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Sri Lanka Rankings Update
Anil Mehul -- 2nd to 1st singles. Mehul was borderline dominant at the age of 29, winning 3 Slams and the WTF, along with a lone masters at Shanghai. He also had five runner-up finishes in the big events for a 76-9 record, the best of his career. Two years ago, when he was also #1, he had the same number of defeats with three fewer victories. With a sizable lead over Iglar and Girsh, he'll simply seek to stay on top as long as possible and repeat as much of this success as possible.
Girish Girsh -- 4th to 3rd singles, 612th to unranked doubles. More wins(78, previous high of 74) and fewer losses(12, at least 17 in all other years at the elite level) make this by far Girsh's best season. It's still hard to overlook a 2-6 record against Mehul. Had he even won a bare majority, he would have been close to the #1 spot, at least second. Not hard to figure his marching orders this year.
Prakash Mooljee -- 72nd to 44th singles, 617th to 304th doubles. Ironically, given that he finally started to have doubles success towards the end of the year including his debut at the WTC Finals, Mooljee will be playing less doubles this year. Another stellar challenger year with 8 titles and 2 finals for a 53-5 record, the most wins he's had and just above his four losses from last year. Mooljee's ranking is just below where Girsh was at this point(40th). It's time for him to take the next step. In practice tournaments he's been playing at a level of roughly 20th in the world, which is where I'd estimate his playing strength having not looked at the ratings extensively yet. He needs to get into the elite Top-32 group now, so he'll be focusing more on singles and a slightly more aggressive schedule to get there. Usually this isn't necessary, but right now there's a lot of active players in this range. Last year his two worst results were in his first two challengers(both QF losses). Improving on those is the first step, and playing a 250 or two might be necessary. The goal of being seeded at the Australian Open isn't going to happen but it should shortly afterwards. Indian Wells is the current target and a very achievable one.
Shreya Ujjaval -- 52nd to 57th singles, 125th to 157th doubles. Don't tell Ujjaval's ranking this, it didn't get the message, but he has continued to improve. Ujjaval didn't play a single challenger, a scheduling error that delays his ascension but he's too good to be kept down permanently. I'd expect somewhat better results this year, and hopefully he can have a big event or two to break through.
Shyam Senepathy -- 166th singles. Despite a ridiclous 47(!!!) events and no doubles, Senepathy did graduate futures this year and moves into the challenger ranks. Most often he crashed out early but there was the Orleans CH+ where he reached the final. He also played most of the Slams and Masters, usually losing in the first qualifying opportunity. He's still on an upward path and is still only 21.
Ritwik Dudwadkar -- unranked to 209th juniors. Dudwadkar has now established himself and will move to Tier-4 events. He might be able to get away with Tier-3s but it's much safer to play at least a few 4s and let the always volatile early-season junior rankings stabilize some. In terms of training, he's got a basic level of ability in both skill and service and will soon start gradually emphasizing all-court play(skill) slightly more and more to an increasing degree. I think it was seven straight singles losses to start his career early in the year but he finished at 23-13 so it was a good close to the season. Dudwadkar is now Sri Lanka's #1 active juniors player.
Manager Ranking -- 2nd(unchanged), 30.6k points to 39.9k. A sizable lead now on third place, although the gap to oprice in first is still massive it has closed significantly to less than 19k. In a few years, who knows.
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