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World Team Cup Level 2 Quarterfinals
Sri Lanka vs. Austria, Clay
Monday: A. Mehul d. H. Frankl, 6-1, 6-2, 6-3
Tuesday: J. Hammerstein d. A. Chittoor, 6-1, 6-1, 6-1
Wednesday: J. Hammerstein/T. Weidman d. P. NIlima/A. Chittoor, 6-2, 6-1, 6-4
Thursday: J. Hammerstein d. A. Mehul, 7-5, 6-0, 7-6(5)
Friday: H. Frankl d. A. Chittoor, 6-4, 6-1, 6-3
Austria defeats Sri Lanka 4-1. A disappointing but hardly unexpected result. We've now lost twice in 'my' tenure and both of them to Austria, who will be in the playoff to go up to Group 1 next year while we will not. Unlike last year we were defeated in doubles, Chittoor has been mismanaged this year as previously mentioned but also Prakash Nilima, the consistent cog in doubles through all of our WTC runs, is now 31 and not nearly the player he once was. Mehul won his first match but had one disastrous set against Hammerstein and was only 4 of 18 on break chances. It was still better than he managed last year and wouldn't have been enough to salvage the tie anyway, but still a disappointment.
Sri Lanka drops one spot to 42nd in the world. Anil Mehul will have a busy schedule now the next couple of months as with no WTC action until next year, he'll need to get a lot of matches in order to support training during the off-season. For him, the off-season this year will be nearly two months, everything after the Paris Masters. Next year we will try again to fight for promotion, and it's very possible it will be without Austria in our path. That wouldn't bother me one bit.
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