Rocking Rackets - World #2 again

[law90026]

Here we go again!

Our heroes:

18 year old Elias Losana from Spain, TE of 8.47, TESS of 15.54. He will be the main focus at this time because he's entering the amateur ranks. I'll be doing something a little differently with him, which is focusing on clay rather than hard courts, partly because I only acquired him about 12 weeks after he was generated by someone else and he's a little behind the curve plus there are a bunch of clay tournaments in Spain. I don't think he'll get as far as I would like because of the 12 week period when he was training on his own but hopefully top 20 in the world.

14 year old Serami Benthami from Morocco, TE of 8.04, TESS of 16. I have higher hopes for him because I managed to snag him when he was generated by the game system. He'll go through the typical junior schedule but one plus is that he's already playing the junior Davis Cup at 14 years of age so that'll be a nice boost in experience.

It's currently week 3 of year 462, will update at the next notable juncture.

[law90026]

Very quick update.

Elias Losana won his 2nd amateur tournament and is ranked #1321 in the world. He actually won his first during his last junior year because there was a tournament week where the highest junior tournament was a JG3 and that was going to be a waste of time to play in.

He may be a little overqualified at this level. Through the first 3 rounds of singles play, he only dropped 1 game, and a total of 12 games in the whole tournament. Of course this was a clay court tournament in Spain so he had huge advantages overall.

The cut-off for the top 1000 in the world is around 18 ranking points so 1 more amateur tournament win might push him into the futures ranks.

[law90026]

Year 462 week 12

Elias Losana continues to roll. He wins another clay amateur tournament in Spain, dropping just 5 games, and goes up to #1011. Cut-off for the top 1000 went up to 19 points the last few weeks.

He's going to have 7 weeks off and I'll enter him into a FT3 then. He's not getting great practice at this level so might as well push him a little.

[law90026]

Year 462 week 21

So any thoughts of a meteoric rise for Elias Losana were put to rest. A FT3 in week 18 saw him seeded #7 and he played to form, reaching the QFs before losing to the #1 seed. It was the result that was illustrative of the fact he has a Long way to go as he lost 6/0 6/0 to someone who was ranked in the 200s. 2 ranking points pushes him to #916 in the world so it's futures events going forward now.

He is playing in a FT3 this week as well where he's unseeded so it'll be interesting to see how that goes.

Serami has pushed up to play his first JG4 this week, let's see if he's ready for it.

[law90026]

Year 462 week 24

Elias Losano lost in the 2nd round of the FT3 in week 21, losing to the #1 seed
6/2 6/2.

Week 24 was another FT3 and it was a much better run as he reached his first futures final, although he was convincingly beaten 6/2 6/0 by the #1 seed and world #202. This should push his rankings into the 700s and better seedlings going forward.

[law90026]

Year 462 week 33

Elias Losana is starting to get the hang of the futures circuit (hopefully).

The FT3 in week 28 saw him reach the QF before losing to #1 seed and world #202 6/1 6/0. Not unexpected based on past results, he's not at that level yet.

Then a bit of a breakthrough as Elias won a FT3 in Italy. To be fair, the players in the tournament were not strong, including the #1 seed that Elias beat in the finals, some who was only ranked in the 600s. Still a win is a win and the 17 points pushes him up to the mid-500s. Surprisingly he also won the doubles tournament and so he'll have a long break (7 weeks) before his next FT3.

For Serami, he's moved up to the JG4 level and he's been decent. His past 3 outings have resulted in 2 runner-up positions and 1 QF loss, so he's definitely capable here. He'll probably continue here till close to the end of the year unless I see dramatic improvement.

[law90026]

Year 462 week 41

Elias Losana continues to rise in the world rankings, hopefully not too quickly!

In week 37, he takes advantage of home court advantage in a Spanish clay FT3, cruising to the title in dominant fashion without dropping a set and a total of 15 games over 5 rounds. Seeded #3, he beat the #1 seed and world #330 6/3 6/3 in the SFs, which was his most impressive win to date. Also relevant that his opponent was also Spanish so homecourt advantage was less relevant.

