Week 48 - ATP Challenger 100 - Maia, Portugal (indoor clay)

LordBrownof · Futures level

Week 48 - ATP Challenger 100 - Maia, Portugal (indoor clay)

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

LordBrownof wrote:
Let's go Anton! Maybe this is the start of something for my fave. Shame it's not the start of the year.

well, it almost is the start of the year again!!

Nix · Futures level

LordBrownof wrote:
Let's go Anton! Maybe this is the start of something for my fave. Shame it's not the start of the year.

Would love to see it. He definitely seems under-ranked to me and I'd love to see him working his way up. I think he's got the potential.

emmsie69 · Top national player

Anton was playing quite a lot of lower level tournaments on Clay a few months back and not having much success. I have wondered if he had some minor injuries at the time that were manageable on Clay and so that time was used as coaching. Either way he is having far more success now so something must have been going on.

ETA Also didn't play Wimbledon qualies which, given how close he came in 2022 I thought was a bit odd. It might have been around that time he was playing the clay 25ks

-- Edited by emmsie69 on Wednesday 29th of November 2023 08:05:34 AM

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

emmsie69 wrote:
Anton was playing quite a lot of lower level tournaments on Clay a few months back and not having much success. I have wondered if he had some minor injuries at the time that were manageable on Clay and so that time was used as coaching. Either way he is having far more success now so something must have been going on.
ETA Also didn't play Wimbledon qualies which, given how close he came in 2022 I thought was a bit odd. It might have been around that time he was playing the clay 25ks

-- Edited by emmsie69 on Wednesday 29th of November 2023 08:05:34 AM

Yes, it's interesting - I was watching a big chunk of Anton's match yesterday (and the day before) and thought - gosh, he looks so comfortable on clay, it gives him that little bit extra time to unleash (he hasn't got the most naturally quick reflexes or micro-movement), he looks really meant for clay, why doesn't he play it more often ........ and then went and looked at his results, and saw that he'd basically been playing on clay all year and it had completely escaped me.

So I've no idea if clay has just clicked, or if the last two days are an abberation, or what his strategy was over the year but this week so far has certainly looked well good

indiana · Tennis legend

Yes, I'd found Anton's emphasis on clay very interesting.

I wondered whether he really saw clay as a big long term focus or was looking at how playing so much on it could help develop his general game.

Strategy or not, as enmsie says, results were not really coming and I remember questioning how far he could really go and being a bit surprised how much others still talked about him.

Of course, yet again me questioning of a player's future was meant as motivation rather than any chance that I waa just wrong

paulisi · Tennis legend

Didn't Anton win the Orange Bowl(U14?) on clay, so was proficient as a junior?

Priesty · Challenger level

First set Anton 7-6 (7-2).....

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

L16: (Q) Anton Matusevich WR 494 defeated Henrique Rocha (POR) WR 255 by 7-6(2) 6-4 biggrin

Madadman · Masters Series Champion

Excellent from Anton. A fairly tight match with the Portuguese fans being noisy and getting behind their man. A very good week so far.

Priesty · Challenger level

Potential match up with Fognini in the last 8 - that would be interesting!

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Well done Anton, good wins this week!

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

Anton's next opponent had the benefit of a walkover against Foggy (4):

QF: Matteo Martineau (FRA) WR 293 (CH = 278 last month) vs (Q) Anton Matusevich WR 494

Nix · Futures level

Just watching Anton for a bit, from 0-4 down. I wonder if these two games sum up the match so far. Anton is serving, gets the first two points fairly easily, then sets up a point that he really has a lot of the court to get the volley into but hits it long, 30-15, this seems to put him off and he plays a couple of dud points, 30-40 and ends up losing his serve. It's a combination of not doing those finishing touches well and seemingly losing concentration and not just playing each point on its merits. He certainly isn't being outclassed in terms of having a range of shots, just seems to me focus and the mental side. Then he breaks his opponent with a classy game and wins his serve, 5-2.

-- Edited by Nix on Friday 1st of December 2023 12:40:41 PM

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

QF: Matteo Martineau (FRA) WR 293 defeated (Q) Anton Matusevich WR 494 by 2 & 2