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Old 02-28-2017, 02:02 PM   #579
Brian Swartz
Grizzled Veteran
 
Join Date: May 2006
Next Man Up

In the final week, it was time to terminate the services of Girish Girsh. 31 and now world no.6 and definitely falling, he departs now so that Mehul can keep working towards becoming a supertrainer. It's been six years since Dudwadkar and it's time for fresh blood. Girsh was 63-25 this season, the most singles losses he's ever had and the fewest wins in nine years. Over the 19 seasons of his career to date, he amassed a record of 962-241(.800) in singles, 203-104(.661) in doubles. Other accomplishments:

Prize Money: $43.6M
Weeks at #1: 100(10th all-time)
Olympics: Champion in '38(first Sri Lanka player to win the Olympic gold)
World Tour Finals Titles: 1
Grand Slams: 1
Masters: 16(5th all-time)
500s: 8
250s: 7
Challengers: 10
Futures: 3
Amateur: 3
Juniors: 10
World Team Cup: 5(Sri Lanka record, T-5th all-time). No non-Spaniard has won more.

Girsh ranks 3rd on the Sri Lanka legends list; Mehul is still first, Mooljee second, and as of this writing Dudwadkar is eighth. His record of Masters Shields, winning our first Olympic crown, and spending almost two years at the top of the rankings all speak very well of him. He didn't win enough Slams or Tour Finals to earn serious consideration in terms of the all-time greats though. In that respect his resume is 'spotty', but he definitely carried the torch quite successfully in between Mehul and Mooljee, and was good enough to hasten the fall and limit the career of Antonin Iglar.

I could have made him a trainer instead of firing him, but there would have been no point to that. He grades out as a 4.34 right now, a little worse than current trainer Anil Manohar, and I couldn't wait any longer. With Mehul a better long-term candidate, it was time for Girsh to go.

Going in, the plan was that no matter what the quality of my new junior, I'm going to stick with him and save as many regen chances as possible for when Mehul goes trainer. It's time to meet Sushant Chiba.

Age: 14y 34w -- a bit on the older side by a month or two which gives me less time. Unfortunate.
Raw Skill/Service: 10/5. That's a little higher than usual, which is somewhat of a compensation.
Mentality: 4.4. I've never had a player higher than 3.8. Chiba will definitely be tough when the match is on the line.
Aging Factor: 97%. Same as Mooljee, so he'll peak and decline a bit earlier than I'd prefer.
Talent: 4.4. This is even with the minimum I've gotten(Mehul/Girsh), a bit lower than Dudwadkar and Mooljee was best at 4.7.
Peak Athleticism: 3.1 strength, 2.1 speed. Ugh. Feet stuck in cement. He'll struggle more than most on grass and against top servers. I always use speed as the weak attribute, but even the strength here is not impressive. Definitely the worst athleticism of any player I've used. This will more than compensate for his abilities in the clutch.
Peak Endurance: 4.3. Pretty average for the players I've generated.

Overall a tad on the weak side. He probably won't be quite as good as my other players, but close. Definitely a top contender; whether he gets to #1 or not depends on the competition, but I think it's more likely than not. As I said, definitely not throwing him back. A high home advantage at 3.9 is going to be irrelevant unfortunately. 8.7 TE, 5.2 SS. As of right now I've got two more creation chances stored up, and by the time Mehul turns trainer in six years, I'll have more. Hopefully one of them will be a real standout. Until then, we'll go with this. Style-wise he'll be the opposite of Dudwadkar, with a relatively high focus on his serve due to being slow; his predecessor is more on the grinder side of things. But as always, that's only a marginal adjustment.

Last edited by Brian Swartz : 02-28-2017 at 02:03 PM.
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