A Rocking Rackets Dynasty (NOW WORLD 6)

[law90026]

Year in Review

Year 319 is done and here’s how it went.

Grand Slams

World #1 Valentino Dotto won the Australian Open and US Open while new world #2 Gianluca Barrafuldi won the French Open. Former world #1 and current world #3 Antonio Filho won Wimbledon.

Gianluca Barrafuldi also won the World Tour Finals, beating world #4 Mario Avendano in the finals. It was a surprising tournament as Valentino Dotto didn’t make it out of the group stages and the semi-finalists were Gianluca, Mario, Antonio Filho and world #5 Svetislav Jarenovich.

Masters

For the Masters, Valentino Dotto won 4 of them, while Nikolai Balk (world #6) won 2. Antonio Filho, Svetislav Jarenovich (world #5) and Timmy Toy (world #9) were the other winners at this level.

500s

At the 500 level, Valentino Dotto, Gianluca Barrafuldi, Juan Javier Ricardos (world #15) and Morgan Tallemach (world #16) won 2 titles each, and Antonio Filho and Indrek Sarv (world #10) and Anatoly Cherny (world #11) won 1 each.

Year End Top 10
1. Valentino Dotto, 25 – 12,700 points (10.00 rating)
2. Gianluca Barrafuldi, 26 – 8,735 points (10.00 rating)
3. Antonio Filho, 27 – 7,840 points (9.85 rating)
4. Mario Avendano, 27 – 6,970 points (10.11 rating)
5. Svetislav Jarenovich, 28 – 6,455 points (9.42 rating)
6. Nikolai Balk, 29 – 6,225 points (10.09 rating)
7. Adel Adkins, 30 – 5,055 points (9.48 rating)
8. Havel Gondzur, 28 – 3,560 points (9.58 rating)
9. Timmy Toy, 25 – 3,140 points (9.65 rating)
10. Indrek Sarv, 28 – 3,115 points (9.71 rating)

Valentino Dotto was dominant from the start of the year and firmly established himself as the #1 player in the world. However, he’s being chased by Gianluca Barrafuldi, who had a career year as well but the gap is still significant. Mario Avendano made his move as well this season, moving from around #10 at the start of the year to #4 and he is possibly the best player in the top 10 right now. Overall though, it’s an old’ish looking top 10 at this stage.

In the coming season, potential names to look out for amongst the younger players include current #11 Anatoly Cherny (9.95 rating), Tony Archer (9.93 rating), Ene Colon (9.66 rating), Feliciano Putignani (9.72 rating) and Alvar Freudenthal (9.66 rating), all players in the top 40 who are 24 and younger.

[law90026]

Year 320 Weeks 1 – 9

The Juniors

Ghazi Mehmett had a big jump in rankings by about a 100 places as the previous 18 year olds bow out of the junior tour and he’s now around 141st in the world. Over the first 9 weeks of the year, Ghazi has been a runner-up in 2 JG4 singles tournaments and won 2 JG4 doubles titles with GC. I suspect he’s nearly ready to move up to JG3 but I’ve said that before and been wrong.

GC is ranked #235 in the junior tour. He’s not as developed from a skill perspective as Ghazi but he makes up for it with high mentality. For GC, he’s won the 2 doubles titles with Ghazi and he has also made the SFs for both singles tournaments he took part in as well. He will move up with Ghazi to JG3 as well.

Claude Curtayne is ranked #401 and still playing JG5s. He’s also about ready to move up to JG4 I think as he’s reached 2 consecutive JG5 SFs and also won a JG5 doubles title. He plays for France in their U15 WTC team and he won both his matches in their 4-1 win over Argentina in the first round of matches.

The Senior

Once again the start of the year has been frustrating for Teo as he chased form and a seeding for the Australian Open.

The year started with a win (out of 2) in Sweden’s match against Estonia in the WTC, which came with it a nice 50 ranking points. The win came over rival Arnold Jarvilaturi, a tense 5-setter. Teo lost in the reverse singles though, to world #10 Indrek Sarv in straight sets and Sweden lost 3-2 overall when Alvar Freudenthal couldn’t beat Jarvilaturi in the last match.

Then came a horrific run of 1st round exits as Teo was knocked out early in Sao Paulo (CH1) and Sydney (250). Still, pullouts meant that Teo was seeded #31 for the Australian Open and I was hoping for at least a 2nd round appearance. Alas, the terrible form continued and Teo was knocked out in the first round by Ferdinand Duran, who is, in fairness, a rising star (21 years old, 9.33 rating). Early hardcourt season sucks for Teo.

Luckily the indoor tournaments became available thereafter and Teo was the runner-up at Heilbronn (CH1), where he lost in the finals to world #72 Elliot Rejnener. Elliot is better in terms of overall rating so not a surprising loss.

Teo then appeared for Sweden in the next round of the WTC tournament, one I had contemplated pulling him out of. It was against Spain, who field world #3 Antonio Filho and #7 Adel Adkins, both much better than Teo. In the end I went for it for the xp and, as expected, he lost in straight sets to both.

Teo finally got his first tournament win of the season when he went to Quimper (CH2) and he won relatively easily, not dropping a set at all, although the finals against Arnold Jarvilaturi was close (7/6(5), 7/5(4)). He is currently hovering around the #32 position in the world and so it’s another season where the strategic decisions become more relevant in terms of tournament choices since there will be weeks when the challengers are not available to Teo.

[law90026]

Weeks 10 to 15

The Juniors

GC was dropped at week 13 and a new junior hired, Vitorio Annunzio from Switzerland. GC’s lack of development prior to my hiring him was going to be an issue and it was time to cut ties. Vitorio projects to have decent/good strength, speed and mentality so hopefully he will do fine.

Ghazi Mehmett’s only tournament appearance during this period was a JG3 and, once again, he looked out of his depth. He was knocked out in the first round by the 2nd seed although he reached the QFs of the doubles tournament. Back to JG4 again for now.

Claude Curtayne looked good in his JG4 appearance, reaching the singles SF and was a runners-up for doubles. He is also solid for France in the U-15s, winning all 4 of his matches thus far and helping France to a 2-0 record.

The senior

Teo Rask played in 2 CH2s, both on indoor courts, during this period. He failed to defend his title in Cherbourg, losing in the finals to Marcello Borsellino 6/2, 6/2. Marcello is a very good player though, rated at 9.49 at the end of year 319, so it wasn’t unexpected.

Teo did manage to win the CH2 in Rimouski though, beating Alberto Aveles 6/2, 6/3 in the finals. Teo was a finalist here last season so it’s good to see him improve on his performance this year.

In week 15, Teo and Britrock’s Sean Mendes took on South Africa in the WTC Round Robin matches. Teo won his singles match-up against Stephen Peters in 4 sets but Mendes lost to their Bill Comfort in straight sets. When the Swedish doubles team lost their match, the pressure was on. And Teo choked. Teo started strongly, going 2 sets up but then lost the 3rd and 4th sets. He managed to stabilise things in the 5th and had 3 match points when he was up 5-4 in the 5th set but failed to convert and proceeded to tamely lose the last 3 games. It was a close’ish game (6/7(6), 4/6, 7/5, 6/1, 7/5) but Teo threw this one away. That meant that Sweden lost the tie 3-1 although Mendes won the last singles match-up to make it a respectable 3-2. Sweden has now lost all of their group games.

As at week 15, Teo is ranked #33 in the world but there’s a gap of about 150 points to #32 (who is Bill Comfort coincidentally enough). To reach the top 20 requires about 2190 points so Teo is 900 points away from that. I think it’s probably not possible to reach that level with Teo because he would need to do much better in the bigger tournaments in order to get the required number of points but we’ll see.

[Brian Swartz]

Teo's still young -- he has 2-3 years until he reaches his peak. Obviously he's not going to get a huge amount better but he will get some better if you keep at it. I think Top 20 is definitely still a possibility for him. It's interesting to me -- the way you describe him he really is a tweener, almost ready to 'graduate' challengers but maybe not quite yet.

[law90026]

Ha that's a good way to describe him. He's going to have one of those unspectacular careers I think, kinda good but not great. Good learning experience though because it will be useful when I try and groom someone better.

