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World Tour Finals
Graz, Austria
The top three made it through the round-robin stage ... as well as Jochen Weigle. Hmm. Wasn't expecting that. It allowed him to break a tie in the rankings for 7th with Urazov. And if you're wondering about Ene Caballero, well ... he didn't win a single set. Yikes. Indoor courts aren't exactly his thing.
Weigle's reward was a 6-2, 6-4 baptism by Ben Faille in the semifinals, while the winner of the other group, Leon Polychroniadis, was edged by his long-time rival Cananis 7-5, 7-6(6). Faille had beaten Renke Cananis in pool play, but the championship match went to the German, 6-3, 2-6, 7-6(1). Faille was the better player overall but unfortunately wasted most of his ammo in that second set. Cananis moves into a tie for 4th all-time with 5 World Tour Finals trophies, while Faille can only contemplate why he's losing somewhat more often than he really should.
Elsewhere
Three challenger tournaments for Sushant Srivastava. Three times he won the first doubles qualifying match. Three times he lost the second one. That's consistency. In singles, he faced high-ranking seeds in the first round twice, but actually managed to win a match in the third event; Cancun, Mexico. The expected message was delivered; Srivastava needs to get better before he will see any notable results at the Challenger level.
Aparna Chandrasekharan lost in the quarterfinals, where he was supposed to lose, in his latest venture; Girish Raychaudhari won another JG4 as he couldn't find a suitable JG3 to enter.
In a few weeks we'll find out if we're let back in the WTC next year - unlikely - or if we need to keep grinding away to try and earn our place.
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