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Old 10-19-2015, 03:54 AM   #169
Brian Swartz
Grizzled Veteran
 
Join Date: May 2006
Prakash Mooljee had another successful Tier-3 in May; thought about moving up but it was a light week with only one Tier-2 and one Tier-3 on the schedule. He was the #3 seed but still managed the title in both singles and doubles. Mooljee is hanging around in the lower 60s of the juniors rankings pretty consistently right now, and they've mostly stabilized for the year.

Meanwhile, it was an important time for Girish Girsh who is making his transition to the elite a bit earlier than planned. The intent had been to play in the Busan Challenger(Tier 1) in Korea during the Madrid Masters -- but he was ranked 32nd going in which is last ineligible spot. I.e., the Top 32 are ineligible for challengers, 33 and below can play them.

This left two suboptimal choices: play the Masters events or have cruddy practice weeks. With a 90-point win coming off in a couple weeks at the time(Fergana Tier-2 challenger last year), the Masters option offered the possibility of a chance at staying in that Top 32 and getting seeded at Roland Garros. And so the choice was made: Girsh is ready to attempt to make his move into the elite players status permanently, a move that means a major schedule change, saying good-bye to 'Challenger Hero' status based on training as much as possible, and focusing instead on maximizing performance for the business end of the larger events.

Last edited by Brian Swartz : 10-19-2015 at 04:08 AM.
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