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January
World Team Cup
The first rubber against France was a stunner. It was a clay match, but it was still a great way to start the year as Ritwik Dudwadkar handed Mateo Kaspar his first defeat in eight meetings, 2-6, 7-6(3), 2-6, 6-3, 8-6. Could easily have been a straight-sets loss, but he kept fighting back and eventually prevailed. Mooljee lost in fairly similar fashion, another 5-setter to Xavier Dorso, essentially handing back the advantage. We easily won the doubles, Kaspar handled Prakash Mooljee, and so it was another final-day decider. Dudwadkar punished Dorso, 7-6(3), 6-2, 6-3, cruising after that first set to hand us the point. We're eventually going to pay the price if we keep having these narrow ties, but it wasn't this time.
Anil Mehul had a bit of a close shave in the quarterfinals but ultimately won the tier-1 futures in Venezuela a couple weeks later, maintaining his status just outside the Top 200. Prakash Mooljee entered and won the Sydney 250; he was pushed in each of the last three rounds by Zaferia, Espinoza, and then Blake -- 7-6(4), 6-4 there in the final -- but he got through to take his 48th pro-level title.
Interesting Factoid: Our doubles gold at the Olympics last year put us in the record books. Dudwadkar was the youngest, and Mehul the oldest, to claim that honor in the history of the Games. I thought that was interesting when I noticed it recently.
Coming Up ...
The Australian Open beckons.
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