View Single Post
Old 02-14-2017, 03:49 PM   #573
Brian Swartz
Grizzled Veteran
 
Join Date: May 2006
Rankings Update: Autumn 2050

1. Prakash Mooljee(SRI, 26) -- 15,810

The gauntlet started out well for Mooljee as he swept to victory at the Olympics, his first medal there and our second title in a row(in '46 Girsh won). It was the 16th different champion in as many tennis Olympiads, and history will almost certainly repeat itself as he'll be 30 next time. Canada went well also, but in the Cincinatti final Niklas edged past him 6-3, 5-7, 7-5 in a tight match. Both players were quite tired but Prakash even more so. The US Open ended earlier, with Johnny Browne rallying to take a five-set quarterfinal in front of his home fans. After losing just twice in over a calendar year, he drops two in successive events. Fatigue is the biggest issue here and I knew it'd be tough to run the table ... he's still a dominant #1 and likely to remain so. Mooljee is tied for 7th in Slam victories(7), T-9th in Masters shields(13), and 8th in time spent at the top ranking(105 weeks, just over two years now). In that last category he is now the Sri Lanka record-holder.

2. Tomas Niklas(CZE, 26) -- 9,865

Niklas continues to emerge as the clear top challenger, though he ran into trouble early on at the USO falling in the third round. No question that he is still well clear of the other players though.

3. Girish Girsh(SRI, 31) -- 6,705

Girsh put some distance between himself and the others by reaching the USO semifinals after early exits in Canada and Cincinatti. A fine run, featuring a win over Iglar, in his last Slam under my management.

4. Johnny Browne(USA, 25) -- 6,200

Browne is the big story of the past few months after pulling off an incredible, astonishing feat at the USO. The home crowd helped, to be sure, but Johnny took home his first Slam title in a made-for-TV story. In the quarters(Mooljee), semis(Girsh), and finals(Fangio), he lost the first two sets before rallying to take each match in five. He should have lost all of them, but he simply refused to be defeated. Technique from the back still needs work, but he's still probably over a year away from his best tennis and has good athleticism and an elite serve. At least during the US swing, he's going to be a threat for a while.

5. Khasan Zakirov(UZB, 27) -- 5,830

Zakirov took the bronze at the Olympics in Switzerland, followed by three straight quarterfinal exits. Solid but unspectacular as we've come to expect from him when not on his favored clay.

6. Gillo Fangio(ITA, 22) -- 4,600

For the second year in a row the US Open was Fangio's finest event. His first Slam final ended in disappointment, but he's played like the third-best player in the world this year and is definitely continuing to move up.

7. Juan de los Santos(ESP, 25) -- 4,405

Santos really surprised me the last few months, mostly with a SF run in Cincinatti. He has shown better results than expected from a clay-court specialist, and right now I'm projecting the next year to be the best of his career.

8. Luc Janin(CAN, 23) -- 4,040

Janin has been in a moderate slump for most of the last year and a half now. This should be his time, but he's not taking advantage the way he's capable of. He should be frankly competing with Niklas for the #2 spot. QF or earlier exits everywhere, 4th round at the USO where he lost in four to rising American Ariel Borja. Not a terrible loss on it's own, but it seems like there's always a reason for him not to break through even when going against players he should beat most of the time. Still probably almost two years away from his prime, but Luc is definitely underachieving right now.

9. Shreya Ujjaval(SRI, 27) -- 3,905

A yo-yo season for Ujjaval continues. A straight-sets win over Fangio to reach the Canada quarterfinals was his only standout moment of the past months.

10. Tiosav Srbulovic(USA, 24) -- 3,605

Srbulovic was the suprising silver medalist, then went deep at both Masters only to suffer a stunning straight-sets lost to Moicevic in the third round of the US Open. He's down a bit from his peak but still up a couple spots from last year.

11. Mateo Kaspar(FRA, 21) -- 3,345

He's coming .... Kaspar won the Washington 500 in lieu of participating at the Olympics, then was mostly 'meh' elsewhere aside from a SF run in Canada where he pushed Niklas to a decisive third set. Not quite the impact I expected him to have here, but he's still moving up and is probably in the Top 10 at year's end. At 21.

13. Kire Zopp(FIN, 25)

Unquestionably Zopp is the front-runner for this year's most improved. He exited stage right at the first hurdle in the Olympics, then was a quarterfinalist in Canada and semifinalist at both Cincy and Flushing Meadows. He decisively knocked out three straight higher-ranking players at the USO: Niklas, Cojanovic, and Santos(2nd, 12th, and 6th by the seedings). Finland's favored son in terms of tennis, Kire has outstanding power and serve though his rally ability and footspeed are ... lacking. On hardcourts though he's shown consistently proficiency obviously, and is another guy who will definitely be a factor for the next couple of years. I totally did not see him coming.

16. Martin Zarco(ESP, 21)

Worth a mention as he was 45th at the start of the year but continues to progess well.

21. Anil Mehul(SRI, 34)

Seems to pretty have settled around the 20 or so range. I expect his decline at this point will slow quite a bit -- still has enough to be an obstacle. 120th in doubles, continuing a slow ascent there as he was only able to play recent at the Olympics ... where he combined with Ujjaval to win the bronze! Unfortunately no points are awarded in the Olympic doubles.

24. Guus Dirckx(NLD, 20)

Somebody forgot to tell him he's too young. Right now it's all small events and his big showing in Rome earlier in the year ... he's not performed consistently at all on the big stage so he gets the pretender label until he shows otherwhise.

26. Ruslan Strelkov(RUS, 22)

Makes the rundown not because he's done anything particularly exciting, but because he's another young guy continuing to improve and make his mark.

31. Ariel Borja(USA, 21)

Seems the Americans have no end of talented young players. Borja was a qualifier at the big events earlier in the year, and made a run to the USO quarterfinals to book his place in the outer circle of tennis's elite.

51. Shyam Senepathy(SRI, 26)

Senepathy never met a tournament he was too tired to enter, and has repeatedly been one match away from reaching the Top 50. He's still not there.

173. Ritwik Dudwadkar(SRI, 20)

Dudwadkar made it four players at the USO as he made his Slam debut. He easily made his way through qualifying and lost in the second round to Sigmund Kronecker(#36, DEU). A very credible showing, and one that earned him 70 points, more than twice his best futures wins. Ritwik is now a challenger-level player, and he's in Brazil right now at his first event. Scheduling for challengers is always the most flexible, dynamic, and challenging period given how things change from week to week. With seven events, it created an opening for him to get a decent draw. He'll take several weeks off after that before heading into the mandatory big finish for challenger players in a couple of months. There are only a third of the players left above Dudwadkar that he was looking up at when the year began, and the USO loss was his first in singles of the season. Time to start making his mark on the sport, whatever that may be ...
Brian Swartz is online now   Reply With Quote