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It's been a while and I'm short on time these days, but I do want to throw out some quick updates if I can since we're at the end of another year. It is currently in the final week of Year 103.
World Team Cup
Sri Lanka found the Level 4 Playoffs to be progressively more challenging as they went on. A 5-0 win over Kazachstan was followed by a narrow 3-2 victory against Malta, who has declining 32-year-old Oscar Woodger holding down the fort. He was once ranked 17th in the world, but that was several years ago. We won the other three rubbers, and moved on to get blasted on an indoor court, 5-0 by Ukraine. Ukraine is the Year 103 Level 4 WTC champion.
And then a strange thing happened in the playoffs. Not only were all four matchups between a Level 3 and a Level 4 nation, no doubling up, but I favored the Level 4 contestant in all four ties. Including ours. And it went almost that well. Malta stays down with a 3-2 loss to Belgium, but in other ones the Slovak Republic beat Luxembourg 4-1, Ukraine beat Venezuela 5-0, and we blanked Peru 5-0 as well. They took two sets, but we were never in danger of losing the match. With this exchange of nations, Level 3 just got quite a bit better.
After all was said and done, Sri Lanka ends the year ranked 41st. 36-43 and pretty bunched up together, and the loss to Ukraine didn't do us any favors - playoff ties are not counted for the rankings. But either way, Sri Lanka moves up to Level 3!. Our Group 1 opponents will be:
- Armenia (32nd)
- The Netherlands (33rd)
- Tunisia (63rd)
This is going to be an absolute brawl. I think Tunisia is better than their ranking although definitely the weakest. Between us, Armenia, and the Netherlands I can see any of us winning the group, and any of us failing to make the knockout rounds. Overall my prediction is that we basically tread water this year and stay in Level 3. It would take some particularly bad or particularly good luck for us to promote or demote.
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