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Sri Lanka Rankings Update
Anil Mehul -- 2nd singles(unchanged). For the first time, I am left to wonder how long Mehul may occupy the #1 spot in the national rankings. I don't know exactly how long he's held it, but it's been at least the nearly 7 in-game years this dynasty has been going on. He was probably tops a year or two at least before that, so call it close to a decade. That's not to say that his run is over or anything, he's only declined slightly, but back-to-back losses to Girsh have all the appearance of writing on the wall. This year looks like it will end up being not as good as the last two, but better than the year before that. Good, but not great. Really not a surprise that the 'perfect storm' of last year's unexpected success didn't last. But a third straight Wimbledon is still worth celebrating, and he's still good enough to have some fun in Paris and the Tour Finals yet. There's a lot still to play for.
Girish Girsh -- 4th singles(unchanged), NR to 595th doubles. The dance with Marcek is over; the Czech no. 2 is clearly in the rearview mirror and for the second year in a row, Girsh is playing his best tennis at the end of the year. After semifinal results in Shanghai and Paris last year, it's unlikely he'll improve a great deal on his standing before the new year arrives. More importantly will be doing well at the Tour Finals which is where it started coming apart for him last year. He's shown recently that he's good enough to be #2 -- going further than that means waiting for Iglar to turn into a human again instead of this Lord of Tennis thing he's been doing again this year -- but he hasn't proven he can be consistent for more than a couple of months. It remains to be seen if he can confound those expectations. Girsh's return game, particularly on break chances, has been persistently brilliant lately and could carry him to many a title in the future.
Shreya Ujjaval -- I meant to note his ranking progress in this space, even though Ujjaval is not managed by me, but neglected to this year. He's up from 108th to a career-best 48th after his successful run at the US Open, and his manager appears to be improving in giving him more(although still not quite enough) weeks off to practice. He's improved significantly this year, and Ujjaval could well be a Top 20 player within a year's time.
Prakash Mooljee -- 114th to 87th singles, 755th to 720th doubles. Pairs is still a struggle, but after losing two of three matches a few months ago Mooljee is back with a vengeance. He's reeled off three straight Tier-2 Challenger titles, giving him five challengers overall -- at a younger age than either Mehul or Girsh were when they won their first! That's partly due to him being more of a natural/less of a worker, partly due to him aging a bit faster, a little better athleticism has helped as has better scheduling, but the bottom line is it's been another wildly successful year, 36-2 at this stage. Towards the end of the year he'll probably step up to play at least one Tier-1 event at some point. A bit more luck in his partners for doubles would be nice though ...
Manager Ranking -- 3rd(unchanged), 32.6k points to 33.7k. Hayato continues to stay just ahead, 655 points at this juncture. oprice meanwhile has broken his record once again, now at over 64k.
Coming Up ...
The WTC quarterfinals, with Sri Lanka heavily favored against France, are next week. Assuming that we prevail there, it'll be all WTC action between now and the Shanghai Masters in a little over a month; Mooljee is due for a sizable break, and the other two will get enough action for the national team to keep them sharp.
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