A Rocking Rackets Dynasty (NOW WORLD 6) - Page 3

law90026 · 04-02-2016, 11:15 AM

Year 322 Weeks 41 to 45 (or more or less the end of the season!)

Teo Rask

Teo's season has come to an end save for maybe some doubles matches to maintain form after this. The full-season analysis will be a different post but suffice to say Teo ended the year at #21 just 3 points away from the #20 spot.

At the Shanghai Masters, Teo went out in the 2nd round to #12 seed Lopezcastro.

He then defended his title at the 250 indoor event in Stockholm, beating Jean Paul Demercastel in 3 sets in the finals (5/7 7/6⁵ 6/2).

The final Masters of the year was at Paris and it was a little disappointing for Teo here as he went out in the 2nd round (he reached the 3rd round last year). He faced off against eventual runner-up Marcello Borsellino in the 2nd round and lost 7/6³ 6/4.

Ghazi Mehmett

Just one tournament during this period, a clay FT3 in Brazil. Ghazi reached the QFs but was knocked out there. He goes up to #654 in the world after that.

law90026 · 04-03-2016, 12:41 PM

End of Year 322 Review

Teo Rask

The goals were:
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)

Teo actually managed to finish the year in the #19 spot as a player ahead of him dropped some points after week 45 (probably from challenger events). So success in an anti-climatic fashion!

For Teo's Grand Slam performances, it was a fail as Teo managed 4 3rd-round exits for a total of 360 points. There was a level of consistency here but it would have been nice to see a big push in 1 of the Grand Slams.

For the Masters, Teo managed 540 points so he succeeded here. Similarly, it was consistently 2nd or 3rd round exits here for a total of 540 points.

For the other tournaments, Teo actually managed 1,360 points so just a little off last year's total.

Overall, Teo probably played around the level expected. I would expect to see something similar this year so similar goals:

The goals this year are:
1. Stay in the top 20
2. Maintain or better the Grand Slam performances (360 points)
3. Better the Masters performances (540 points)
4. Maintain or better the 500/250 performances (1,360 points)

Ghazi Mehmett

Ghazi just fails to make the top 500 as he finishes the year #540 in the world. He is close and should be able to push in this year. My expectations are for Ghazi to finish the year in the 200s so that he can push for Challengers next year.

Claude Curtayne

Claude's juniors career comes to an end. He was ranked as high as #19 but finished #30 in the world. He won 4 junior singles tournaments and 17 doubles tournaments, including the Wimbledon junior doubles title with Vittorio Annunzio.

I think Claude enters the pro ranks more developed than Ghazi so I'm setting a top 500 goal for him as well.

law90026 · 04-03-2016, 01:14 PM

End of Year Summary

The Australian Open was won by world #1 Valentino Dotto, beating world #4 Bill Comfort in straight sets in the finals.

Dotto continued his good start to the year by winning the first Masters, Indian Wells, beating world #10 Daniel Mamine in the finals.

At the Miami Masters, it was world #2 Tony Archer that won the title, beating world #6 Feliciano Putignani in the finals.

Eventual world #9 Aleksei Yatskay beat eventual world #5 Arnaldo Pirovano in the Monte Carlo Masters.

Pirovano showed that he was a growing force to reckon with though as he won the Madrid Masters, beating world #3 Gianluca Barrafuldi in the finals.

The Rome Masters was a bit of an odd one as the finals was contested by world #9 Ferdinand Duran and world #11 Ene Colon, after Dotto and Archer were upset in the early stages. Colon won this tournament, his first Masters title.

This was a precursor for the French Open, where both Dotto and Archer were knocked out in the 3rd round. It was an all-Argentinean final as world #3 Barrafuldi faced off against compatriot and world #5 Pirovano in the finals. This time, Barrafuldi prevailed, taking revenge for the earlier Masters loss in Madrid and taking home his 3rd French Open title.

At Wimbledon, it was #2 Archer that won the title but he faced off against Pirovano, who made another Grand Slam finals. A very good strong year for Pirovano but he was unable to prevail against Archer, who might possibly be the best player on the tour right now. With this, Archer defends his Wimbledon title.

