Rahber Thariani defeats Chris Casazza
6-2, 7-5

Tight match on a cold morning. Chris is 6’5” and has the game to match. In the warmup I could see that he had good strokes. Match started and Chris I think was pushing a little too hard. I was having a good serving day and Chris was not returning the best. Set went down relatively comfortably.

In the 2nd set Chris started playing a lot better. Suddenly the forehand was hammering into the court and was using excellent game management. Backhand was keeping the ball steady and his forehand was doing the damage. I pulled out a break and was up 4 - 2 expecting Chris to crumble mentally but he dug in and the games started to get long. He broke after a long game and we pulled level to 5 - 5. My serving was the only thing keeping me in most games. Long deuce game on my serve with 5 deuces and finally managed to hold. I applied all the pressure I could on the next game and pulled out the 2nd.

Enjoyed hitting with Chris - he’s a gentleman and tough competitor. Looking forward to the next one!