His relatively smooth progress was jolted in the final set when he made a mad dash to retrieve a half-volley and hit the deck just after reaching the ball with a backhand, ending up sprawled on the rubberised hardcourt.
Half-asleep, I shuffled to the canopy-level observation deck of my rustic wooden cabin, grabbing binoculars and Tito Narosky's "Birds of Argentina and Uruguay" just as a flurry of yellow plumage transformed into what locals term the "banana toucan, " a rare and striking saffron toucanet.
Then in first-half stoppage-time Julien Frier intercepted a Marshall pass off the deck and took the ball just short of the try line for Vigneaux to score under the posts.