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Sri Lanka Rankings Update
Note that these are all compared to the start of the year, since I didn't do a first-quarter review.
Girish Girsh -- 1st singles(unchanged). 50 wins is a fine mark by the end of Wimbledon. Two masters and two slams have been added to his total this year, with only four defeats. He's on the decline, but is fortunate that so are all the major challengers. Bourdet is basically at his peak, but literally the rest of the top-ranking dozen players in the world are all getting worse. This is the definition of a weak era emerging, at least temporarily, and Girish is the beneficiary. The next year or two is legacy-making time for him; winning as many big titles as he can to enhance his resume. He's the top dog, period.
Anil Mehul -- 4th singles(unchanged). Mehul is still close behind Caratti for the third spot, but that won't last long. If he can't defend his US Open title a little over a month from now, and there's no evidence right now that he's got that left in him(it would be a record for oldest Slam champion by a few months if he did, and he has yet to reach the final of any big event this year save Monte Carlo*), any hope of moving up again will fade. It's time to start saying good-bye to Sri Lanka's first and so far best great player, and begin watching his sad decline.
Prakash Mooljee -- 19th to 13th singles, 197th to 202nd doubles. There seem to signs of Mooljee getting more consistent, but he needs to start winning the close matches in which he has the upper hand his fair share of the time(say, three out of four or so). When he does that, he'll start pushing upwards more consistently. Nobody close behind him is a threat, and the dozen players ahead of him are at least three years older. Lacking a bit of the endurance and longevity of his predessors, it's all the more important that Prakash seize the moment. He's just 1-4 against the Top 4 players this year(beat Iglar once), but 4-1 against those in the 5-8 range. Everyone else? 27-7. That's far too many losses against players he should be beating. He's been good enough to be a Top 5 player and soon better than that, but along with fighting up through the draws and rankings he is just missing too many opportunities.
Shreya Ujjaval -- 29th to 17th singles, 52nd to 53rd doubles. The three straight Slam quarterfinals are the big story ... esp. when Mooljee has yet to reach his first! It's not out of the question that both players could be Top 10 by the end of the year. Consistency is the issue in both cases. Ujjaval probably never goes higher than about 5th, but a year from now we could be talking about half of the Tour Finals being Sri Lanka players. No question this is the Golden Age for tennis around here, the likes of which will never be seen again.
Shyam Senepathy -- 85th to 80th singles. At one point Senepathy was up to 71st, but he appears to have stalled. Many players do at this stage; some get through it, others don't. I'm not sure how much more Senepathy has in him, but he hasn't peaked yet. I see him cracking the Top 50 at least eventually.
Ritwik Dudwadkar -- 100th to 77th juniors. 28-1 in a brilliant year so far, including a just-completed fourth tier-3 title in which he was only seeded 5th, but beat several others ranked somewhat ahead of him. Only one match was close. Dudwadkar in the second half of this season is positioning himself for his final junior year. Roughly two-thirds of those ahead of him will turn pro, and most of those who won't are ranked fairly close to him(35th or lower for the vast majority). He'll soon try to make the jump to tier-2 and push his way upwards as much as he can so that he can play in the most productive, lucrative events successfully next season.
Manager Ranking -- 2nd(unchanged), 43.1k to 44.6k points. oprice is still playing out the string with Iglar, and his total is crashing; I've almost caught him and will assuredly do so by the end of the year.
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