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Country Rankings
As of Week 11, 2089
1. Greece - 2,474
2. Spain - 2,442
3. Germany - 2,356
4. France - 2,184
5. United States - 2,135
6. Mexico - 2,120
7. Cyprus - 2,085
8. Great Britain - 1,932
9. Austria - 1,915
10. Ireland - 1,861
45. Sri Lanka - 1,164
Greece just took the top spot - we'll get to why in the listing of the current top players - and of course the rest of the Top 5 are the usual powerhouses. Sri Lanka actually isn't as down in the dumps as you might expect, but make no mistake about it they are still falling. Of course when I started this adventure they were 86th had spent 40 years uninterrupted at the bottom tier of the WTC. So by that standard, these are great times!
A few years after I stopped managing, they had their last hurrah with back-to-back losses in the finals to Netherlands and the de Boer brothers in '70 and '71. Despite a quality doubles team, in both cases it was 4-1 shellackings with Nasir Chittoor, ranked 5th at the time, able to take home one singles victory both years.
For the rest of the 70s they either lost in group play or in the quarterfinals, until the decline really got going in 2079 as they fell out of Level 1 entirely, part of a string of eight consecutive WTC setbacks. It would get worse; nine straight losses from '82-'84 nearly sent them to back-to-back relegations, staved off only by defeating Guatemala to stay at Level 3 and avoid the bottom tier. Last year they stayed up again by defeating Uruguay, and it's quite possible that we're going right back to the relegation playoffs again this year. Losses to Canada and Korea leave the last place in Group 1 up to a matchup against the Slovak Republic. 42-year-old former player of mine Ritwik Intodia paces the doubles, which is sad enough, but at present there isn't a singles representative in the Top 300. By player rankings at least, the Slovaks are a strong favorite.
It seems inevitable we will sink to the bottom tier of the World Team Cup again at some point. Frankly, it would seem inappopriate if we didn't.
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