Turkish Rackets: Rocking Rackets

[Izulde]

Turkey is ranked 85th of 86 in World 1 of Rocking Rackets. They've never been ranked higher than 61st in the world and their best player, Halil Karaosmanglu, won the Wimbledon doubles title in Year 16 (actually was 4th in doubles at his peak). At $19.6 million in career earnings, he's the only Turkish player to ever break multi-millions (one other player, Cengiz Kucuk, did break the $1 million mark - just barely. Otherwise it's a few guys hovering around $500k give or take.)



Yeah, that's how bleak Turkey has been historically. Hilariously, the second guy on the Legends list? $3,844 with a career 3-3 record. Yikes.on.fucking.bikes.

I've put Dizdar in the Pecs Amateur Tournament in both singles and doubles, since his form is right on that knife's edge at 20. Do I think he'll be a great player? No. Buuut we all have to start somewhere.

Edit: I'm a moron and missed the Junior circuit. Fortunately I've corrected that. Dizdar is now pulled from Pecs and will instead be playing in the Junior 5 Den Haag tournament in singles and doubles. Right now there's six players signed up - ranging from 819th to 1300th outside of our unranked young Turk.

[Brian Swartz]

Good luck. You're gonna need it *evil cackle*

Originally Posted by Izulde

Dizdar is now pulled from Pecs and will instead be playing in the Junior 5 Den Haag tournament in singles and doubles. Right now there's six players signed up - ranging from 819th to 1300th outside of our unranked young Turk.

A wise change. FYI take the entrants with a massive grain of salt until you get to at least the big Challenger level. I think it only shows human-managed players and the 'bots' fill in the other spots.

I'm curious to see how you do - nobody ever in the Top 100 gives you a good chance to make history if you can find one half-decent player.

[Izulde]

I'm saving up to buy a 17 year old who looks way better than Dizdar

Now if I can just remember the Skills/Serves split to train up. Doubles should be pretty much ignored trainingwise, right?

[Brian Swartz]

Unless you're aiming for them to be a doubles-focused player instead, yes.

In general, it's good to train Service when it's just over half the price of Skill (I use 55%). There's a big drop-off in the number of double faults when you hit 2.0 Service though, so you may wish to do more training of that when you start approaching that point.

If you're looking for advice, the only other point I would make right now is just don't worry about keeping players in the sweet spot of 20-25 form while you are training them up. Just enough tournaments to stay at 15 or above will allow you more practice weeks which means more improvement.

[Izulde]

Are practice tournaments considered practice weeks I presume? Or just sitting idle and practice runs in background?

[Izulde]

I pulled him from the tournament since it's on Grass - his weakest surface by far - and put him in a practice tournament instead

[Izulde]

Shit. The unregistrations didn't take. So now he's scheduled for 3 tournaments this week :O

[Brian Swartz]

You just need to get them in by end of Saturday. That's over 40 minutes away. You can unregister until you actually reach the next week.

[Izulde]

Unregistrations didn't work though and it was Friday. Maybe I hit a bug?

[Brian Swartz]

Did you click Sign Up after you removed them? I've literally never had it work personally.

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by Brian Swartz

Did you click Sign Up after you removed them? I've literally never had it work personally.

Oh. No I didn't. That seems counter-intuitive TBH

[Brian Swartz]

I'm probably just used to it. The idea is that your changes don't save until you hit that (it's the same for registering as for unregistering) so you can just leave the screen if you do a bunch of changes and then don't want to keep them.

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by Brian Swartz

I'm probably just used to it. The idea is that your changes don't save until you hit that (it's the same for registering as for unregistering) so you can just leave the screen if you do a bunch of changes and then don't want to keep them.

Good to know, thanks.

[u]Den Haag (J5)[/b]
The singles side was a blowout 1-6, 1-6 loss in the first qualifying round to American Scott Fielder, who went on to lose in the Quarterfinals to 1 seed Swiss Emiliano Brembilla. Brembilla in turn lost to 4 seed Spaniard Sascha Frietze. Finals matchup featured Brembilla vs unseeded Croatian Ugren Kutlasic, who has a handful of quarterfinal appearances, but has never yet made it this deep into a tournament on the singles side (most is a handful of QF showings). And Kutlasic pulls off the upset with surprising ease - 6-2, 6-3, for his first singles title.