[britrock88]

As a brief aside to law's info here, the jockeying for the Swedish WTC roster is great.

Teo is ranked 36th, with 1255 points.
Alvar Freudenthal is ranked 37th, with 1225 points.
My guy, Sean Mendez, is ranked 40th, with 1160 points.

Teo took over the #1 spot from Freudenthal last year, and Freudenthal and Mendez have been swapping places in the #2 spot for most of this calendar year.

They're all very close in age, too--Teo is 24 and at 96% of peak athleticism; Freudenthal is 25 and at 93%; Mendez is 24 and at 95%. Freudenthal's aging factor of 102% is a bit faster than the others', though. So I have Teo and Mendez will be the singles pairing for Sweden for a while to come.

[law90026]

So go away for a weekend and it ends up as many missed weeks of updates. Here goes.

Weeks 16 - 35

The Juniors


As at week 35, Ghazi Mehmett has just turned 17 and 7 weeks. Not sure where he will end up in the juniors, it's been a learning curve for me here. He's currently playing relatively successfully at the JG3 level, unless he faces a seeded player early. He's taken part in 5 JG3 tournaments during this period and he's won 1 title, come in 2nd in another, reached the SFs in a 3rd but was knocked out in the first round in 2 of them. Doubles has also been successful, with 1 title, 1 runner-up position and 2 3 QFs. Currently ranked #116 in the world.

Claude Curtayne is 15 and 50 weeks so he will turn 16 soon. Currently ranked #268 and he is playing in the JG4 levels although he should move up shortly. He's played a few JG4 tournaments and he won his most recent entry and was a consistent SF in the previous ones. He also won 2 doubles titles at this level. Continues to represent France, where he was won 3 out of his 4 matches thus far.

Vittorio Annunzo is 15 and 13 weeks so he's the youngest of the lot. He is looking decent at the JG5 level so will also be moving up soon, having won 1 singles tournament, come in 2nd once and reached the later stages of the tournaments on multiple occasions. Ranked #383.

The Senior

Teo Rask continues to hang around the 32-35th slot in the world and hasn't quite been able to make a breakthrough.

In week 17, he reached the SFs of a CH2 at Santos, which was a tad disappointing. Then 2 early'ish exits in weeks 20 and 21 at Bordeux and Cremona, which didn't fill me much confidence leading up to the French Open.

Teo did manage to better his performance at the French Open this year though, reaching the 2nd round before losing to #13 seed Eddy Pratt 5/7, 6/4, 6/4, 6/4.

Wimbledon wasn't far off and Teo took part in a CH1 at Nottingham and I was pleasantly surprised when he won the title here as the #2 seed, dropping only 1 set in 5 rounds of matches. Could this mean a better performance at Wimbledon?

The answer was yes as Teo cruised to the 3rd round before facing off against phenom Tony Archer. However, Teo managed to bring the match to 5 sets before losing 5/7, 6/1, 3/6, 6/3, 6/4. A credible performance and, with that, Teo has far surpassed last year's overall Grand Slam performance in terms of points gained (145 points to 30).

Then one of the big goals for the year was the Swedish Open but Teo was not able to progress past the QFs as he lost a super close match to world #18 Ene Colon in the QFs by the score of 6/7(2), 7/6(4), 6/4. Ene is the better player and a clay specialist but the frustrating thing is that, as seems to often be the case, Teo is able to take the lead but is simply unable to close out the match. He had match points in the 2nd set but simply could not convert. One goal missed as a result.

Teo then won a couple of weeks later at a CH1 in Poznan, only dropping 1 set again throughout the tournament.

He hoped to build off that success at another CH1 in San Marino but was disappointingly dumped in the QFs by a young up-and-comer, Adam Preto, in the QFs, who went on to win the tournament.

Teo will be skipping the US Open to play a CH1 in Como. Hardcourts are his bane and most players train a lot on that surface so it's never going to be favourable for a player with Teo's more limited abilities. After that, we will be entering the indoor season as the year begins to come to an end. Teo will be hoping to pick up a bulk of his points during this stretch. Let's see whether this strategy works off for him.

[law90026]

Originally Posted by britrock88

As a brief aside to law's info here, the jockeying for the Swedish WTC roster is great.

Teo is ranked 36th, with 1255 points.
Alvar Freudenthal is ranked 37th, with 1225 points.
My guy, Sean Mendez, is ranked 40th, with 1160 points.

Teo took over the #1 spot from Freudenthal last year, and Freudenthal and Mendez have been swapping places in the #2 spot for most of this calendar year.

They're all very close in age, too--Teo is 24 and at 96% of peak athleticism; Freudenthal is 25 and at 93%; Mendez is 24 and at 95%. Freudenthal's aging factor of 102% is a bit faster than the others', though. So I have Teo and Mendez will be the singles pairing for Sweden for a while to come.

It's been fascinating! Teo is actually the worst player amongst the 3 of them based on Brian's rating formula so I'm holding Sweden back

[law90026]

Oh one other thing that's kinda cool: Britrock's Andrei Lebydenko is doing really well in recent weeks. He reached the QFs of Wimbledon and that pushed him into the Top 30. Hopefully he will be able to push far into the US Open.

[britrock88]

Originally Posted by law90026

Oh one other thing that's kinda cool: Britrock's Andrei Lebydenko is doing really well in recent weeks. He reached the QFs of Wimbledon and that pushed him into the Top 30. Hopefully he will be able to push far into the US Open.

But I overplayed him in the W-S 250--singles and doubles--and he was totally gassed by the 3rd round of the US. Took a rough 0/0/1 loss to 9-seed Timmy Toy. Still a par showing for the 28-seed. Now, for several weeks' rest.

[law90026]

Week 36 to 41

The Juniors

Ghazi Mehmett tried out the Junior US Open in Week 36 and that was a bit of an eye-opener as he was knocked out in the qualifiers for singles and the first round for doubles. Maybe next year but this level looks out of his league for now. He went on to his first JG2 where he won the doubles and came in 2nd in singles. Currently ranked #87 after that strong performance in the JG2.

Claude Curtayne took part in 2 JG4s and he was a semi-finalist for both singles and doubles in the first one but he proceeded to then win both singles and doubles in the 2nd. Looks like his time in JG4 is up and he's going to be moving up. Ranked #231 in the world for juniors.

Vittorio Annunzio also looks to be moving up soon as he won a doubles JG5 and reached the SFs for singles. Ranked #412 right now.

The Senior

Teo Rask has had a decent few weeks overall.

First up was a CH2 on clay in Como where he came in 2nd, losing to #1 seed Arnaldo Pirovano in the finals. Not a surprising loss since Pirovano is the world #29 and he is a clay court specialist.

Then to St Petersburg for a 250 on indoor courts. Teo reached the QFs here where he was unfortunately faced #4 seed Andrei Rhykov. Against a superior player who has homecourt advantage, I figured Teo would be knocked out and that was accurate although Teo made it close (3/6, 6/2, 6/4). Rhykov went on to win the tournament.

Final tournament before the Stockholm Open was a CH+ at Mons, where Teo had come in 2nd last year. In the 2nd round, Teo faced ntndeacon's Adrian Benavediz and Teo overcame him 7/5, 6/3. The finals had Teo face off against Marcello Borsellino, the world #35, and it would be the 3rd time the pair had faced off this year, each time in a challenger final. Marcello had beaten Teo at Cherbourg in week 10 but Teo had won Nottingham in week 32.

This time around, Teo came out on top in 3 sets (7/6(4), 2/6, 6/4) in a match where Marcello won slightly more points (97 to 93). Not a victory I expected based on talent and form but every win is appreciated!

This moves Teo back up to world #32 and the last major tournament (in my eyes) for Teo is coming up, the Stockholm Open, where he will be hoping to defend his title (and 250 ranking points).

One thing I've come to realise though: a steady sequence of challengers probably isn't enough to push to the top 20 in world 2. There needs to be serious pushes in the major tournaments (i.e. 250s and above) to see some real progress so I will need to rethink how I approach Teo's tournament schedule for year 321.