This pushes him to #482 in the world and he’ll be taking part in another clay FT3 in week 42. Another win would be great, fingers crossed he keeps his form up.

[law90026]

Year 462 week 45

Elias Losana took part in a clay FT3 in Poland in week 42 and was seeded #5. He managed to reach the SFs and had a close match in the QFs against the #4 seed (ranked #239 in the world) 6/7(6), 7/5, 6/3. In the SFs, he eventually lose to the #1 seed (ranked #202) in the world 6/3, 4/6, 6/1. While it would have been nice to continue his little streak, what's really good is that he wasn't crushed like he would have been at the start of the year. This pushes him up to #461 in the world.

He's signed up to play another clay tournament in week 48. I suspect this might be his last tournament for the year unless his doubles results go poorly and so he's managed to rise to a decent position for his 2nd year in the pros. I'll assess what his targets are at the end of the year but the immediate thought is that next year will be a push to reach challenger status by year's end (although that might be a tad ambitious).

[law90026]

Year 463 week 6

Elias Losana continues his push for relevancy in the world tennis circuit by winning 2 more FT3s, one in week 48 of year 462 and the other in week 3 of year 463. In between these 2 wins was a QF result in week 42 as well.

All of this means that Elias has risen to the #382 position in the world and he has another FT3 in Spain coming up in week 7.

Serami on the other hand continues to improve his game because he's been playing in the world junior Davis Cup. In the first round robin stage, he picked up 400+ experience just from the matches alone, which is always a very nice bump. My expectations for him continue to be high, let's see how that pans out.

[law90026]

Year 463 Week 41

Many weeks have passed because I was travelling for work and couldn't update! Here goes.

Elias Losana
Elias is now the world #281. I suspect next year will be the start of what I find to be the most challenging stage of the game, the Challengers (see what I did there?). Expect many early knock-outs but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Over the past 35 weeks, Elias has played in 7 clay FTs and he won 5 of them, was 2nd in another and a semi-finalist in the last. So a very strong overall performance for the 20 year old although it's all a bit skewed since it's all played on his favourite surface.

He's about 92 ranking points away from the #200 position. I suspect the middle of next year is when he breaks into that position if everything breaks right.

Serami Benthani
Serami is the #92 junior in the world at age 16. There's only 1 other 16 year old ahead of him in the rankings so he might have an interesting juniors career, fingers crossed. He's focusing on hardcourts in a more traditional fashion with clay as his secondary surface.

[law90026]

Year 464 week 37

Time passes and things change, let's see what's happened since the last update.

Elias Losana
Things went pretty much according to how I thought they might.

In week 41, Elias took part in a clay FT1 in Portugal. Seeded #6, he went 1 round further than his seeding, reaching the SFs before losing to the #2 seed in 3 sets.

Week 46 was a return to Spain and a clay FT2. Homecourt advantage and a clay court focus resulted in a truly dominant tournament win where Elias dropped a total of 3 games. He also won the doubles tournament!

Next tournament was in week #52 where he won another clay FT2, this time in Senegal. Just 9 games dropped in this tournament as well and he's clearly too strong for the field at the futures level on his preferred surface.

Week 4 of year 465 was more of the same as he played a FT3 in Spain. He dropped 1 game the whole tournament (!) and that was in the finals. Another doubles tournament win here as well.

Elias won another clay FT1 in Spain in week 9. This was a bit more of a challenge though. Seeded #4, he beat the #1 seed in 3 sets in the SFs and the #2 seed in the finals in 3 sets as well. Nice to see him pull through again here.

At this stage, I'm aware he's entering the Challenger stage and I typically go full singles around this time. So in week 14, he takes part in another Spanish clay FT1 and wins it. He follows that up with a win in a Spanish hardcourt FT2 in week 16 and that pushes him into the top 200 in the world. Yes, he won a hardcourt tournament!

Week 18 was Elias' first Challenger tournament and he played a clay CH3 in the Czech Republic. Unseeded, I assumed that he wouldn't get far but he proved me wrong to an extent. In the 2nd round, he was up against the #3 seed and world #93, Aleksandr Stepananko, and Elias just crushed him 6/2 6/1. Elias was then knocked out in the QFs by #7 seed and fellow Spaniard Marcel Garabito 7/6 2/6 7/5 but it was a better start than expected.