Doubles was much better. Paired with Ukrainian Stefan Chernovol, they upset the top-seeded Frietze and Serbian Vlasta Katancevic 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 in the quarterfinals. The semifinals was a heartbreaking 4-6, 6-4, 4-6 loss to Frenchman Olivier Pitteaux and Spaniard Ariel Fauela with a 96-101 point differential. Feels bad, man.

Pitteaux and Fauela went on to down Kutlasic and ntndeacon's Tunisian Yasser Elfrouqui 7-6(7-1), 6-1 in the doubles championship. Phenomenal tournament for Kutlasic, even though he's won Doubles titles before.

So $5 for Kazim Dizdar in his first tournament on his worst surface (his preferences did go up from 8% to 13% on grass, however, so it's not a bad thing that's his first tournament showing).

Next up is practice on a grass surface in the UK. I like the idea of training up his weaknesses. Dizdar also has his first skill point improvement, yay!

[Young Drachma]

Reading this just made me want to re-sign up for this game again.

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by Young Drachma

Reading this just made me want to re-sign up for this game again.

You totally should!

So Kazim Didzar's first practice tournament was... interesting? No idea how these things work. Went 2-3 in singles and 0-2 in doubles in group play. Have no idea what the +/- means or how it's tabulated.

But up another point in skill at least.

[Brian Swartz]

Ok, practice tournaments.

In the tournament table you are talking about, you get 0.5 for a bye (day you don't play a match) and a +1 for a win, and 0 for a loss. Like how chess works. I think this originally had another purpose, but all it matters for practically is sorting out matchups; later in the week you're more likely to play players who have been winning if you have also been winning. Similar to the Swiss System if you know what that is.

Down below each section of the practice tournament table, you will see a number of manager points denoted for wins. Higher amounts of points for higher-ranking sections of each practice tournament. That doesn't affect your player ranking or anything else other than giving you manager points.

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by Brian Swartz

Ok, practice tournaments.

In the tournament table you are talking about, you get 0.5 for a bye (day you don't play a match) and a +1 for a win, and 0 for a loss. Like how chess works. I think this originally had another purpose, but all it matters for practically is sorting out matchups; later in the week you're more likely to play players who have been winning if you have also been winning. Similar to the Swiss System if you know what that is.

Down below each section of the practice tournament table, you will see a number of manager points denoted for wins. Higher amounts of points for higher-ranking sections of each practice tournament. That doesn't affect your player ranking or anything else other than giving you manager points.

Good to know, thanks.

So Kazim Dizdar had another practice week where he promptly got his butt kicked up and down the court everywhere, but kept upskilling. Then his fatigue was over 500, so I gave him the week off. And then it was on to his second tournament.

J5 - La Paz, Costa Rica - Clay
Do not adjust your screens. We have our first singles win by Kazim Dizdar, beating Bolivian Cornelio Ansello 6-4, 6-2. Unfortunately that was in qualifying, so it apparently added no points to either Dizdar nor me as a manager (still stuck at 84 points) despite it supposed to be worth 5 points. And though our hero gave a game effort against Chilean fellow qualifier Octavi Guimera, Dizdar fell 4-6, 5-7.

Doubles action was a qualifying elimination. Paired with fellow Anilophile ntndeacon's Algerian Khalif Bouskelha, the duo put up one hell of a fight before falling - ironically enough - to Indian Anil Poola and Paraguayan Raimundo Intraigo 6-1, 3-6, 7-10. Still, that's another $9 in Dizdar's pocket, raising his total pro winnings to $14.

Octavi Guimera paired with Spaniard Roque Apruzzese to form the top doubles team, and they promptly swept through the field to take the crown. Their only real challenge came in the semi-finals against Poola/Intraigo: 6-4, 6-7 (3), 6-3. Otherwise it was straight sets the whole way through.

Apruzzese made it a double (heh) by straight-setting his way through the singles bracket as well as the top seed. Guimera gave him a game effort in the quarterfinals at 7-5, 6-3 and 4th seed Argentine Fabricio Cugulls tried too late to mount a comeback before falling 6-2, 7-5, but that was it for challenging opponents.

On the other side of the bracket, Croatian 3 seed Javarko Mratinkovic fell to unseeded American Johnny Hageley 6-7 (7), 2-6, opening up the door for unseeded Italian Ippolito dal Maistro to storm to a finals date with Apruzzese, where he was demolished 0-6, 2-6.

The Italian run was spearheaded by 14 year old Spanish qualifier Ferdinand Gangotena's thrilling, stunning 7-6 (4), 6-7 (4), 6-3 win over 2 seed Russian Nicolay Grazulin in the quarterfinals.