[Brian Swartz]

a steady sequence of challengers probably isn't enough to push to the top 20 in world 2. There needs to be serious pushes in the major tournaments (i.e. 250s and above) to see some real progress so I will need to rethink how I approach Teo's tournament schedule for year 321.

You are still right there on the challenger 'bubble'! My thought here is primarily that it's basically impossible to be good enough to be Top 20, and still be ranked low enough to play challengers. Or to put it another way, Teo's schedule this last year was at a minimum semi-reasonable, and not the reason he isn't ranked higher.

Here's how I would look at what you did:

Majors

Slams -- Played three, skipping the USO(not in the seeds I presume?), losing in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd rounds.

Masters -- Didn't play any.

Taken by themselves, what does those results say? They look like the resume of a guy who'd be lucky to be in the Top 50.

Minors

500 -- 1 QF
250 -- 1 Final, 2 QF, 1 R1 exit

Pretty much the same here. Only once did Teo reach the 'business end' of one of these tournaments. Relatively small sample size but I think it does suggest that playing more 250/500s probably isn't the answer.

Challengers

CH+ -- 1 Title, Helsinki pending, hope I'm not spoilering by mentioning that
CH1 -- 2 Titles, 1 Final, 1 QF, 1 R2, 1 R1
CH2 -- 3 Titles, 2 Finals, 1 SF, 1 QF

Overall, 22 tournaments. That's a little heavy in my opinion, esp. since you can only count 18 of them. Faster world and making sure you have enough matches might have an impact there though, so take it for what it's worth.

If it was me I would keep playing a mix of big challengers and 250s as long as you are able to -- which is better on any given week depends on the schedule. Watch the entry lists as you have been and so on. I would think you'll be able to avoid the poor start Teo had this year, and if so you should be seeded at the Australian Open and then be able to get a seed at Indian Wells and Miami later on. If that happens, you should be in the Top 30 and will be waving goodbye to challengers. I'd say the only real problem this past year was a few too many early-round losses, and maybe a few too many tier-2 challengers instead of the bigger ones. You're really close though, obviously.

[law90026]

Thanks! Insight is always helpful.

We'll see what happens in Helsinki, which will be starting shortly.

[law90026]

And the year comes to an end. Here's how it went for my team.

The Juniors


Ghazi Mehmett ends the year in the top 90 for juniors. He took part in a JG2 but was knocked out early so he then dropped back down to JG3. Maybe it's just the year-end but he didn't perform fantastically there as well. It'll be interesting to see how he does next year, which is technically his last junior year (I think). He won 2 singles tournaments and 6 doubles tournaments and will end the year with a record of between 31 to 39 wins (he's playing one last year-end tournament) and 10 to 12 losses.

Clayde Curtayne is around #235 in the junior circuit and is consistently strong in the JG4s but it's erratic for him at the JG3 level thus far. He has a 39-10 record this year and he won 2 singles tournaments and 4 doubles tournaments.

Vittorio Annunzo is ranked around #415 in the junior circuit. Another tweener at this time as he doesn't quite have the ability to move up to JG4 consistently yet. He went 21-19 on the year and won 1 singles tournament and 4 doubles tournaments.

The Senior

Teo's final objective was the Stockholm Open and he entered in high spirits. Given a bye in the first round as the #3 seed, he beat a qualifier easily in the 2nd round and cruised through the QFs as well. In the SFs, he was up against the #2 seed Milton Aguilar and Teo won in straight sets to set up a finals showdown with #4 seed Adrian Genel. Unfortunately, Teo wasn't able to defend his title, losing 3/6, 6/2, 6/4, and disappointing the home crowd.

It was off to Valencia for a 500-level tournament after that and Teo surprised #7 seed Rozomir Lapcevic 6/3 6/3 in the first round. The second round was a straightforward 6/0 6/1 win over a qualifier before a QF match against #4 seed Jean Paul Dermacastel. Teo wasn't able to sustain his momentum though and he was knocked out in straight sets but a credible performance in a major tournament for Teo.

A little time off then Teo took part in two more indoor tournaments to close off his year and he won both, a CH2 in Eckenthal and a CH+ in Helsinki. At this level and on indoor courts, Teo generally has no competition I think, as he crushed pretty much all his opposition in these tournaments.

With that, he ends the year at the #32 spot and a 69-20 record.

His performances as follows:

1st round: 2
2nd round: 1
QFs: 5
SFs: 1
RUP: 3
Winner: 8

It's a slight improvement in the sense that he reached 11 finals this year, compared to 10 last year and he also won 8 of those finals. He's shown some improvement in terms of reaching the later stages of tournaments so that's helped.

He also did better at the Grand Slams this year, making the 3rd round of Wimbledon and the 2nd round of the French Open.

So about the objectives set at the start of the year? Teo did manage to better his Grand Slam performances this year so that was 1 task achieved. However, Teo failed to win either Swedish 250-level tournament so that was disappointing. I would probably have graded Teo with a pass if he had won Stockholm but the inability to win either tournament means I give Teo a slight failing grade.

Lest you think I'm being harsh, I'm not. Overall, I think Teo did decently. He's kind of maintained his standing in terms of the world rankings and he's still around his prime so next year may be the year he can push a little higher.

The goals for year 321?

a) Continue to improve at the Grand Slams (better 145 points overall);
b) better his overall performance at major tournaments, i.e. level 250 and up (330 points);
c) win the Swedish and Stockholm Open;
d) break into the top 30.

[law90026]

Year 320 in Review

Valentino Dotto won the Australian Open, beating Mario Avendano in a 5-setter in a thrilling finals and a repeat of last year's result. This makes it 3 consecutive finals for Dotto and back-to-back wins wins for him. It's Avendano's 3rd final in 4 years, although he's come up 2nd to Dotto twice now.

At Indian Wells, Dotto was the winner, beating Nikolai Balk in the finals. Similarly, it's Dotto's 3rd consecutive finals and 2nd consecutive win here. For Nikolai, he's supposed to be on the downswing of his career but he's showing he can still compete.

Next up was Miami and Dotto did not participate! Nikolai Balk was able to take advantage of this by winning the tournament, beating American Glenn Southwell in the finals. It's Balk's 4th win here, although his previous 3 wins came in years 315, 316, and 317.

Monte Carlo saw the return of Dotto as he beat Svetislav Jarenovich in the finals. Jarenovich was the winner here last year so he will be disappointed he wasn't able to repeat.

In Madrid, world #2 Antonio Filho finally made his first Masters final for the season and he beat Jarenovich in the finals. This is Filho's 5th consecutive win here on homesoil. Jarenovich has actually made 3 finals here in 6 years but never won.

Rome saw a repeat of the Madrid finals as Filho beat Jarenovich again. It's Filho's 3rd win here in 5 years. Bizarrely enough, Jarenovich has reached the last 3 finals here and lost every single one. Talk about being a bridesmaid.

These strong clay court performances led to Filho beating world #3 Gianluca Barrafuldi in the French Open finals. It's Filho's 4th finals appearance in 5 years, of which he has won 3. For Barrafuldi, it's his 3rd consecutive finals but he's only won 1 (last year) and he's now lost to Filho twice in the past 3 years here.

Wimbledon saw the return of Dotto to dominance as he beat Filho in 5 sets in the finals. The 5th set went 9/7, showing how tight the match was between the top 2 players in the world. For Dotto, it's his first finals appearance in 5 years and his first Wimbledon title. Filho has appeared in 4 of the last 5 finals here, although he's only won 1 of them.

The Olympics was won by Dotto and he beat Balk in the finals. Filho was 3rd.

Heading into hardcourt season and first up is Canada, where Avendano beats Dotto in the finals. This is Avendano's first finals appearance and win here while Dotto has appeared in 4 of the last 5 finals (although only winning 1).

In Cincinnati, Dotto re-established his dominance by winning it, beating world #9 Eddy Pratt in the finals. It's Dotto's 4th consecutive finals appearance here and his 2nd win. It is Eddy's first ever Masters finals.

At the US Open, Dotto won his 3rd Slam of the year, beating Balk in the finals. It's Dotto's 4th consecutive finals here and he has won back-to-back titles (and 3 out of 4) here. Balk has made 5 of 8 finals here and won this three times previously.

