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February/March
The luck was not with the Sri Lanka contingent during the first extended break of the year. Win some, lose some … and it was mostly the latter for us here.
World Team Cup, Group Play Round Two
Sri Lanka vs. The Netherlands, Grass
For the second matchup in a row, we had an opponent on their preferred surface, a minor surface that isn't often selected. Amrik Kasaravalli beat de Jong in straight sets to get things started properly. And then we get to my brain fart. I knew Chiba was going to drop like a rock after the AO … but somehow it didn't occur to me that meant Nasir Chittoor would get the nod as our second singles player. That's a good thing for his development and he's the better player at this point, but I wasn't ready for it so he didn't gain as much xp from it as he could have. He started by getting beaten in straight sets by Haas, grass-court proficient. We bounced back as Guha/Chiba easily won in doubles, but that was the last of the good news. Ollie Haas won again over Kasaravalli in straights, and then the closest rubber of the week went to Tim de Jong over Chittoor, 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-3, 6-4. Fortunate it wasn't worse really.
The Netherlands defeat Sri Lanka 3-2, meaning that no matter what happens in the next round against Italy, we're out at the group stage. Not good for Chittoor's development, and embarrassing waste of what is probably Kasaravalli's best season. Combination of being in the group of death and then facing the two tough opponents on the worst possible surface for each … and we STILL should have survived it because if either of the five-set ties against Russia in the first round had gone our way, we'd be fine. Reminds me of many moons ago when we couldn't buy a tie against Benda's Germans or Hammerstein's Austrians that wasn't on clay, when we'd be favorites on any surface but that.
Yeah, I'm a little salty about this.
Kasaravalli's lone event after that was at the Rio Open (500). His matches against Calisto Aviles have been close recently, though he'd lost three of four. Here, the Spaniard prevailed 6-4, 6-7(3), 6-4 in a dead-bang-even SF match. Both players had five BPs; Aviles won two and Kasaravalli won zero. It happens, but it felt like adding insult to injury. Chittoor had two events, both clay 250s. In the first, I figured him to run into Rhodes in the semis. Nope, it was countryman Shakti Vemireddy, who'd knocked out the aging vet in the previous round. That sent up a pick-em match, with the winner getting a very nice result (Velilla awaited, so neither of us was winning this event). The scoreline? Vemireddy, 6-4, 7-6(5). It was close, but he deserved the victory. That was the Argentina Open, and Nasir sallied forth a couple weeks later in the Brasil Open. Again he reached the semis, this time with little hope of going further. He was competitive but inferior against Fabio Cagide. Would have been really nice to get to that final, but a couple of 250 semis is enough to replace a couple of his challenger wins from last year. Doesn't get him further ahead, but keeps him from regressing.
Sushant Chiba had a date at CH2 Bergamo. My how things have changed. An irrelevant QF loser to a rising Italian player, he easily cruised to the doubles title with Satyagit Guha. That, plus getting Guha more matches, is what we came for. I wasn't super-thrilled with the later player getting dumped in the second round, but it was an indoor event so I wasn't shocked either.
Coming Up …
The IW/Miami double closes the book on the first hardcourt swing. First Masters for a number of players including Chittoor - I've seen a number of Anilophiles who just made it to elite doing good things since Australia. Next ranking supplement should have some good news to report. All the big events are important for all of my players these days, giving me a little more skin in the game so to speak. At the top, both Perez and Wentz faltered at one of these events last year, so one of them could step forward and shift the balance of power … or someone else could step into the gap. Was Mpakati's AO a one-off, or a sign of things to come? Aviles bouncing back from a slow start to the year? Velilla and Jung always wildcards these days …
Lots of possibilities.
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