At the Canada Masters, world #4 Bill Comfort beat #2 Archer in the finals. It's Comfort's first Masters title.

The Cincinnati Masters saw #1 Dotto and #2 Archer face off in the finals and Archer prevailed in 3 sets. The gap between the 2 is getting smaller and we may see the change in the top spot sooner rather than later.

Of course, Dotto then proceeds to win the US Open after that, beating #4 Comfort in the finals. This is Dotto's 4th successive title here, an impressive streak.

At the Shanghai Masters, the top 4 seeds all got bounced by the 3rd round. It left #9 Ferdinand Duran to face off against #6 Feliciano Putignani in the finals and Duran came out the winner. It's Duran's first Masters title while Putignani is still searching for his first one.

The last Masters of the year at Paris was won by #1 Dotto, beating #7 Marcello Borsellino in the finals.

At the WTF Finals, it was #2 Archer that won the title, beating #7 Borsellino in the finals.

Overall, it was a more open year this time around. While Dotto continues to reign at the top, he only managed 2 Grand Slams (Australian and US) and 2 Masters titles this year, which is a far cry from previous years. Instead, we see the next generation begin to press hard, with Archer closing the gap at the top to just 600 points by year's end and with other players like Comfort, Pirovano and Putignani also beginning to make regular appearances in Masters and Grand Slam finals.

Year End Top 10

#1 Points: 9,390 Valentino Dotto Age: 28
#2 Points: 8,790 Tony Archer Age: 26,
#3 Points: 7,010 Gianluca Baruffaldi Age: 29
#4 Points: 6,840 Bill Comfort Age: 26
#5 Points: 6,230 Arnaldo Pirovano Age: 25
#6 Points: 5,150 Feliciano Putignani Age: 26
#7 Points: 5,030 Marcello Borsellino Age: 25
#8 Points: 4,815 Ferdinand Durán Age: 24
#9 Points: 3,925 Aleksei Yatskay Age: 27
#10 Points: 3,890 Danil Mamine Age: 26

law90026 · 04-03-2016, 01:26 PM

So some shoutouts for other FOFC people in RR World 2:

Britrock's guys continue to be strong. Mendez and Lebydenko ended the year at #15 and #20 respectively. I expect Mendez to continue to improve on that this year.

Ntndeacon's Arbizu looks like he might have a decent year ahead as well. He's currently ranked #59 but he's got talent to move up more although he is getting a little older.

I'm also following digamma's Hein Siedler closely. Hein finished as the #11 ranked junior in the world and he will be starting his professional career at the same time as Claude Curtayne.

MarkBGregory · 04-03-2016, 02:14 PM

A quick update on my three players in GW2 as well:

Juan José Elezgueta is entering his 22nd year and is hovering just outside the top 100. This year, he's planning to enter the majority of the Grand Slams, starting with the Australian Open in Week 4, although his clay court specialism will probably see him do best at Roland Garros. I'm hoping for him to break the top 50 this year, although his lack of stamina will continue to hold him back and may mean he never gets further than that.

Milestones: Elezgueta won his first Challenger title this year, a CH2 in his homeland in Buenos Aires, defeating the 1st, 3rd and 4th seeds along the way.

Igor Borowski graduated from the junior tour two years after Elezgueta, but is already ranked 289th in the world, having played just 13 tournaments last year. He's the fifth highest ranked 19-year-old at the turn of the year. He'll also be entering the Australian Open, as he's a hard court specialist, and that will enable him to assess what his target needs to be for the upcoming year. I'd like to see him inside the top 100, but it's a big target for such a young player.

Milestones: Borowski had an amazing end to the year, winning 6 Futures titles, including two FT2s, in the last six months, climbing from outside the top 500 to inside the top 300 in the process.

