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Old 02-19-2016, 10:35 PM   #261
Brian Swartz
Grizzled Veteran
 
Join Date: May 2006
September

Shanghai is now underway. In the interim, there were a few relevant things that are worth mentioning. First up of course was the WTC Semifinals.

Germany played the US. On clay. For the fifth tie in a row. What in the heck, seriously?!? This time it wasn't enough though. Keyed by a doubles win by Dring/Challenger, the Americans came through 3-2, with Benda winning twice but it wasn't enough for the defending champions. Guess they didn't pay off enough linesmen or something. I'm kidding ... mostly. The odds of getting any one surface five times in a row are 1 in 4 to the 5th power, or 1 in 1024, otherwhise known as less than a tenth of a percent. At a certain point, it becomes more logical to believe in the conspiracy. On the other side, the Czech Republic smashed Austria 4-1, surprising basically nobody. So it's the top two nations in the rankings going at it for the title at the end of the year. While we sit at home and watch. Grrr.

But anyway, that was followed by Girish Girsh playing the China Open(500) where he was the #2 seed. Marcek was on the top line, but was upset by Mockler in the semifinals. Perhaps he is falling off a bit? In any case, Girsh looked like he was about to have one of those days in the quarters against Agustin Herrera, dropping the first set at the end before rallying to crush his foe, 5-7, 6-3, 6-1. He woke up in time, but still not a good performance. He thumped Farkas, then beat Mockler in a close straight-sets final to claim his third 500 title. A good week, as he continues to work on narrowing the gap to Marcek.


Shanghai Preview

Mehul has dropped to 400 points behind Iglar, twice what it was a few weeks ago after the USO, due to events in the World Team Cup. He was a finalist last year so the only way he makes up any ground is by winning, or a nearly- unthinkable early loss by the legend. Girsh lost in the third round; this is his best chance to gain more territory probably for the rest of the year. Prakash Mooljee will be in action again, a tier-2 event as once again there were no tier-1s. Due to the timing of tournaments, it looks like it may take him a bit longer than expected to graduate from the futures level, but so long as he keeps winning there is no risk, it's just a matter of time. Patience, my young prodigy.
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