Shanghai saw the continued dominance of Dotto as he beat Avendano in the finals. It's Dotto's first ever finals and win while Avendano has now come in 2nd here for a 2nd consecutive year.

At Paris, Barrafuldi beat Filho for his first Masters title of the season. It's Barrafuldi's first ever finals appearance and win here while Filho was the winner at Paris 2 years ago.

Finally, the WTC Finals saw Barrafuldi beat Dotto in the finals. This is Barrafuldi's 3rd consecutive win here!

Summary:

Really, this year was all about Valentino Dotto, as he won 3 out of 4 Grand Slams and 4 of 9 Masters titles. He's the clear world #1 and it doesn't look like anyone is ready to challenge him yet.

We also saw the continued excellence of Antonio Filho, who must be cursing his luck as he was 2nd fiddle to Nikolai Balk for a long time before taking the world #1 for a short'ish period prior to Dotto's rise to dominance. Balk also had a career resurgence as he ended the year as the world #4, surprising many who thought he was on the way down.

Barrafuldi was expected to be a serious challenger to Dotto but he was disappointing for most of the year and really only picked up his game at the tailend of the season. Avendano was another disappointment as he slipped to world #5 despite possibly being the best player in the world on talent.

We are starting to see some of the old stalwarts drop out of the top 10 now, such as Adel Adkins, and some of the younger stars are making their move. Anatoly Cherny and Danil Mamine are both already in the top 10 and Tony Archer is lurking at #12.

World Top 10

1. Valentino Dotto, 26 years - 13,470 points
2. Antonio Filho, 28 years - 9,540 points
3. Gianluca Barrafuldi, 27 years - 8,020 points
4. Nikolai Balk, 30 years - 7,210 points
5. Mario Avendano, 28 years - 7,080 points
6. Svetislav Jarenovich, 29 years - 4,795 points
7. Anatoly Cherny, 25 years - 4,150 points
8. Danil Mamine, 24 years - 3,890 points
9. Eddy Pratt, 27 years - 3,205 points
10. Timmy Toy, 26 years - 3,185 points

[law90026]

Minor Update

In the last few weeks of the year, Teo (and Britrock’s Sean Mendez) were called up for Sweden’s relegation playoff against Paraguay, which I had completely forgotten about. This had the advantage of giving Teo some competitive matches to maintain some form.

Teo won his matches easily, as did Mendez and Sweden prevailed 4-1 to maintain their place in the top level of the WTC. One side-advantage of this though is that Teo picked up another 80 ranking points during the dead part of the season for most of the top players and this actually pushed him up to 28th in the world! So that changes some of his scheduling concerns for year 321 since he now has to play in the Masters and the like to avoid a penalty (although it may not really matter that much to him) and he also can’t play any challengers to start the year.

Teo and Mendez will also be playing for Sweden in the first round of year 321’s WTC fixtures so that will again come with some ranking points (hopefully), xp and form.

[Brian Swartz]

Fantastic! I say that not just because you have a reached a new stage in Teo Rask's career, but because it justifies(or maybe I just think it does) me plopping down in this thread again to dispense more completely unsolicited and quite possibly unnecessary counsel!! Seriously though, cheering hard for Teo this year. This now mandates an 'establishing' year in which you transition from challengers to elite status. Going to put most of what I have to say in the tips/strategy thread since I think it fits better there. Plus that way I don't derail the thread.

Big few weeks coming up ... go kick some butt at the Australian Open Teo!!

[britrock88]

Lebedyenko also hit the masters-mandatory ranks thanks to the Wimbledon QF appearance of last year. We'll see if he and Teo run into each other in some big tourneys.

[law90026]

Originally Posted by britrock88

Lebedyenko also hit the masters-mandatory ranks thanks to the Wimbledon QF appearance of last year. We'll see if he and Teo run into each other in some big tourneys.

Yeah it'll be an interesting year for the 2 of them! I think Mendez will be there soon too, he looks strong.

I'm also keeping an eye out for ntndeacon's Arbizu because I suspect he's got the potential to make top 30 as well.

[law90026]

Originally Posted by Brian Swartz

Fantastic! I say that not just because you have a reached a new stage in Teo Rask's career, but because it justifies(or maybe I just think it does) me plopping down in this thread again to dispense more completely unsolicited and quite possibly unnecessary counsel!! Seriously though, cheering hard for Teo this year. This now mandates an 'establishing' year in which you transition from challengers to elite status. Going to put most of what I have to say in the tips/strategy thread since I think it fits better there. Plus that way I don't derail the thread.

Big few weeks coming up ... go kick some butt at the Australian Open Teo!!

Thanks! Always feel free to pop by I'm very sure I couldn't have gotten Teo to this level without all the advice you've given (along with others)

[law90026]

Weeks 1 to 13, Year 321

The Juniors

Ghazi Mehmett has not played many tournaments thus far and the only tournament he played he won (a JG2). Ranked #19 in the juniors, his schedule has been start stop because of Junior WTC Cup commitments as well as a scheduling mistake on my part (I entered all 3 of my juniors into a 250 event by mistake!).

Claude Curtayne entered 2 JG3 tournaments during this period and made the SFs for both in singles and runner-up for doubles in both. He also entered the 250 event and managed 5 ranking points when he won a first qualifying match over Vittorio Annunzio! So he's now ranked #131 in the juniors but #1916 in the professional ranks

Vittorio Annunzio made 2 SF appearances for both singles and doubles in JG4 tournaments so he will stay at this level for a while.

The Senior

It's been a strong start to the year for Teo Rask,one that I'm really pleased about but I'm not entirely sure where it's coming from.

Teo started the season at #28 in the world. First week of the year was a WTC Cup clash between Sweden and Croatia. Teo and Britrock's Sean Mendez were playing singles for Sweden and the team just crushed an overmatched Croatian team, winning 5-0 and every match by straight sets.

Teo then entered a 250 at Brisbane where he reached the QFs before losing to the #2 seed Svetislav Jarenovich. This left Teo with enough form that he could practice before the Australian Open.

At the Australian Open, Teo was seeded #26 and he played to his seeding by reaching the 3rd round before losing to #13 seed Feliciano Putignani in straight sets. An improvement over last year's first round exit. Congrats to Britrock's Andrei Lebydenko though as he had another strong Grand Slam performance, reaching the 4th round before losing to Tony Archer.

Another WTC Cup match against South Africa was up next and, surprisingly, it was Alvar Freudenthal who was called to play 2nd singles, rather than Sean Mendez. This match was disappointing for Teo though as he lost his first singles to the South African #2 in 5 sets, a match he should have won. He then lost to South African #1 Bill Comfort in straight sets and Sweden lost 4-1 overall.

Then came the purple patch. First up was a 500 indoor event at Rotterdam. My expectation based on the draw was a QF exit. True enough, Teo cruised through the first 2 rounds to set up a match with world #3 Gianluca Barrafuldi in the QFs. Somehow Teo managed to win convincingly (6/2, 6/3), a result I have no explanation for since Barrafuldi was in perfect form, not fatigued and also a good indoor player. Next up was #4 seed Ippolito Berti, who had beaten Britrock's Lebydenko in the QFs, and Teo again pulled out the win, 6/4, 7/6. Unfortunately, the finals was against Putignali again and he was crushed but a big result for Teo and it comes with 300 ranking points. This actually pushed Teo into the world #19 spot!

Next tournament was a 500 indoor event at Memphis. My expectation here was a QF or SF appearance, the main concern being that Teo would have more than 25 form by the time the QFs rolled around. In the QFs, Teo was up against #7 seed Fernano Delbrey but he was easily brushed aside in straight sets. The SFs was against #5 seed Indrek Sarv, who was a former world top 10 player but is on his way down now. Another straight sets win and Teo was in his 2nd consecutive 500s finals! Unfortunately, the same tale was told as he was crushed convincingly in the finals by a superior player, this time by world #9 Timmy Toy. However, another 300 ranking points and Teo looks good to be entrenched in the top 30 for this year.

