By Charles Bricker
There have been no headline-grabber wins this year for him, but Germany’s Florian Mayer, 5-3 in ATP matches and now 14-3 after Saturday if you count Challengers, is convinced that at age 26 he’s reached a new plateau in his game.
“I think I’m playing my best tennis,” he announced after dealing a 7-6 (2), 4-6, 6-4 loss to one of South America’s best young prospects, Leonardo Mayer, to reach the final of the $125,000 BMW Challenger in Sunrise, Fla.
Best tennis ever? he was pressed. “Yes, I would say so. I have to go mentally a little stronger, but yes. This is my best tennis.”
Today, he’ll find out just how good his tennis is when he plays Gilles Simon of France in the final. Simon was exquisite in a 6-1, 6-2 win over Santiago Giraldo of Colombia. His troublesome right knee had flared up two days ago, but was perfect in this evening semifinal. He’s lost only one set, to Potito Starace, on the way to the final.
For Mayer, win or lose this final, he will have had great preparation for the Sony Ericsson Open ATP 1000 that begins next Wednesday 50 miles south of Sunrise on Key Biscayne.
Mayer vs. Mayer in this semifinal. It sounded more like a divorce proceding and chair umpire Magdi Somat identified the players by their first names — as in “advantage Florian” or “game Leonardo.”
This was a rematch of their second rounder at Delray Beach two weeks ago, won by the 22-year-old Argentine, who once was considered one of the two or three best juniors in the world.
Leonardo Mayer’s big serving, punctuating forehand and all-out aggressiveness translate well to the professional game, and he reached a personal-best No. 54 in the rankings last September before falling back to No. 66 this week.
He’s got a future, but Florian Mayer has more of a present. He has wins this year over No. 15 Tommy Robredo, No. 30 Janko Tipsarevic and No. 37 Victor Troicki at the Australian Open, but also a confounding loss to Sebastien Grosjean, who is near the end of his career, at Auckland.
For Mayer, the key to this win over Leonardo Mayer came at 4-2 in the final set, just after the German had finally broken serve.
Twice before, in the first and third sets, Florian had broken and immediately gave the break back and he acknowledged how angry he was with himself for not steeling down and putting a hammerlock on his opponent.
This time, however, he ran out to 40-0, playing one loose point, then sliced an ace past Leonardo to go up 5-2.
How much confidence is Florian feeling? Taking the balls to serve out the match, he played five serve-and-volley points, finishing the match with an ace to the far corner of the ad court.
“It was maybe a little surprising for him,” said the German. “I tried to do something different. I know he got tired because he has played so many (three split-setters) long matches here, and he made many mistakes.”
Mayer reached the final without facing a seeded player.
There’s a lot to like about Leonardo Mayer’s game. That’s a crackling forehand he’s got and he not only gets his share of aces, he hits a second serve that is consistently deep in the box. He’s very aggressive off both sides, but he still needs to find some modulation in his game.
Give him a running forehand and he’s going to try to crush it, no matter the circumstance. He doesn’t seem to process alternatives on the run.
Leonardo Mayer, ranked No. 66, will take 45 points out of this tournament. Floridan Mayer is guaranteed 75 for reaching the final and 125 if he wins it.
Charles Bricker can be reached at nflwriterr@aol.com