Fascinating tournament. Worth noting: Roque Apruzzese is managed by former #1 manager hugoboy, he of House Kaspar fame. Also: hugoboy has 4 trainers, 2 of whom are House Kaspar. ...Yeah. Keep an eye out here.

[Brian Swartz]

In case you're not aware, points change at the start of a new week. Dizdar got the five points, I can see them.

Also yay for getting a win! And down with House Kaspar.

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by Brian Swartz

In case you're not aware, points change at the start of a new week. Dizdar got the five points, I can see them.

Also yay for getting a win! And down with House Kaspar.

I see that now Kazim Dizdar did indeed get his 5 points and is now up to a career high 1233rd in the junior ranks.

Interesting note from practice this week - somehow in doubles he got drawn into a group where he ended up playing #1 ranked Leon Polychroniadias. Yeah. That guy. The one who, with 5 Grand Slam titles by 25, could be the one to knock Anil Mehul off the Top 10 All-Time List (Mehul has 8). And surprisingly, it was only a 1-6, 1-6 defeat. I'm sure Kazim will tell his kids and grandkids all about the time he took two games off Polychroniadias at the age of 15. He just won't mention that it was doubles

Skill is now up to 14, finally better than the 13 doubles Dizdar came in with. Fatigue is up over 500, so he'll sit out a week before jetting off to the island of Corfu for another Junior 5th grade event. It's on his clay, his best surface at 30%, though that isn't saying much. Seems like most players specialize in 60% in one surface rather than the even spread I've been employing. Oh well!

Junior World Team Cup is in a couple weeks. Not that it matters. Turkey doesn't have a World Cup or Junior World Cup Team. I'm not sure what the eligibility requirements are for it, either.

[Brian Swartz]

I don't know the exact requirements for World Team Cup, but I strongly suspect it's ranking-based. If you get enough players that do well enough in the rankings, you'll be able to replace one of the existing Level 4 nations. Then you'll need to do well enough to stay there, etc.

Example: Last year Bulgaria was invited in, but they only stayed there for a year. Lithuania replaced them this year.

I think it's something like 'compare last-place group finishers in Level 4 to nations who aren't in Level 4 and see if there's any that justify a switch'. Looking at Lithuania's players, they have a guy who is Top-200 singles, Top-100 in doubles, another who is low 200s in singles .... meanwhile a lot of the nations who aren't in have their best players ranked at 500th or lower. So, very roughly speaking, getting multiple players doing well in juniors or up to the 'higher-level futures' would be a thing to aim for.

The time to check would be Week 52. After the Week 51 Playoffs, and before the new WTC begins Week 1 of the new year.

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by Brian Swartz

I don't know the exact requirements for World Team Cup, but I strongly suspect it's ranking-based. If you get enough players that do well enough in the rankings, you'll be able to replace one of the existing Level 4 nations. Then you'll need to do well enough to stay there, etc.

Example: Last year Bulgaria was invited in, but they only stayed there for a year. Lithuania replaced them this year.

I think it's something like 'compare last-place group finishers in Level 4 to nations who aren't in Level 4 and see if there's any that justify a switch'. Looking at Lithuania's players, they have a guy who is Top-200 singles, Top-100 in doubles, another who is low 200s in singles .... meanwhile a lot of the nations who aren't in have their best players ranked at 500th or lower. So, very roughly speaking, getting multiple players doing well in juniors or up to the 'higher-level futures' would be a thing to aim for.

The time to check would be Week 52. After the Week 51 Playoffs, and before the new WTC begins Week 1 of the new year.

Looks like I'll have to keep waiting for another decent Turkish youngster to pop up then.. or finally cave and get the VIP.

[Izulde]

Kazim Dizdar had one last singles match in practice that he actually won, so nice highlight before his week off and on to Corfu.

Corfu - Junior Grade 5
Weird tournament and the biggest shock of Dizdar's career to date:





That's right - our hero is the 1 seed in both brackets, and there's mysteriously no 2 seed in singles draw.

Clearly they've been drinking too much ouzo in Corfu because the tournament organizers think Dizdar is both 1 seed worthy and they opted to have a 3 and 4 seed, but not a 1 seed. Go figure.

Anyway, in doubles, the alliterative Turk and Thai team oust the Swede and the Russian 6-3, 7-6 (9-7). In the first set, Dizdar and Acenio fell behind 0-2 before rallying back to take over. Set 2, they pissed away a 3-1 lead to go down 3-4 before finally forcing it to a grueling sweep set. The total point differential was 9, so very narrow match.

