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Old 09-18-2015, 01:26 AM   #134
Brian Swartz
Grizzled Veteran
 
Join Date: May 2006
Shanghai Masters

The end of the year just gets stranger every week. The main theme this year, which really I totally welcome as I like having to beat the best, is that the top players haven't just upped and not shown up to big events. This is in contrast to previous years. So what happens now?

Almagro, Topolski, and Gonacharenko don't show up, the last pair being stuck in a tight battle for the final WTF spots. Go figure. They're back in action the week after, so it looks like the manager just had another brain fart or whatever. As a result, Mehul gets a first-round bye, loses just one game in the second round, and all he needs to get to the quarters and put himself right back in the thick of things is to get by veteran Spaniard Andres Blanco, ranked 14th. He's never played Blanco, who is a guy who, at 27, is just past his best play. His career-high ranking was 11th, so he just was never quite good enough to be a major factor at the top.

Naturally, Mehul falls behind a set and a break, with break point against to go down even more. He than rallies, only to royally stink it up in the decider. Blanco, who lost in the fourth round at all the majors and made only one Masters QF(Madrid), takes the match in one of Mehul's most disappointing upsets of the year 6-3, 3-6, 6-3. He then proceeds to upset Mick Elder, making this his tournament of the year at Anil's expense. Huge, huge opportunity lost.

It got weirder. On the other side of the draw, Marcek proceeded to upset Hogue and Benda, making the final where Iglar predictably made mincemeat of him as he did every comer in this tournament. This moved him up to 10th in the rankings, knocking Mehul off the first page for the first time in months.

The upshot of all of this was that Anil Mehul only got in a couple of matches, leaving a very difficult scheduling decision. The top goal in the final phase of the season is to set himself up to be at his best in the WTC playoffs: everything else is secondary to that. After running the numbers, the best chance by far was for him to play the final three weeks(250s next week, then 500s, then the Paris Masters). Making the tour finals is becoming quite a long shot -- updated standings coming next -- and that means he needs enough match practice now to stay sharp after a month-long break between Paris and the WTC resuming in December.

Next week he's in Stockholm, the 250 that had the weakest competition. Gonacharenko and Topolski were playing in the Kremlin Cup, while Benda was in Vienna. All are indoor events, a big advantage for Mehul these last three weeks as none of the top players are as skilled as he is on the surface. Only Iglar is close.

Last edited by Brian Swartz : 09-18-2015 at 01:30 AM.
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