Ranking points coming off meant that Elias could play in another Spanish FT1 in week 20 and he took advantage of that to win it and gain another 33 ranking points. He followed that up with FT1 wins indoors and on clay in week 24 and week 27.

Week 29 was a return to the Challengers and he played a hardcourt CH1 in Spain. Unseeded here, he knocks out #4 seed Bruno Azzopardi in the 2nd round 3/6 6/2 7/5. In the QFs, it's a titanic match against another unseeded Spaniard Juan Jose Hertolano and Elias pulls through with a 7/6 5/7 7/6 win. His run ends in the SFs as he pushes #1 seed Sebastian Birkeland (world #37) to 3 sets before losing.

Elias took part in a Spanish hardcourt CH1 in week 33. Seeded #8, he wins his first 2 rounds easily before easily beating #2 seed Calisto Campo Calvo 6/3 6/2 in the QFs. He then beats #3 seed Xabi Iraneta 5/7 7/6 6/3 in the SFs to reach his first ever Challenger finals. Unfortunately, the run ends there as he loses to #1 seed (and world #49) Agustin Asconiza 7/5 7/5.

With all these results, Elias is firmly entrenched in the top 200 at the #132 spot. What next for him? I may slow things down a little for him at this stage and selectively play Spanish tournaments, both singles and doubles, so that he can get more practice time. I'm fully aware that his results are skewed because he's played a LOT of Spanish and clay tournaments, which will not be as available as he starts to rise in the rankings, so it's time for him to train again.

[law90026]

Year 465 Week 4

Another half-year (approximately) has passed and it's Australian Open week!

Elias Losana
Week 37 of Year 464 saw Elias reach the SFs of a Spanish clay CH2. The first 3 rounds were straighforward for the #7 seed as per usual. Just to show how dominant the Spanish contingent was for this tournament, the QFs had 7 Spanish players and just 1 from Mexico. Needless to say the SFs saw an all-Spanish affair, one where Elias lost to #1 seed and world #51 Agustin Asconiza 6/1 2/6 7/5. Second straight loss for Elias to Agustin in recent weeks and this was to be the start of downward trend for Elias over the last few weeks of the season, albeit one that was not unexpected.

A clay CH3 in Madrid in week 40 went somewhat badly as a poor draw saw Elias lose to #2 seed and fellow Spaniard Andre Orellana 6/2 6/3 in the 2nd round.

Off to Equador for a clay CH2 and again a poor draw saw Elias lose in the 2nd round to #7 seed Francesco Brasa 6/3 7/6.

With the end of the season coming and a need to keep form up, Elias took part in 3 more clay Challengers over weeks 45 to 47 but he continued to struggle and lost early in all of them.

The final 4 weeks of the year saw Elias take part in a few Futures doubles tournaments for match form purposes.

At the start of year 465, he went to Brazil for hardcourt CH1 and promptly lost in the first round. Still he had enough form to be ready for the Australian Open.

Seeded #133 in the world, Elias had to qualify for the singles maindraw and he did so easily. The first round was a match against fellow qualifier Stanislav Shkarupa and Elias won 6/3 6/3 3/6 6/2, to set up a 2nd round encounter against #13 seed and fellow Spaniard Simon Cuenca. Elias lost 6/4 3/6 6/1 6/4 but can emerge with head held up after that decent performance. It's also a massive 70 ranking points for Elias so it'll be interesting to see where he ends up after the AO is done.

Elias' objective this year will be to break into the top 100 and stay there. This is one of the hardest periods for younger players because the Challengers are a real crapshoot at times.

Serami Benthami
This year we begin to follow Serami's career in earnest as he enters his final juniors year as the #2 junior player. It'll be a year of (hopefully) good experience as Morocco will be taking part in the Junior World Cup so that will be 3 rounds of best-of-5 matches to play in. I'll also be fielding Serami in the various Junior Grand Slams if I remember to schedule him correctly.

He's taking part in the Junior Australian Open as the #2 seed in singles and the #3 seed in doubles so it'll be interesting to see how that goes. Update in the next update!