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February/March
The matchup with Italy in the WTC is, as I mentioned before, one I expected to go against us due to it being indoors - a very favorable surface for them. The start sort of went that way. Chiba won in straight sets against their no. 2 singles, then Kasaravalli lost in four against their top player, #32 Santino Belmon. Another four-set loss in doubles put us one rubber away from defeat. Then Belmon took the court again versus Sushant Chiba, and Sushant proved his championship pedigree in an impressive comeback victory. 2-6, 6-4, 7-6(6), 7-6(3). Aside from the bad start, he had plenty of chances to lose this game and should have. Both players served well with 48 combined aces, but there isn't a key stat that didn't tilt against him. Just found a way to win. That gave Amrik Kasaravalli the chance in the decider, and just as had happened in the first rubber Angloma couldn't compete. Straight-sets win, and a 3-2 'upset' of the Italians!
That means we've clinched a spot in the quarterfinals. We'll go up against the United States on clay, which should help us, to determine the group champion.
Next, Kasaravalli looked for a good points opportunity. He chose the Delray Beach 250, where he entered as the top seed. Tommy Fitzpatrick entered as well, but was taught a rude lesson by Vicars in the quarters. Gregory Gulley was the opponent in the final, and Amrik couldn't get by both him and the partisan crowd in a 7-5, 6-3 defeat which ended without a single break chance on his part. Gulley and Vicars, who lost in the semis to the eventual champion, both did well to enter this event held in their home country … particularly since both feed of the crowd very well (4+ in that rating).
I then faced a difficult scheduling choice. It was time for youngsters Nasir Chittoor and Satyagit Guha to get out there. Two contradicting concerns presented themselves. Was it best for me to keep playing them together and maximizing their xp and points during tournament weeks? This was my initial inclination, but then I reflected on the fact that there are a lot of Masters coming up. Five in ten weeks. Chittoor's ranking is high enough that I feared it would become difficult to find reasonable practice opportunities in those weeks. The traditional answer has always been just play a challenger for cheap points … but if I play the pair together they'll have way too many matches for that to work.
After mulling this over, I hesitantly split them up. CH2 Casablanca is where Chittoor entered, an event with a joke draw featuring Anilophile Helmut Hoetker as the 2-seed at 156th. No insult intended there, but Hoetker had an unfortunate run-in with one of those high-skill low-serve guys and lost in the semis while Nasir easily claimed the trophy, his 6th consecutive Challenger title. Meanwhile Guha had an easier road than I expected in a F2 event in China, taking the championship there without losing a set. He'll move up to the top futures tier now.
In all my pondering of that decision, I totally forgot to enter any event for the two senior players that week. Doh.
Coming Up ...
The IW/Miami double as the season heats up. We've only had one big event in over three months now, but there are ten more to come in the next half a year from here, the heart of the tour's competition. The big question right now hangs over the head of Harald Wentz. Last season he won both these events to emerge as the top hardcourt player in the world, but didn't end the year that way and hasn't shown he can reproduce the same level of success. If he repeats, he stays as a legitimate challenger to Perez and the unquestioned #2. If he doesn't, Nicolas strengthens his grip and the Austrian slips towards the who-the-heck-knows mix of Mpakati, Velilla, Aviles, maybe even Jung/Haas and whoever else decides to emerge. Chiba and Kasaravalli, partly due to my screwing up the previous week's scheduling, are the top two seeds outside the Top 16. Grrr.
For Chittoor & Guha, I contemplated challenging Fitzpatrick in CH2 Santiago but narrowly decided against it. Helping me make up my mind to practice instead were a few quality players willing to hit with Nasir on clay, among them Anilophile Mark Smith (47th). I'm going to continue playing it by ear every week right now, finding myself hemming and hawing over the best choice on almost a tournament-by-tournament basis.
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