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Old 03-11-2017, 10:27 PM   #587
Brian Swartz
Grizzled Veteran
 
Join Date: May 2006
February/March

The season's first break, although with nobody going that deep at the AO it wasn't quite as much of a break as usual.

World Team Cup, Group Play, Second Round

The Slovak Republic learned how titans such as Sri Lanka(even after all this time, I still feel weird writing that. But it's true) treat nations without a Top-50 player. They didn't win a set. The US barely beat the Czech Republic on clay, 3-2. That means it's us against the Czechs for a spot in the quarterfinals. The loser is good enough to move on, but won't. It'll be on grass, which is a bit of a disadvantage for us. I think both of our players can handle Hugo Jurco, but they'll probably take the doubles and Tomas Niklas probably beats Girsh. Need Mooljee to hold serve in his matches and Girsh to handle Jurco in order to win. We're definitely favored but an upset is far from out of the question. I looked up the last time we didn't get out of group play: it was exactly ten years ago. In a couple months, this will be a very important tie.


Anil Mehul took the whole stretch off after that for practice, while Mooljee entered the Acapulco 500. He didn't lose a set, beating Srbulovic and then Khasan Zakirov at the end of the event. Nobody else in the top four was there, but it was still a good showing to both gain some points to hold off the competition a bit and get some confidence going again.

Ritwik Dudwadkar did not fare particularly well in the tier-3 Caloundra Challenger, losing to 49th-ranked Claudio Fandino in the quarterfinals. It was another one of those matches where he was a little outclassed; Fandino is similar in ability but a hardcourt specialist, so he had the edge. Still, Dudwadkar did not play as well as I'd hoped, and he continues to overall have a deserved reputation as an underachiever. Hanging out just outside the Top 100 so far, and looking for a chance to break through.

Sushant Chiba had a shocking debut, winning three matches to reach the semifinals in his very first juniors event. This was soon shown to be a mirage as he lost his qualifying match at the next two tournaments more recently. He's shown some serving improvement but still needs work, about 18% or so double faults on a good day, 30% on a bad one. He's been about 1080th in the juniors rankings since that first event.

Coming Up ...

Indian Wells and Miami conclude the first quarter of the season. All eyes are on Mateo Kaspar, who can reach #2 during the next month if he can duplicate his success down under.
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