[Brian Swartz]

This was the first year that I didn't make any player changes. Stability appears to have at least mostly arrived. There were a couple of lateral moves, or perhaps very slight improvements I could have made, but I think standing pat was the right choice overall. Haven't seen any big stars come through that I missed either, not since Biersteeker.

520. Tomaz Hoza (40, CZE, 6.32, -0.24)

Hoza is actually ranked a bit higher than he was last year, but he's 40 years old. No surprise he's falling off a cliff. Trainer value is +0.07 to 4.90. It looks like 5.2 was too ambitious; realistically he'll end at 5.1. That's still quite good, just not great. I expect to max out service and doubles this year.

15(J). Prakash Prisha (17, IND, 5.80, +1.24)

Prisha is good enough to play amateurs right now, but he has a big year of juniors ahead of him. Actually played one amateur event late in the year because I couldn't find an appropriate junior tournament, so that's not just theoretical. He may actually skip amateurs and go straight to futures ... but that's a question for next year.

For this one, I think he's good enough to be a Top-5 junior, maybe top 2 or 3. Key is staying ranked high enough to be seeded in the big events. There are a couple-few players who are slightly better, but only just, and he's better than most of the players ranked above him. Recently picked up a decent doubles partner in Lucio Herena (ESP), and the pairing is seeded first at the junior AO. On the other hand, I thought I needed to play a warmup event to keep my ranking from slipping too much, so Prisha is overplayed coming in. If he does well in both draws he'll be in the form 30s by the end which is obviously bad. I'll track how he does in the tournaments through the year - this is my first go-round with a high-aging-factor junior who is developed enough to aim at challenging the best juniors. Prisha is 'past the break' on serving, about halfway through the year I put him up to the 2.0 level, so rampant double-faulting is a thing of the past for him. Hopefully that'll pay off.

149(J). Bart McVicker (15, USA, 3.68, +1.69)

282(J). Timmy Tilleman (15, BEL, 2.82, +1.43)

It's time to hit the JG4 events for both of these gentlemen. McVicker is the fast-riser, Tilleman the 'I'll get there eventually' guy and future trainer. McVicker will be in Prisha's shoes for a couple years, Tilleman taking the more familiar (to me, anyway) path of just doing what he can in juniors and observing the top players from afar while he prepares for better things down the line. For now, they are just getting that early development out of the way.

Edit: Manager Ranking

Forget to put this in. I was up to 127th, around 1900 points at the turn of the year. That's several hundred gained, which is made easier when you're not buying players. Right now Prisha is the only 'profitable' player I have. Hoza is just dead weight from a manager points perspective and the young juniors aren't a lot better. But it's still enough to push upwards at a respectable rate.