The first Masters of the year was next, Indian Wells. Teo reached the 3rd round here before losing to world #7 Anatoly Cherny so no shame there.

The recent results meant that Teo was actually seeded #16 in the next Masters at Miami and that meant he would have a decent chance to at least reach the 4th round. He performed to that expectation, beating #25 seed Adrian Genel in the 3rd round before facing off against Timmy Toy again in the 4th round, where Teo was again beaten easily.

Sometime during this first quarter of the year, Teo also went past the $1 million mark for earnings, another milestone met.

Next up will be a 3rd WTC Cup round of matches before the clay Masters begin. Teo will be hoping to maintain his form leading up to the French Open and to secure enough points to preserve a top 20 spot.

[law90026]

Week 14 to 24

Just focusing on the senior player for now!

Week 15 saw Teo Rask play for Sweden against the Slovak Republic. He won his first singles match against world #70 Dominik Fetsko in 5 sets and Sean Mendez upset Durocsinszky to put Sweden 2-0 up. Then it all fell apart. The doubles pair lost first. Teo then went up against Durocsinszky and lost 3 sets to 1, and the decider was between Mendez and Fetsko. Unfortunately, the upset was on the cards and Fetsko beat Mendez 3 sets to 1 and Sweden lost the tie 3-2, finishing 3rd in the group.

Teo took part in the Monte Carlo Masters but it didn’t go well as he was knocked out in the 2nd round by fellow Swede Alvar Freudenthal. What was especially frustrating was that Teo was 5-2 up in the 3rd set but he could not convert and lost 7/6(5).

Form was going to be an issue potentially leading up to the French Open so Teo signed up for a 500 at Barcelona. Unfortunately, he was up against in-form Magui Pitillas in the 3rd round and was knocked out early again.

2 back-to-back Masters were next, first in Madrid and the next in Rome. In Madrid, it was upsets galore and Teo was knocked out by a wild card in the 2nd round. The upsets included world #1 Valentino Dotto being knocked out in the 2nd round, world #4 Mario Avedano being knocked out in the 2nd round, world #5 Nikolai Balk knocked out in the 3rd round, world #7 Timmy Toy knocked out in the 2nd round and world #9 Feliciano Putignani knocked out in the 1st round amongst others.

It was another 2nd round exit for Teo in Rome as he was knocked out by unseeded Ferdinan Duran in straight sets. These results did not fill me with confidence leading up the French Open.

The first 2 rounds were straightforward as Teo (#17 seed) knocked out his opponents in straight sets and only dropped a total of 6 games! He was joined in the 3rd round by Britrock’s Andrei Lebydenko (#25 seed) and Sean Mendez (#32 seed). The 3rd round was a match-up against world #9 Feliciano Putignani and Putignani had beaten Teo in their last 2 professional meetings. Teo pulled out the upset though as he beat the Putignani 4/6, 6/4, 6/1, 6/7(1), 6/4! Lebydenko was knocked out by world #1 Valentino Dotto but Sean Mendez continued his run with a straight-set beating of #15 seed Glenn Southwell.

The 4th round saw Teo Rask up against world #12 Eddy Pratt and once more Teo pulled out a 5-set upset, 6/0, 2/6, 7/5, 3/6, 6/3, and he is into his first ever Grand Slam QFs! Sean Mendez also kept pace with a 5-set win over #26 seed Indrek Sarv.

Unfortunately, there would be no continuation of the fairy tale in the QFs as Teo was crushed by Dotto 6/1, 6/4, 6/1, and Mendez was also comprehensively beaten by world #3 Gianluca Barrafuldi, 6/1, 6/0, 7/5. If they had managed to win, they would have faced off in the SFs but no such luck this time. Still, a fantastic performance by the players and a ton of ranking points as well.

Wimbledon starts in about 3 weeks so it’s a question of maintaining the right amount of form for Teo as he looks to reach at least the 3rd round there. One goal achieved now as he has far surpassed his Grand Slam performances from last year.

[law90026]

Weeks 25 to 30

Just to update on the French Open, it was eventually won by Gianluca Barrafuldi (world #2) but it was nearly a fairy tale for #30 seed Aleksei Yatskay, who reached the finals and lost in 5-sets.

Teo Rask entered the Queen’s Club tournament in week 25 as part of the warm-up for Wimbledon. As the 3rd seed, Teo had a bye in the first round and cruised through the 2nd round. The 3rd round was a 3-set win over #11 seed Valentin Agia (4/6, 6/3, 7/5) and that was followed up with another 3-set win over #8 seed Indrek Sarv (2/6, 7/6(3), 6/4). The run came to an end though when Teo lost to #9 seed Adrian Genel 4/6, 6/3, 6/2 in the SFs.

Then it was Wimbledon, where Teo had reached the 3rd round last year and he was seeded #15 this year. The first round was a easy straight set win over a qualifier and the 2nd round was a 4-set win over Rastislav Celic, the world #94 player. Teo faced his first seeded opponent in the 3rd round, where he beat #18 seed Aniceto Lopezcastro 6/3, 6/2, 5/7, 6/4, to reach the 4th round and better last year’s performance. Unfortunately, the 3rd round is where Britrock’s Sean Mendez (lost to world #3 Antonio Filho) and Andrei Lebydenko (lost to #12 seed Ene Colon) were knocked out.

Teo was knocked out in the 4th round though, losing 7/4(4), 7/6(6), 7/4(2) to #27 seed Marcello Borsellino. Ridiculous close match and one that could really have swung either way. Wimbledon was won by #16 seed Tony Archer in dominant fashion as he lost only 1 set throughout the tournament.

Week 29 was the Swedish Open, one of Teo’s targets for the year. As the #1 seed, Teo matched expectations by winning the title, getting revenge against Adrian Genel in the finals. It was a comfortable tournament win as Teo did not drop a set throughout the week.

Teo is ranked #15 at this time and he’s within distance of the #12 spot. Top 10 seems a little too far off, especially since the hardcourt season is not Teo’s favourite time, but one can hope.

[Brian Swartz]

It's already been one heck of a year though! Much better than I expected, anything more he gets is gravy in my opinion.

[ntndeacon]

I'm excited. it looks like Ecuador will have a playoff to get to the first level of the WTC.

[law90026]

Originally Posted by Brian Swartz

It's already been one heck of a year though! Much better than I expected, anything more he gets is gravy in my opinion.

For sure! It's just one of those things where you wonder what might have been but, if you had told me at the start of the year that Teo would be entrenched in the top 20, I would have been highly pleased. And I still am, just that I regret not paying attention to court surfaces more when I picked Teo up. A very good lesson to learn though.

[law90026]

Weeks 31 to 40

As I feared, the hardcourt season was difficult for Teo. For those who may not be familiar, the period leading up to the US Open is traditionally hardcourt heavy for the top players, as evidenced by the fact that there are 2 Masters events in Canada and Cincinnati in weeks 33 and 34.

Here is where Teo’s lack of preference for hardcourts really starts to show, even though this had reduced magnitude at Masters and Grand Slams (according to the forums). Teo was knocked out in the first round at both Masters, which is absolutely terrible. The US Open didn’t go much better as he was knocked out in the 2nd round. Congrats to Britock’s players by the way as both Andrei Lebydenko and Sean Mendez made the 4th round.

Teo is always happy to put the US Open behind him because it then enters a period when there are a bunch of indoor events. Unfortunately, there is now a roadblock in his way: Britrock’s Andrei Lebydenko.

At the Open de Moselle (a 250 event), Lebydenko beat Teo in the QFs, 4/6, 7/4(4), 6/4. It’s my fault for not getting Teo enough games leading up to this point as he was below optimum form and that, I suspect, would have made the difference. Teo literally needed 1 more match prior to this to get in shape. Lebydenko lost in the SFs to eventual winner Ippolito Berti, and Berti beat Sean Mendez in the finals.