The semi-finals was against Mexican Raul Vecco-Garda and Frenchman Ben Berchet, a Napoleonic pairing if ever there was one. That duo conquered their QF opponents in a 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 full setter so hopefully they had some fatigue coming in. I missed most of the match, but after Dizdar and Acenio stunk up the joint in the first set, they came back to edge narrow margins in the second and take the third fairly comfortably: 2-6, 7-5, 6-3.

On to the championship! Italian Benito Ambrosini and Croatian Berko Tabakovic stunned the 2 seed pair of Portuguese Mauricio Agra and Mexican Rodolfo Riojos: 6-7 (9-7), 6-3, 6-4. Once again T&T were horrible in the first set, falling by an identical to semi-finals 2-6 score before getting their heads out of their asses and winning the second set 6-3.

The decider was as back and forth a game as you could have - Literally every single point in the first two games was a deuce in Set 3 and the top seeds finally gritted out a 7-6 (8-6) triumph for Karim Didzar's first title of any kind! How close was it? 106-102 point differential. Talk about a knife's edge - any given day win. But the victory is all that counts.

Singles side saw Dizdar take on Tabakovic in the first round. I missed that entire match, but our Turk inversed his doubles performance - won the first set, lost the second, and fought like hell to prevail in the third - a 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (7-5) gruel fest keyed by a 67% to 44% second serve win percentage differential. Everything else was narrow edges.

I'm nervous when I see German Herbert Feinblatt on the other side in the quarterfinals: a clay court specialist (50%) who is more in form and more well-rested than Dizdar. Sure enough, it's a 2-6, 3-6 comparative squash and Dizdar is out in the quarters.

Feinblatt continues his run by topping Indian Anat Muthupalaniappan 7-6 (6-4), 6-3, and the nation of India is even further depressed when not only are their all-Indian hopes crushed by that defeat, but there's no representation at all after Ambrosini sends home Rakesh Maitreya 6-2, 2-6, 7-5.

I'm shocked when Ambrosini takes down Feinblatt 7/6 (7-5), 6-3 to take the singles crown. Everything favored Feinblatt on paper - he skipped doubles, so was more well-rested, had superior Clay advantage (50% to 43%), was more talented, mentally tougher, faster, stronger... and yet, he still lost. That's sports sometimes.

Either way, a massive financial windfall for Karim Dizdar. $14 in career winnings jumps up to $47, over tripling his career earnings in one tournament.

He's exhausted again, so he'll take the week off before heading to Ireland to participate in a grass J5. I've noticed there's no players I've seen who specialize in grass, so it seems like a market area to exploit - even though Grass is Dizdar's own worst surface at 15% (it started off at 8%). As to why another tournament and not practice? Dizdar actually started the tournament at 14.9 form so I want to make sure it stays up as much as possible.

Next update will have the hero's ranking adjustment - I'm expecting to see it skyrocket thanks to his first quarterfinals singles appearance and first doubles title.

[Izulde]

On the grass in Corbh, Ireland, we see Kazim Dizdar well-rested and unseeded after the top-seeded insanity in Corfu two weeks ago. BTW, Dizdar jumped up to 1104th after his great Greek showing, then inched up to 1098th after presumably some points fell off a few juniors higher up.

Unfortunately he gets a tough draw in the more skilled American Jose Maria Desguanechs and falls 4-6, 6-7 (7-3). German Wolfgang Feistkorn takes out 4 seed Argentinian Murilo Ingunza 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 in the first round, the only unseeded player to bow out. The most exciting match? Pole Robert Adamcyzk nearly costs himself with 24 double faults to Slovak opponent Alois Bakoss and straight-setting in the narrowest of margins - 7-6 (8-6), 7-6 (10-8). Bakoss will no doubt feel hard-done by that.

Iganci Acencio, Dizdar's doubles partner in the Corfu triumph, advances out of the qualifiers where he knocks out Spaniard Gaston Vinciguerra 7-6 (7-5), 4-6, 7-5. No one loses like Gaston and I'm glad to have the Thai kid to cheer on.

He beats Ben Berchet - the French half of our semi-finals Corfu doubles opponents - 7-5, 6-3 in the quarters to advance to the semis. Berchet must *really* be hating Thailand right about now. In the same round, 3 seed Croat Javorko Mratinkovic sends JMD home in straight sets - 6-4, 7-6 (7-5), while Adamcyzk overcomes his first round jitters to knock off 1 seed Paraguayan Yves Cruz 6-4, 3-6, 6-4. The last quarterfinal is an all-German affair: Feistkorn gegen Steffen Kirch, und Kirch gewinnt 6-3, 3-6, 6-4.

