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Octoberish
The biggest news in the USO - Shanghai window is usually what happens in the WTC, and this year was an interesting one for that. Our quarterfinals against the Netherlands, finalists last year and also three years ago. The Dutch began as expected, with Kasaravalli losing to Ollie Haas in four sets. Much to my astonishment though, we would not lose another match the rest of the week. Guha/Chittoor won their first international doubles match and did so with ease, while Tim de Jong had two five-setters, losing both of them. Sushant Chiba won in straights over Haas which was also a stunner. I definitely did not see this coming, but wasn't complaining.
In the semis we came up against Argentina. That didn't go as well. Twice leading by a set, Chiba was defeated by Tobias Velilla in a five-set comeback win. And that would be the highlight. Amrik Kasaravalli impressively took a set off Perez before losing, doubles was a wipeout, and we were skunked 5-0. Now it is worth remembering that we hadn't made it this far in four years, but it was still a painful beatdown. On the other side, France ended the magnficient run of Ireland, who had won a stupid 48 straight WTC ties and five straight world championships before a narrow 3-2 loss to Austria in their last group match. This time it was 4-1, with even John Hart only managing a single point as he was a 5-set upset victim of Moniotte in his first outing. Almost certainly a historic run of this nature will never be seen again, and the Irish have no fear of losing the #1 spot anytime soon, but it's time for somebody new to seize the wreath of glory.
I'd definitely favor Argentina, who is to an extent the new Ireland here. With Nicolas Perez consolidating power as the world no. 1 and the also-young duo of Velilla and L. Perez competing for that second spot, they'll be tough to beat for years. Only ranked 8th in the world, they have work to do though before ascending to the top.
Elsewhere ...
Chiba took the rest of the period off to practice, while Amrik Kasaravalli entered the China Open 500 as a 7-seed. And stuff happened there. First, he defeated the overplayed Velilla, extracting a bit of revenge for the WTC loss with a 7-5, 6-3 win. Then it was Lucas Perez in the semis, who Amrik was 0-3 against. That changed with a weird 6-4, 6-4 win here. Kasaravalli returned very well at times, posting a 41% success rate from that side of the net, but Perez was more consistent. It ultimately came down to the break points where Kasaravalli was a perfect 4-of-4 on his chances, while saving 3 of 5 on his own serve. Either way I'll take it. Fortune turned the other way in a 6-3, 7-5 defeat to Dogic in the final, a match he probably should have won … but 1 of 6 on breakers compared to 3 of 4 for the Croatian. Getting a 500 title would have been huge, but he'll bank the 300 points for the final and say thank you. Some big performances this week.
While Chittoor also rested, Satyagit Guha entered a FT3 in Romania and not only got his first futures title - finally, at age 21 - but did so in dominating fashion. Nobody got close to him, and he may move up a tier for his next futures event, whenever that is.
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