Estenger with the 2011 trophy
The old saying goes "that in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king," and that refrain is what #1 seed Max Estenger said moments after winning his 5th straight GSC Tennis Tournament over #3 seed Segundo Paredes 6-2, 6-2. "I'm happy to win, even though I didn't play my best, but the conditions were pretty severe and they definitely affected both of us."
Estenger jumped out to an early 5-0 lead in the first set before Paredes finally got on the board. Both players were tight and hitting tentatively making for long rallies which helped no one with the heat index hovering around 98 for most of the match.
Paredes tried to make a match of it in the second set trailing 2-3 and up 40-15 before a series of backhand errors coughed up his advantage and 2-3 suddenly went to 2-5. Estenger had little offense in his arsenal today, but was content drawing the error from Paredes as he hit shot after shot to Paredes' backhand. Paredes was also troubled by an inability to finish at the net when he clearly should have had the point.
Paredes receiving trophy from tournament assistant Anil Sadoo
Still, for Paredes, this was an exceptional tournament as he defeated 3 of the toughest players--McFarlane, Zarcone, and Khan. He reached the finals for the first time since '08 after failing to make the semis last year. His game is definitely on the rebound and there is no question that he is the second best in this field.
Estenger's five year performance (5 championships, 17-0 match record, 34-0 in sets) has tournament officials considering opening up next year's edition to four wildcard invitees from outside of GSC. Estenger has stated publicly that he supports such measures. One other consideration is whether the tournament will happen at all, what with dwindling corporate sponsorships in this economy.
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