Unfortunately the semis is where Acencio's run ends - a 2-6, 2-6 bowout to Mratinkovic, while Adamcyzk just keeps getting better as the tournament goes on, toppling Kirch 6-4, 6-4.

Mratinkovic has one bad set, but dominates the third one in ending dreams of Polish junior glory 6-4, 3-6, 6-1.

Over on the doubles side, Dizdar is paired up with Feistkorn and they rout Kirch/Bakoss 6-3, 6-1 in the first round. Rough tournament for Bakoss.

Funniest part? Adamcyzk and Mratinkovic teamed up in doubles and promptly lost 1-6, 6-7 (8-6) to Vinciguerra/JMD in the first round. Acencio and his partner, Konstantin Radionov the Russian, got out of qualifying easily, but then got spanked by top seeds Swiss Kurt Bode and Spaniard Silvano Campos 1-6, 5-7.

In the semi-finals, Dizdar and Feistkorn continue their easy stroll, knocking out 2 seed Cruz/Russian Dyma Feofanov 6-3, 6-4. Vinciguerra and JMD ensure no seeded team is going to win, taking out Bode/Campos in a straightforward 6-4, 6-4 dismissal.

So again it's JMD as an opponent, and I'm a little nervous. A +9 double fault advantage saves the day, though, with Dizdar getting his second straight junior doubles title 6-3, 4-6, 6-2. Truth be told, the match felt a lot closer than that and I consider us fortunate to get the victory.

But all's well that ends well and Dizdar inverses his prize winnings from $47 to $74. The skill gap is still readily apparent, so he's staying in the Isles and going to the UK for grass practice next week, where he might play a couple of ntndeacon's guys.

[Izulde]

Grass, time off, and then it's to a grass tournament in the Ivory Coast. Kazim Dizdar got up as high as 1013th. He's sniffing breaking into the Top 1000, and I'm hopeful he can do it after this week.

Junior 5 - Sassandra - Grass
In the doubles bracket, Kazim Dizdar finds himself the 2 seed alongside Algerian Hamed El-Kashef. The duo handle the all-Frenchmen Arnoud Bareau/Francois Erquembore team easily enough, 6-2, 5-7, 6-3 in the quarterfinals, but fall in the semis to Russian Igor Timoshinin and Italian Mercurio "Ice Cream" Galetto 6-4, 7-6 (8-6). Tough defeat, though we did lose to the champs, who topped 1 seeds ntndeacon's Algerian Khalif Bouskhela and Slovenian Niksa Frelih 4-6, 6-1, 6-3.

On the singles half, Dizdar is seeded third and handles Russian qualifier Evgeni Guseinov easily enough at 7-5, 6-2. But I knew the day was going to go well when I saw our Young Turk win the first game and the first point of the second game before he dropped his first point. Did blow a 2-0 lead in the second set though before he finally got his head out his ass.

The Italian Ice Cream Man also upset Russian 4 seed Konstantin Radinov in the first round 6-2, 1-6, 7-5. Not bad for a kid who has literal half-ball talent.

Dizdar has issues in the first set, but straightens up to dismiss Argentinian Claudio Vicedo 3-6, 6-2, 6-1 in the quarterfinals - his first ever semi-final singles appearance!

Unfortunately that's where it ends as top seed Frenchman Olivier Pitteaux handles Dizdar easily: 6-2, 6-3. In the other semi Galetto makes it a sweet treat of a tournament by bouncing 2 seed Bouskhela 6-4, 6-4.

France dominates Italy 6-3, 6-0 in the final. Still don't know how Galetto got that far, but here we are.

Fierce competition between Dizdar and Bouskhela. Before the week processes, Bouskhela is 1012th and Dizdar 1025th. Prize money *is* already processed, because we managers demand payment, damn it. There, Dizdar is on top $106 to $101.

It'll be interesting to see how their careers end up

On to hardcourt practice next week, followed by a week off and then to Spain for another hardcourt tournament.

Dizdar is probably on the verge of moving up to Junior 4 tournaments. Though his doubles championship streak ended here, that's three straight J5s he's made the semi-finals, and he's showing signs of breaking through in singles as well, though he has yet to capture a title.