Next was the Malaysian Open (a 250 event). In one of those rare occurrences, all 8 seeds made the QFs and Teo was the #4 seed, with Mendez and Lebydenko the #5 and #6 seeds respectively. They were set up on opposite sides of the draw though and Teo beat #1 seed Jean Paul Demercastel in 3 sets to reach the finals. In the other SF, Lebydenko beat Mendez in 3 sets to set up another match with Teo. Unfortunately, I had gone the other way this time and had overplayed Teo inadvertently for this tournament (he entered doubles to get some form for the early rounds and ended up with his form over 25 for the finals) and Lebydenko beat him again, 7/6(7), 6/3. Not a bad result and great to see Teo starting to match up with Lebydenko in major tournaments.

At the end of this stretch, Teo is ranked #17 in the world and with 5 weeks left to play. There are 2 more Masters (one in Shanghai and one in Paris) and another 2 more possible indoor tournaments that Teo will be taking part in (including the Stockholm Open) so there will be matches aplenty (hopefully). Managing the form will be tricky during this run-in and I suspect I may end up with just the 2 Masters and Stockholm to finish off the year.

[law90026]

End of Year 321 Round-up

Teo Rask ends the year at #21 in the world, which was indicative of relatively poor performances during the 2nd half of the season.

In the Shanghai Masters, he was knocked out in the 2nd round. These early exits hurt because all of the Masters results are taken into account for the top 32 players.

Teo did achieve his last goal for the year though, winning the Stockholm Open easily. He followed that up with a 3rd round exit at the Paris Masters, which was a decent enough result.

So let's see how he did overall.

The Grand Slams were a success I would say, as he reached the QFs of the French Open, the 4th round of Wimbledon, the 3rd round of the Australian Open and the 2nd round at the US Open being the one blemish. Total ranking points here were 675, which was nearly a third of his 2200 total points.

The Masters were more disappointing, in part because quite a few are played on hardcourts. He had a 4th round appearance, 2 3rd round appearances, 3 2nd round appearances and 2 1st round knock-outs. Just 380 points here, which averages out to be 45 points, and that's a poor return overall.

In the 500s, he had 2 runner-up positions, 1 3rd round appearance and another 230 points from his WTC matches, for a total of 875 points. This is where he did really well.

He also had 2 250 wins at the Swedish Open and the Stockholm Open to add to his point tally. He actually had a few other tournaments which could have added to the point tally but, due to the manner in which the top 32 players have their points calculated, those were wasted. In that sense, Teo probably played too many tournaments overall, something to bear in mind for next season.

All in all, this was a successful season for Teo as he met all his goals (bettering his Grand Slam results, winning the Swedish and Stockholm Opens, getting into the top 30). I'm a little disappointed he didn't finish in the top 20 but that's just being greedy

Ghazi Mehmett bids farewell to the junior circuit this year as well. He never really excelled, reaching a career high of #18 and never really winning any tournaments of note. For that matter, he hardly ever played any of the major tournaments, which I'm wondering whether it was a mistake. He won 6 singles tournaments and 16 doubles tournaments. I'm wondering how he will transition into the amateur level tournaments to be honest.

[law90026]

Year 321 End of Season Summary

World #1 Valentino Dotto had another dominant year, winning the Australian Open and the US Open, the World Tour Finals, and 4 Masters (Paris, Shanghai, Canada and Indian Wells). That's 6 of the year's top 13 tournaments (not including the WTF Finals).

World #2 Gianluca Barrafuldi won the French Open but none of the other major tournaments.

World #3 Antonio Filho won 3 Masters, all on clay (Madrid, Rome and Monte Carlo).

Remember that phenom, Tony Archer? Well this was the year he made his move as he rose to #4 in the world and won his first Grand Slam at Wimbledon. He also picked up the Masters title at Cincinnati. The crazy thing? He only played 17 tournaments so his manager (arefj) is being super efficient.

The other winner of a major tournament this year was world #7 Timmy Toy, who won at Miami.

This is also the year that we see former great Nikolai Balk fall out of the top 10 although he's still hanging around at #11 at year's end.

Year-end Top 10 ranking
1. Valentino Dotto, 27 years old - 13,350 points
2. Gianluca Barrafuldi, 28 years old - 7,135 points
3. Antonio Filho, 29 years old - 6,760 points
4. Tony Archer, 24 years old - 6,305 points
5. Mario Avendano, 29 years old - 5,230 points
6. Danil Mamine, 25 years old - 4,490 points
7. Timmy Toy, 27 years old - 3,755 points
8. Bill Comfort, 25 years old - 3,345 points
9. Feliciano Putignani, 25 years old - 3,310 points
10. Glenn Southwell, 27 years old - 3,200 points

[law90026]

Here we go with goals and predictions for Year 322.

Teo Rask

The goals this year are:
1. Get into the top 20 and stay there
2. Maintain or better the Grand Slam performances (675 points)
3. Better the Masters performances (380 points)
4. Maintain or better the 500/250 performances (1,375 points)

Note that this year I'm not targeting the Swedish or Stockholm Open although the chances are high I will play there. I want a little more flexibility in terms of my scheduling.

Ghazi Mehmett

1. Break into the top 500

That's the only goal for Ghazi. I'm going to go with a very match-light schedule to see how that works for him in terms of development.

Predictions:

1. Valentino Dotto continues to be year #1 but ...
2. Tony Archer makes a serious move and ends the year at #2.
3. We're going to see no real changes in the top 10 but there are going to be a few names that may break in or be hanging around there by year's end: Marcello Borsellino, Gaspare Caprara and Milton Aguilar. I wouldn't be entirely surprised if Britrock's Sean Mendez ends up in the top 20 this year as well and knocking on top 10.

[Brian Swartz]

Definitely a great year! There's a lot of players in their prime years or coming into them ahead of Teo. He may find it quite difficult to get to the Top 10 but I'm hoping you can get him up to 15th or so for a while. Might be quite difficult to make further progress.

I think Mehmet is ready for amateur tournaments definitely, but might take a bit to get through futures. I've got him at 6.44 and a very general rule of thumb for me is 7.0 to be ready to progress past the futures level. I think you have the right idea.

[law90026]

Originally Posted by Brian Swartz

Definitely a great year! There's a lot of players in their prime years or coming into them ahead of Teo. He may find it quite difficult to get to the Top 10 but I'm hoping you can get him up to 15th or so for a while. Might be quite difficult to make further progress.

Agreed on Teo, there's just a ton of talent coming up. I would be happy to get into the top 20 for the next few years to be honest but I suspect more realistically it will be top 30.

[law90026]

Year 322, Weeks 1 to 9

Teo Rask

The year starts for Teo Rask with a WTC match against Germany. Teo and Britrock's Sean Mendez are playing singles for the Swedes, while Germany have the 50th player in the world and the 142nd player in the world. Teo wins both his singles and Mendez wins his tie against the 142nd player and Sweden edges out Germany 3-2.

Off to a 250 event at Qatar where Teo was knocked out in the 2nd round by an unranked Ludvek Habsudov in 3 sets. Congrats to Mendez though as he wins the tournament as the 5th seed and beat world #7 Danil Mamine in three sets in the finals!

Next was the Sydney 250 event and Teo did well here, reaching the semi-finals before being knocked out by #1 seed Mamine. Mamine went on to win the title here.

All this led to the Australian Open, where Teo cruised through his first 2 rounds but faced a peer in Bill Comfort in the 3rd round. Bill however is really good and has risen to #5 in the world and he showed the difference, crushing Teo in straight sets. Still, Teo maintains last year's showing here. Round 4 here saw Britrock's Mendez and Lebydenko face off and Lebydenko won the match easily to reach the QFs, where he was beaten by world #8 Feliciano Putignani. Great job for the 2 of them. The finals was won by world #1 Valentino Dotto, where he beat Bill Comfort in straight sets.

The next competitive match for Teo was the 2nd round of WTC matches. Sweden faced off against Latvia this time but the Swedes had no issues, easily winning 5-0 overall. This sets up a final round match against Russia to see who will top the group but both Sweden and Russia are guaranteed a place in the QFs this year.

2 important tournaments were coming up for Teo, the 500 level events at Rotterdam and Memphis. If you recall, these were the events that pushed Teo into the top 20 last year as he was runner-up in both. However, this year, he's defending points and that puts the pressure on him to maintain his performance.

