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September
WTC Quarterfinals
We faced Italy on clay, which meant it was all about Gillo Fangio. All of the singles matches were competitive, and Fangio split. It was the only win the Italians would get as we won 4-1. Prakash Mooljee's Tuesday victory over the world no. 4, 6-4, 4-6, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, was the highlight of the week.
WTC Semifinals
Spain, on clay again, was next up. One problem was that Dudwadkar was replaced in doubles by Ritwik Suksma due to a ranking bug; he was listed as unranked despite three WTC wins in the past year on his personal sheet. Mooljee was once again our best singles player, but he still went down to Martin Zarco on the first day 7-6(3), 6-2, 3-6, 7-6(4). Ultimately those tiebreaks would cost us the tie altogether. We were skunked in doubles to go down 2-1, and Zarco blitzed Dudwadkar to give them the win. Juan de los Santos didn't win a single rubber for them, but he didn't have to. Spain takes it 3-2, and we were knocked out.
Ritwik Dudwadkar went back out the next week at the Japan Open(500), getting past Mackenzie in a close final and then an epic confrontation with Ruben Piazzola in the final. Ritwik won, barely; 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(10). Hard to have a more dramatic finish, his fifth straight win in their rivalry even though most have been close. He was the better player today, but only by a hair. The week before the WTC SFs were played, Mooljee entered a 250 in Moselle. He got through a testy match against Borja in the semis, but couldn't stop home favorite (5) Serge Cardone in the final, losing 6-3, 6-4. Cardone's a guy who has hung around just inside the Top 50 for a while, though he's still fairly young. Anil Mehul played a couple of Challengers over the period, making the SF at tier-2 Ljubljana, but taking a bad 6-3, 6-2 loss in the first round in Sacramento a couple of weeks later. Sushant Chiba had one event, a tier-3 futures in China where he won in singles, making the SF in doubles.
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