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World Team Cup Finals
The good news for France is that they still have the power Kaspar duo in doubles, who easily won their match. The bad news was everything else. Neither Perez or Velilla lost a single set for Argentina, who are the new world champions after a 4-1 victory. I should not like to bet on them being dethroned anytime soon.
Playoffs
** Croatia vs. Romania - Interesting matchup here of a couple of nations from Level 2 trying to move up. Romania won the SF matchup 4-1, but in the vital playoff we have the reverse as Croatia promotes by the same count. What changed? Well, for reasons beyond my understanding, Odimos Csollang(34th) elected not to participate in the playoff round. That left both teams with a big gap between their top singles players, instead of Romania having two quality ones to challenge Srba Dogic and company. After two straight playoff defeats the last couple of years Croatia is back up, while undefeated level 2 champions or not, the Romanians suffer a second straight playoff setback.
** Germany vs. Morocco - Three of the four singles players in this matchup are in the 40-50 range in singles, with a fourth at about 60th. That would seem to portend a close matchup, but the decisive factor was probably the indoor court surface. Either way, Germany wins 4-1 to hold on to their top-level spot while Morocco will spend another year in the second tier.
** Poland vs. Mexico - One would go down in this matchup. Valturri(27th) and Campos(30th) are a quality pair for Mexico and ensured it wouldn't be them. A 5-0 skunking on grass sends Poland down after a two-year stint at Level 1. They're good enough to threaten for promotion again next year if they get the right matchup, but not good enough to stick I don't think.
** Serbia vs. Russia - This will be the first year in a while Serbia stays where they are. From L1 down to 2 in '75, down to 3 in '76, back up to 2 in '77 … but they bit off more than they could chew here in a 5-0 shellacking on clay with a close doubles loss all they can really say for themselves. Only a bad group draw in last year's Group of Death even put Russia, who won five rubbers in round-robin play, in the playoff to begin with. Stachovsky (24th) is fading and Rublev (36th) is a wanna-be, but they are more than good enough to hang in the top tier.
Final Standings
1. Ireland - 2624
2. Spain - 2295
3. Italy - 2233
4. Netherlands - 2093
5. Sri Lanka - 2090
6. Argentina - 2074
7. United States - 2062
8. France - 1998
9. Czech Republic - 1981
10. Thailand - 1858
Ireland is still #1 for at least another year, and probably at least two. You don't lose that kind of lead quickly, esp. when you still make the semifinals. Argentina is of course the big riser here and Sri Lanka also made a smaller move upwards. Expect the Netherlands to remain a power for a while, and you can never totally dismiss Spain or the USA. Italy surprised me though. Two QF losses and one SF the last three years, and before that they were down in level 2. I think they just haven't lost enough points yet … SF in '70, finalist in '71, SF in '72 before a rough patch. That was back when the likes of Gilberto Chinaglia, former world no.4, was a headliner for them. They've managed to be respectable enough not to fall of a cliff while Ireland was dominating I guess.
Next year, we have Italy (3rd), United States (7th), and Germany (14th) in our group. That's Group 1. The Netherlands have been given a free ride through in Group 2, Group 4 is pretty balanced … and France/Russia hav a serious bone to pick about Group 3, this year's group of death. They'll face off against #1 Ireland and #2 Spain. Who knows what they did to deserve that fate. As for us, we should be able to win our group. Having said that, it's going to be a dangerous transition year, but barring a disaster we'll get through to the knockout rounds with relative ease.
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