[Brian Swartz]

2042 Australian Open

We've got three participants this year, starting off with Prakash Mooljee in the junior field. Seeded 10th, he handled his business convincingly until running into top-seeded and second-ranked junior Hugo Jurco(CZE) in the third round. There, he failed to win a game, being convincingly shown his place by a player several months older and more developed. Mooljee took exactly one-quarter of the points played; this was a demolition. I've now got a few weeks to decide whether he's ready for an amateur or whether to put him in another couple of junior events. The next big event on the junior calendar isn't for another couple months, the same week as Indian Wells.

Girish Girsh was seeded 14th in the pro draw. After a pair of easy straight-sets wins, with one tiebreak the only real resistance, he played Swede Olav Birkeland(28th) for the first time. Birkeland is a hardcourt specialist but one that Girsh should be able to handle fairly easily. After taking a pair of tight sets, he had victory a point or two away in a tight third-set tiebreak ... but lost it, and went in the tank afterwards. Girsh suffers a crushing loss here, and is still clearly having confidence issues. The final scoreline was 6-7(5), 5-7, 7-6(7), 6-2, 6-3. Birkeland blasted 27 aces, but through the first three sets Girsh was playing reasonably well, certainly well enough to win ... he just fell apart. Highly disappointing to lose up 2-0 against an inferior opponent, and one wonders whether his confidence will ever recover at this point.

Anil Mehul figured to have his first test in the quarters, but even that didn't materialize. He did drop a set against Perry Mockler, who had the best run of his career, knocking aside Goncharenko the round before. After that set, Mehul restored order with a bagel to advance in four. This set up a repeat of last year's tournament: a meeting with Benda for the right to deal with Iglar in the final. Benda had nearly lost to Gaskell in the quarters, prevailing only 8-6 in the 5th set. The German was stopped by Mehul for the second straight year, a competitive but pretty one-sided semi despite the 6-3, 7-5, 7-6(6) scoreline. Mehul now leads the head-to-head 7-6, but that's only true because he's never been good enough to face clay on Benda; he's always to someone else earlier.

Back in the final for a second straight year, Mehul had another shot at the champion. Iglar came in having not lost a set or really even been pushed, losing his serve only once(to Marcek). Mehul hung in during a rocky start to the first set, but couldn't hold at the end and Iglar broke in the 10th game to take the first. He seized the momentum with another break at the beginning of the second. Anil didn't fall apart here; he pushed the #1 to deuce in his final two service games but couldn't get a sniff. The third set was like unto the first, with Mehul unable to defend his serve at the end for a 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 defeat. It was a little more resistance than anyone else gave the Czech, and quite a bit closer than last year's obliteration, but the result was the same: straight sets, Iglar holding the crown again, his 7th Slam tying him with at least a half-dozen others for 5th all-time.

There were a couple of notable absences here. Almagro and Topolski were of course expected, but Julian Hammerstein has disappointingly decided to 'go doubles', forgoing all singles events so far this year. For reasons unknown, Marcel Bahana also didn't show up, leaving two major challengers on the sidelines. And for those two wastes of talent, all I can say is that you can't make history when you aren't there.

Coming Up ...

The second group tie in the WTC pits Sri Lanka against Peru, who they defeated 4-1 a little over a year ago to seal their promotion to Level 1 originally.