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Old 06-13-2017, 03:21 PM   #627
Brian Swartz
Grizzled Veteran
 
Join Date: May 2006
World Tour Finals

This year the festivities were held in France, which basically eliminated any real suspense over who would win on the singles side. In doubles, Mehul/Kroese had themselves a disastrous time. They were expecting to upgrade a round on last year's semifinal showing, but instead lost to Disante/Escavias in their first match, then started strong against 3rd-seeds Yumashev/Arendt before eventually losing 2-6, 7-5, 11-9. In the tiebreak they fell behind early, rallied, saved a couple match points and failed to convert one of their one before finally losing. They would win their final round-robin opportunity but still finished third. They maintain their spot as the #2 team in the world at year's end, but just barely.

On the singles side, it was no surprise to see Kaspar, Fangio, and Mooljee all easily get through round-robin play. The surprise was Guus Dircx, who continued a late-season charge by posting three-set victories over Browne and Borja. Both could have gone the other way, but he joined the final foursome by outlasting both of them. He was beating 6-3, 6-4 by Kaspar at that stage, with Prakash Mooljee wearing down Fangio 7-6(6), 6-1. The first set was fantastic; the Italian went down a break twice only to equalize, and the tiebreak was very tight and went back and forth. He ran out of gas after that. This was a big match for both players, the rubber match on the year if you will with the year's matchups split at 2 each coming in. For now, Mooljee is clearly still the #2.

Mateo Kaspar won a dominant final, 6-2, 6-2, his third straight here. Mooljee hadn't reached the title match in either of the others, so it was nice for him to get back to it.

Elsewhere ...

It wasn't the finish Ritwik Dudwadkar hoped for to end the year. In Sao Paolo he lost a tight semifinal to American Matthew Panter, 6-7(7), 6-4, 7-5. It figured to be a very even matchup despite Panter being ranked in the 60s; Dudwakar was somewhat better but was just 2 of 15 on break points. He played well enough to win against a quality opponent, so you can't be too disappointed. The next week, the final challenger of the year, was another story. Another US player, Vinnie Cone, knocked him out in the second round and there's just no excuse for that one. It was an even match that went against him 7-5 in the third ... but Cone is not somebody who should be able to challenge him. Lots of players around him rose and fell, but the bottom line is that he winds up just short of his ranking goal. He'll have one more chance at the beginning of next year to put himself in a seeded position.
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