuffle.

*can one whittle fields? A: one can if they’re wooded! #rimshot