Alcatraz played some great tennis, but in the end the Joker prevailed. He had good support in this final, things were not so one sided for the Traz. But on match point serve some Woke anti Joker fan shouted out just as he was about to serve. He contends with this rubbish all the time.
Today he had to contend with incredible heat that clearly affected him more than Traz. His face was flushed and at times he could hardly move. Initially he was dominating the exchanges but as the heat issues emerged, Traz was able to wrest away control.
But the Joker found a way to hydrate and control the symptoms and he came back in two excellent tie breakers. The first few points of the 3rd set tie breaker demonstrated to Traz Novak was not going to be broken. And after 3 incredible Novak backhand returns off fully flushed shots….Traz started to wilt. He even threw in the moon ball, reminiscent of Harold Solomon, but to no avail.
This was surely one of the most grueling matchesI have witnessed, and it must leave Traz’s team puzzled about the weird cramping issue under pressure. Could it be some sort of mental capitulation?