MTF

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I did! When I arrived it was at 4-4 in the first set. That was the

game where MS got his first break (I assume) and then used his big

serve to close out the set.

Both players are fierce competitors and were, um, quite vocal with the

chair umpire and line judges. Harrison hits very well from both sides

and has a very good serve. He was mostly a baseliner today, but that

may have been partially because Shabaz hit almost nothing short. In

the 2nd set, Harrison got a break to go up 3-1. Serving at 4-2, 40-0

he banged in a mighty serve to MS forehand. Michael smoked it back

equally hard down the line and Harrison nodded his head to show he was

impressed. At 40-5 he hit another boomer to Michael's forehand which

was hammered equally hard cross-court for another winner. At this

point, Harrison cracked a hint of a smile and just shook his head.

Harrison became a little reluctant to Michae's forehand after that

pair of points. MS won a longer rally to bring it to deuce but

ultimately RH saved the game. At 2-5, Shabaz closed out the next game

with 3 consecutive aces. Harrison did manage to hold serve to take

the second set.

MS was hitting his serves and his forehands as hard as I've ever seen

him hit. He had quite a few double faults - I'd guess at least six -

because he wasn't holding much back. His forehands were very accurate

and while there was less pace from his backhand side, he was still

placing the ball deep to both sides. I'd say that Shabaz was the

aggressor more often than not, and was able to get Harrison to hit

lobs from deep behind the baseline on multiple occasions. MS didn't

always put these away the first time, but did win the majority of

those points.

The third set was tense and stayed on serve through 2-2. Harrison was

assessed a warning for inappropriate language. Serving at 2-3 on a

break point, Harrison hit a forehand long. As Michael screamed in

joy, Harrison slammed his racquet to the court, breaking it badly. He

was assessed a penalty point for racquet abuse, so MS was suddenly

serving at 4-2, 15-0. MS went on to hold that game and then Harrison

held a love game to give Michael the serve at 5-3. He had a service

winner and won another point to go up 30-0, but Harrison fought back

to 30-30. MS finally got a match point and served up a big ace to the

backhand side. There were probably only about 150 in attendance, but

the small crowd erupted.

After the match, I was back in the lobby and overheard Harrison going

to town on the chair umpire. The kid has some fire in his belly.

I'm pretty sure that's the best I've ever seen Michael play. I

wouldn't be so sure about Domijian starting the year at #1. I guess we'll

see in a few months.