[Brian Swartz]

Thanks!

World Team Cup, Round 1, Level 3, Group 1
Sri Lanka vs. The Netherlands, Hard

- Monday: A. Chandrasekharan d. F. Kolthof, 6-2, 6-1, 6-2
- Tuesday: M. Soesbergen d. S. Srivastava, 6-4, 6-2, 7-6(8)
- Wednesday: M. Datar/A. Chandrasekharan d. B. Albrink/R. Koster, 4-6, 6-2, 6-2, 7-6(4)
- Thursday: M. Soesbergen d. A. Chandrasekharan, 3-6, 6-3, 5-7, 6-4, 6-2
- Friday: S. Srivastava d. F. Kolthof, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 7-5

Sri Lanka defeats the Netherlands, 3-2!

This was definitely a tense first round, and the kind of thing I expect to see a lot of; splitting the singles and the result depending on doubles, where we are strong for the moment. When Manoj Datar retires, that may hurt us as he is weak in singles of course but probably more than makes up for it with a current 4.2 in doubles. This is also the first time we've really seen a gap opening up between the results of Chandrasekharan and Srivastava; the latter has most definitely been surpassed as our best player. The close win here gives us the inside track on getting to the knockout rounds, particularly with the next two being on clay - probably our most favorable surface overall.

The next week, Girish Raychaudhari won his first futures event in Spain as a qualifier, despite a number of close matches and a couple where I considered him an underdog. Winning a futures event before your 19th birthday is not nothing. He is on his way, and will see his ranking more than halved to just around 1020th. It's worth almost three amateur tournaments in points, so my goal of bypassing that stage and moving up faster has indeed been achieved.