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Old 10-05-2016, 05:12 PM   #522
Brian Swartz
Grizzled Veteran
 
Join Date: May 2006
February/March

I was taken by surprise that we are actually in the Junior WTC this year, as we haven't participated in a few years; usually we don't have enough high-ranking juniors to get in. As it ends up, we're in Group 4, which is the group of death. Germany has two Top-10 juniors and is defintely the best this year; the United States and Spain are close behind them. Germany and Spain are both in our group, so just advancing would be a good result.

We got the odd country out first; Great Britain. A pair of straight-sets wins by Ritwik Dudwadkar contributed to a 4-1 victory in a must-win tie. Next up Germany flipped the script, beating us by the same count. Dudwadkar started it off well with an upset of 7th-ranked Moma Lotric in four, but we wouldn't win another set. #4 Heinen blasted Dudwadkar easily, 6-3, 6-0, 6-3, in their encounter later in the week. Definitely disappointed in that showing.

Surprisingly, Great Britain upset Spain in their matchup, 3-2. This leaves us tied with the Brits for the last spot. If we lose to Spain, we'll end up in a 3-way tie unless Germany somehow loses as well. If we win, we'll guarantee ourselves of a spot in the quarterfinals. It looks like there could be some high drama coming. It'll be a grass court which should favor us a bit, although Spain's #3 player isn't bad on it. By the rankings the Spaniard's would have the advantage, but I still can't figure out how they lost to GBR ... so who knows what happens there.

Elsewhere, both Girish Girsh and Prakash Mooljee played one of the 500s the last week before IW, with Mehul taking the whole period off. Girsh was in Acapulco, and he ran into some trouble. 7th-seeded Johnny Browne in the quarters and unseeded Hugo Jurco in the semifinals both pushed him to three sets, but he managed to escape both tests. In the final he dominated Zakirov to get his expected title. Definitely looks like he's off his game right now though, and only time will tell how damaging or long this slump will be.

Mooljee headed to Dubai, where he appeared to be on a collision course with Mugur Kinczllers. Xavier Caminha pushed him to a third-set tiebreak in the quarterfinals, though the match was not really that close, but Prakash got through it. 11 aces from Cojanovic and a frustrating return day ... 4 of 21 BPs ... made for a tougher semi than it should have been as well, but he got through in straights. Meanwhile Kinczllers narrowly escaped Srbulovic, so the expected final ensued. Moolje won in a third straight match that wasn't as close as the 7-5, 6-4 scoreline indicated. A good tournament win to give him his third 500 title, solidify his hold on the #5 ranking, and continue his winning streak(18 for 18 so far this year), but he missed a lot of opportunities this week and that could potentially come back to bite him against the best players. \


Coming Up ...

The Indian Wells and later Miami masters are about to get under way, finishing off the early hardcourt season. About a thousand points separates each of the players from 2nd through 5th, so there could be some movement there if any of them do particularly well or poorly. Girsh needs to up his game if he wants to avoid losing more of his lead at the top, though at close to 6k points still he's in no danger of all of being toppled anytime soon.
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