In Rotterdam, Teo had an easy run to the SFs, where he faced off against Mendez and Teo edged him 6/4, 3/6, 6/1. This then set-up a finals match against Lebydenko and, once again, Lebydenko proved to be Teo's nemesis, beating Teo 6/4, 6/4. Congrats to Lebydenko though for winning a 500 level event! Lebydenko leads the head-to-head match-ups against Teo 3-0.

Memphis was slightly more disappointing. Teo reached the SFs but he was up against home crowd favourite and world #14 Timmy Toy (formerly at top 10 player) and he lost a close match 7/5, 7/6. This hurt Teo's points total as he loses a bunch and, with that, he drops to #23 in the world.

The first 9 weeks have not been as excellent as last year but, to be fair, Teo has more or less maintained his performance. Coming up will be 2 hardcourt Masters before clay season begins.

Ghazi Mehmett

Ghazi has played 3 amateur tournaments this year and results have been mixed. He reached QFs, 3rd round and 1st round of the singles draw for these tournaments and has achieved a grand total of 3 ranking points! That puts him at #2130 in the world. It's going to be long hard slog for Ghazi.

[law90026]

Oh in one other notable thing to report: my junior Vittorio Annunzio and Digamma's Hein Siedler are both representing Switzerland in the Junior Tour Cup and play doubles together at that level. Siedler is currently the #19 junior in the world, just ahead of my other junior (Claude Curtayne, who is #21) so it'll be interesting to see where Siedler's career heads after this.

[law90026]

Year 322 Weeks 10 to 16

Teo Rask

Teo had 2 hardcourt Masters (Indian Wells and Miami) to play at during this period. Last year, Indian Wells was a 3rd round exit and Miami was a 4th round exit.

At Indian Wells, Teo was seeded #19 and he made it to the 3rd round, where he faced off against #9 seed Glenn Southwell. His tournament ended there as he was beaten 7/6(4), 6/3, but he maintains last year's performance. Britrock's Sean Mendez continued his strong start to the year, reaching the 4th round before being crushed by world #1 Dotto 6/2, 6/1. Dotto went on to win this tournament relatively easily.

At Miami, Teo was again seeded #19 but he faced off against #7 seed Feliciano Putignani in the 3rd round. That's where his tournament ended again as he was beaten 6/3, 7/6(1) and that means more ranking points dropped for Teo. Both of Britrock's players, Sean Mendez and Andrei Lebydenko, reached the 4th round, where they faced off against Dotto and world #2 Tony Archer respectively, and both lost at that stage. It's hard when you're up against 2 of the best players in the world. Archer went on to win the tournament, beating Putignani in the finals.

Then it was the final round of the WTC Cup group stages. Sweden was up against Russia, who field world #6 Daniel Mamine and world #10 Aleksei Yatskay. Unfortunately, both Teo and Mendez were not able to overcome their opponents and lost all their singles matches and Sweden lost 4-1. Still, Sweden have made the QFs, where they will face off against Spain, which fields world #4 Antonio Filho and world #33 Lucas Coscino.

With these relatively poor results and Teo dropping to #24 in the world, I decided to rethink my next few tournaments. Instead of taking part in the Monte Carlo Masters (which is the only non-mandatory Masters), I elected to enter Teo in a 250 at Hassan. I've also pulled Teo out from the Barcelona 500 and will enter him in a 250 event instead. The thinking is that there is no real point trying to go for the big points when Teo is having a little bit of an off-year.

At Hassan, Teo cruised through to the SFs, where he faced off against world #34 Stephen Peters. The 2 players are very closely matched but Peters is a clay court specialist (60%) and so that resulted in a very lopsided loss for Teo (6/1, 6/2). Still, the 90 ranking points here would likely have matched the points he could have gotten at Monte Carlo unless he had an exceptionally good draw.

While I'm disappointed that Teo isn't in the top 20, I think the current results are probably a fair indication of Teo's level currently as compared to his competitors.

Ghazi Mehmett

Ghazi played 2 tournaments during this stretch. His first tournament was a QF exit in singles and a 3rd round exit for doubles. The 1 ranking point for doubles means that Ghazi is now ranked #3614 in the world for doubles!

Then came a nice tournament run for Ghazi, as he ran the gauntlet and won a claycourt amateur event in Cape Coast. That gave him 6 ranking points (for a total of 11) and pushed him up to #1369 in the world. He needs about 18 points to break into the top 1000 but I'm in no rush at this time (having learnt patience along the way!). His next tournament is in 5 weeks time so plenty of practice for Ghazi.

[britrock88]

Round 3 of Roland Garros was a bloodbath!

In my stable, #18 Lebedyenko (fresh off a Power Horse 250 win) took out #14 Mendez in a real battle-- 7-6(7), 7-5, 4-6, 6-7(1), 6-2.

#17 Teo Rask fell to #6 Danil Mamine in a tough draw-- 7-5, 2-6, 4-6, 6-7(6).

But elsewhere! Here's the list of high-seeded players that went down: #1 (to #26 in 5 sets), #2 (to #31 in 5 sets), #4 (to an unseeded player in 3 sets, 1-4-1--ouch), and #7 (another 3-set loss to a non-seed).

Back to law's coverage. I just thought that was a red-letter kind of day.

[Brian Swartz]

That's interesting. Definitely a different environment than my world, which is seeing the seeded players do better than usual this year. Looks like a real shake-up is on the way over here.

[law90026]

Thanks for the post! Yeah it was a crazy tournament wasn't it?

We are seeing a chance in the guard though as former greats Nikolai Balk and Antonio Filho are both done with singles play it seems and have slid down the ranks very quickly. The next generation is pressing in now and I think the only older guys left are Barrafuldi and Avendano.

[digamma]

In a funny tidbit, Teo Rask was paired with my junior player Hein Siedler in a doubles practice session this week. They won both of the matches they played in straignt sets.

[law90026]

Originally Posted by digamma

In a funny tidbit, Teo Rask was paired with my junior player Hein Siedler in a doubles practice session this week. They won both of the matches they played in straignt sets.

Yeah I saw that too! Shows how bad Teo's doubles play is.

Another cool thing, my junior doubles pair beat Hein in the Wimbledon junior doubles finals! First Grand Slam win (albeit at junior level).

[law90026]

Year 322 Weeks 17 to 28

Teo Rask

Teo took part in a clay 250 at Bucharest where he was seeded #4. He cruised through the early rounds until the SFs, where he faced #2 seed Milton Aguilar and was beaten 6/3 6/3.

Next was the Madrid Masters. Teo was knocked out in the 2nd round by Magui Pitillas, a player that he has lost consistently to on clay in the past. Pitillas actually beat world #1 Dotto in the 3rd round before being knocked out in the QFs. This tournament was won by then world #13 Arnaldo Pirovano (who has since shot up to #4!), beating world #3 Gianluca Barrafudi in the finals. Britrock's Sean Mendez made the 3rd round before losing to #8 seed Aleksei Yatskay.

Rome next, another clay Masters. Teo had a better outing here as the #16 seed. First round he beat former great Nikolai Balk in 3 sets then beating 2 qualifiers to reach the QFs. In the QFs though, Teo faced off against Stephen Peters and Peters again proved to be the better player, knocking Teo out 6/2, 7/5. This Masters was won by world #11 Ene Colon in a tournament where 3 of the top 4 seeds had early exits, which would turn out to be a precursor for the French Open. Mendez reached the 3rd round before being knocked out by Barrafuldi.

All this leads up to the French Open, where Teo had an excellent tournament last year, reaching the QFs. Teo reached the 3rd round easily but was beaten by #6 seed Danil Mamine 5/7, 6/2, 6/4, 7/6(4). It's disappointing but Teo played to his seeding at least.

It was a rough tournament for #1 Dotto, #2 Tony Archer and #4 Bill Comfort as all 3 were knocked out in the 3rd round as well. This left the path open for #3 Barrafuldi to win the tournament and he duly obliged, reaching his 5th straight final and winning it for the 3rd time. Britrock's Lebydenko and Mendez actually faced off in the 3rd round and Lebydenko prevailed but was knocked out in the 4th round by #8 seed Yatskay.

