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January
Everybody got in a tournament over the next couple of weeks. Prakash Mooljee was up first, in Brisbane(250). Seeded 5th, he was upset by potential rival Tomas Niklas(35th, CZE) in the quarterfinals. The final count was 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, but Mooljee should have won this one. He was 1 of 5 on break points while losing 2 of 3 on his own serve, and in a match with relatively few chances that was the difference. Niklas is a quality player and a hardcourt expert, so he played reasonably well - just didn't come away with the win. It's a missed opportunity though for sure, and hopefully will be a rare occurrence this year.
The other three were in action the next week. Ritwik Dudwadkar got his first tier-3 juniors tournament. I was debating whether to give him one more tier-4, but there were two bigger events and three at the tier-3 level, so the top players would hopefully get spread around. Seeded 5th, he made the semifinals in both draws, giving champion Arsenio Corres(ESP), a clay-court specialist, his toughest match of the tournament in a 7-6(5), 6-4 score. A quality showing. Anytime he can hold his own in a tier-3 he'll be out there, but some weeks are less dense so he could see tier-4 action yet once or twice. We'll see what the schedule looks like for his next time out in a few weeks.
Anil Mehul and Girish Girsh both took care of business with the sixth 250-level title for each of them, in Auckland and Sydney respectively.
Coming Up ...
Mehul will go into the AO as the #3 now having moved ahead of Caratti, but unless he defends his title there that spot will be gone probably for good. He wasn't favored last year either, but the task would seem to be even more difficult this season. Girsh is still tied with Iglar for the #1 spot, a tie that is likely to be broken now. It's pretty simple: he needs to win the year's first Slam to grasp it. Anything short of that and Iglar probably will surge ahead. There could be some high drama upcoming. As for Mooljee, he's hoping for a kind draw, an upset chance, or both in order to equal last year's 4th-round finish, his best showing to date in a Slam event.
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