It's always an abrupt transition to grass after the French Open and Teo headed to a grass 250 at Halle. He played to his seeding as the #3 seed, reaching the SFs but was knocked out by #2 seed Yatskay there, 4/6, 6/3, 6/3. One thing I've noticed is that Teo tends to win the first set against stronger opponents then he crumbles after and I wonder whether it ties in to his relatively low'ish mentality.

At Wimbledon, Teo was seeded #20 and again cruised to the 3rd round where he faced #12 seed Marcello Borsellino. It was a really close match but Borsellino prevailed in 5 sets, 4/6 7/5 4/6 6/3 6/2. Tony Archer won his 2nd successive title here, beating #5 seed Arnaldo Pirovano in the finals. Mendez and Lebydenko reached the 4th round and 3rd round respectively here.

It's been points lost by Teo overall during this period as he failed to pull off any upsets in the big tournaments. Like I mentioned previously, he's playing around his level, i.e. somewhere between #17 to #32 in the world, at this time. He will be hoping to have a stronger 2nd half of the year to pull his ranking up (currently #21).

Ghazi Mehmett
It turns out Ghazi really didn't want to stay at the amateur level. He took part in 2 more amateur tournaments and won one while coming in 2nd in the other and these 10 ranking points meant that Ghazi shot up to #824 in the world. No more amateur events and on to futures level tournaments now.

Juniors
Couple of interesting snippets for the juniors. As alluded to in an earlier post, Claude Curtayne and Vittorio Annunzio took part in Wimbledon together and were seeded #4. They reached the finals where they faced off against Digamma's Hein Siedler (seeded #3) and my guys won 1/6, 6/4, 10/7! This makes me inspired to let them play in the US Open to see if they can win another doubles title there. This result meant that Claude went up to #19 in the junior circuit while Vittorio is #42.

Separately, Claude was part of the French team that made the finals in the JTC Cup. Unfortunately, they were beaten comprehensively (4-1) by Argentina in the finals, where Claude lost in the doubles match but gained France's sole point in the final singles match (albeit it was a meaningless one).

[law90026]

Craziness but world #8 Danil Mamine has just been fired by his manager. He would cost 850 points to pick up once he is available. He grades out as a 9.35 on Brian's rating scale, so he's not too bad.

[kingfc22]

How do you gain points to purchase players? I was under the impression the 150 you start with is what you get. Unless you can buy points via VIP?

[law90026]

Originally Posted by kingfc22

How do you gain points to purchase players? I was under the impression the 150 you start with is what you get. Unless you can buy points via VIP?

You get points based on your player's performances in tournaments I believe. So the more successful your players, the more points you slowly accumulate.

[Brian Swartz]

Yep. The difference is you get points from both practice and standard tournaments to add to your manager pool. Take a look at the 'Top Managers' section of the rankings in your world. After you've been playing for a while, having enough points to buy the best available players is extremely trivial -- but of course, the top players aren't ever for sale.

[ntndeacon]

My Ecuadorian Joaquin Arbizo just won his first CH1. I'm so pleased! He's now #58.

[law90026]

Originally Posted by ntndeacon

My Ecuadorian Joaquin Arbizo just won his first CH1. I'm so pleased! He's now #58.

Congrats!

[law90026]

Year 322 Weeks 29 to 40

Teo Rask

First up after Wimbledon is the 250 clay event at Stockholm, where Teo is the defending champion. Teo reached the finals without dropping a set but faced another rival that has been cropping up a lot recently, Stephen Peters. Unfortunately, the home advantage wasn't sufficient against the clay court specialist and Teo lost 6/3 5/7 6/2.

Then it was off to a 250 event at Gstaad, where the top 4 seeds (Teo included) all made the SFs. There, Teo faced off against Jean Paul Demercastel and lost 7/5 6/2.

The next major tournament was the Canada Masters, where Teo was unseeded.

I was mildly annoyed as I had entered Teo into the doubles tournament to hopefully get a bit of form after being knocked out in the qualifiers. Unfortunately, Teo was paired with world #14 Milton Aguilar and the 2 of them easily reached the 2nd round of the doubles maindraw before losing to former world #1 Nikolai Balk and his partner Ramon Zandio.

However, he still had a decent singles draw and cruised to the 3rd round where he was summarily dispatched by world #4 Bill Comfort, 6/0 6/0. Embarrassing. As an aside, Comfort is the South African #1 player while Stephen Peters (see above) is the South African #2 player. I hate South Africa at this time.

Cincinnati was up next, another Masters event. Teo was again unseeded and this time he faced Comfort in the 2nd round. Same result, albeit with more games won, as Teo lost 6/3 6/1. This just shows how important seeding is, especially at the more competitive levels.

All this of course is the precursor to the final Grand Slam of the year, the US Open. This time, Teo made it to the 3rd round before facing off against world #2 Tony Archer and Teo was beaten 7/5 6/1 6/3. Britrock's Lebydenko also made the 3rd round but Mendez was shocked in the 1st round unfortunately. World #1 Dotto won the finals, beating #4 seed Comfort there.

After the US Open, no real time to rest as Sweden was up against Spain in the WTC QFs. Luckily for the Swedes, Spain's #1 player Antonio Filho has given up on singles and his ranking dropped so fast that he ended up playing only doubles. This meant that Spain fielded world #27 Lucas Coscino (someone who has given Teo problems in the past) and world #30 Frank Maydon as their singles players. Teo and Mendez duly took advantage of this, winning all of their singles matches for a 4-1 result and Sweden are into the SFs against Italy. Teo narrowly edged out Coscino in the first singles match in 5 sets but easily beat Maydon in straight sets in the meaningless last singles match.

The WTC SFs were played soon after and Italy fields world #1 Dotto and world #9 Putignani. A very tough match-up and the Swedes were crushed 5-0. Dotto easily beat both Teo and Mendez but Teo narrowly lost to Putignani in 5 sets in the last singles match, winning only 2 points less throughout the entire match. Great xp though!

The end of season is fast approaching and Teo will be playing in the last 2 Masters of the year, Shanghai and Paris. He's currently ranked #18 in the world so he's on target for a top 20 spot but he will need to maintain his performance to do so.

Ghazi Mehmett
Ghazi's first futures tournament went badly as he lost in the qualifiers for doubles and the 1st round of singles for 0 ranking points.

However, his next futures tournament (a FT3 on clay in Mexico) went much better as Ghazi reached the finals of the singles draw before losing. The 9 ranking points shot him up to 700 something in the world rankings.

A few weeks later, at a FT3 on clay in Brazil, Ghazi reached the SFs for the singles draw. The 5 ranking points allowed Ghazi to push up to #679 in the world.

With maybe 2 or 3 tournaments left for Ghazi this year, the #500 spot is still in sight, so fingers crossed that goal is achieved!

[MarkBGregory]

Hi guys!

Enjoying the legacy. Feel free to join me in - my username is the same as the one on here, and I currently have:

Juan José Elezgueta (20y50w)

Current #155 in the world and former junior #13. My weakest player in general but still could see him forging out a career in the top 50 or so in the next couple years.

Igor Borowski (19y23w)

In his first year since the junior tour, was ranked as high as #2 and was #3 at year end. Slowly climbing up the rankings through the futures events, currently sits at #398.

Christian Kulle (18y20w)

Current junior #1 and junior US Open and Australian Open champion. My best prospect, though he'll peak very early. Could be a big name, but we'll wait and see. Most likely of my guys to hit the big time.

[law90026]

Originally Posted by MarkBGregory

Hi guys!

Enjoying the legacy. Feel free to join me in - my username is the same as the one on here, and I currently have:

Juan José Elezgueta (20y50w)

Current #155 in the world and former junior #13. My weakest player in general but still could see him forging out a career in the top 50 or so in the next couple years.

Igor Borowski (19y23w)

In his first year since the junior tour, was ranked as high as #2 and was #3 at year end. Slowly climbing up the rankings through the futures events, currently sits at #398.

Christian Kulle (18y20w)

Current junior #1 and junior US Open and Australian Open champion. My best prospect, though he'll peak very early. Could be a big name, but we'll wait and see. Most likely of my guys to hit the big time.

Welcome!