Christian Kulle finished his final year of junior eligibility with aplomb: he won the final JGA in Casablanca and ended up #1 in the junior rankings. He's only played one senior tournament so far, so he's ranked well outside the top 1500 in the world, but I'm hoping a year similar to Borowski's should take him closer to the top 200-300 by the end of the year.

Milestones: Kulle won three Junior Slams: the Australian Open, US Open and the Casablanca Cup.

law90026 · 04-03-2016, 07:54 PM

Nice results Mark!

MarkBGregory · 04-04-2016, 04:33 AM

Thanks law! Mixed results at the start of the new year, I'll update once the Australian Open is over.

MarkBGregory · 04-04-2016, 10:12 AM

I've leave Law to do a full update, but I'll catch you up on the first few weeks for my lads, now the Australian Open is over.

Juan Jose Elezgueta has had a pretty crap start to the year, to be honest. It's now been three years since he graduated the junior tour, and so he'll be turning 22 this year. He's a clay court specialist from Argentina, with a fondness for grass too, but I thought I'd enter him into the Australian Open, to see what sort of impact he could make on the hard courts.
I expected him to have to qualify for the main draw, therefore picking up some decent experience and ranking points, but he snuck into the main draw as the last direct acceptance, which kinda sucked. He promptly got beaten by Latvian Varis Ozols in the first round.
The following week, he entered a clay court CH2 Challenger, much more up his street. Unfortunately, it seemed to be quite a strong field, and Elezgueta was unseeded and played the 2nd seed Gregorio Yapo in the first round, losing 6-7(4) 6-4 6-1. Thanks to a Futures title dropping off his ranking from last year, he's actually slipped five places in the rankings to #124.

Igor Borowski has had a completely different set of results. Borowski only graduated from the junior tour last year, but his stats already looked decent enough to enter the Australian Open. Ranked #295, he had to come through qualifying, but did so nicely without dropping a set, before a completely unexpected 6-3 7-5 6-3 first round victory against Canadian Alan Lockett gave him a place in the second round. He played Falko Gimelstob, who was in the same junior year as Elezgueta, and lost 7-6(2) 6-7(4) 6-2 7-5 in a decent performance.
The following week he entered a FT1 Futures event Indoors in his home country of Belarus. Because the AO lasts two weeks, his points from the competition hadn't come on yet, so he was only seeded 5th, but he still managed to come through to the final before losing to Victor Baiao 5-7 6-4 6-4.
The two week boon means Borowski climbed 90(!) places to #205 in the world - still eligible for Futures but not far from competing at Challenger level. And, an added bonus - he was called up for his country in the World Team Cup this week too!

Christian Kulle is no longer a junior #1 - he's now fighting to see where he belongs in the big leagues. He's only played one event so far this year, in the same week as the Australian Open - a FT3 Futures on Hard in Belgium. He had to qualify for the main draw, but had an excellent week, reaching the final before losing to the top seed Nicolas Della Longa 6-3 6-4 in the final. He's up to #1110 in the world now, still a long way to go.

I also hired a fourth player, German Harald Babbel, who looks okay in terms of Talent and Endurance but could use some work mentally and physically. I'll probably drop him as soon someone half decent comes along, but I'm training him up as normal for now.

law90026 · 04-04-2016, 12:34 PM

Year 323 Weeks 1 to 6

Teo Rask

The year for Teo starts with a WTC match for Sweden against France. As has been the case in recent times, Teo and Sean Mendez play singles for Sweden and they are up against #27 Jean Paul Demercastel and #55 Pierre-Yves Poidebard. It's a close one as Sweden win 3-2 and Teo plays the part of the hero this time by winning both his singles and Mendez winning his match against Poidebard.

Elsewhere, ntndeacon's Joaquim Arbizu plays for Ecuador and they lose to Russia 3-2. Arbizu actually beat world #9 Aleksei Yatskay but lost to world #10 Danil Mamine, splitting his matches. Compatriot and world #8 Ferdinand Duran also split his matches and it was over when the Ecuadorian doubles lost as well.

Off next to the Sydney 250 for some form and Teo reaches the QFs before losing to world #16 Sarmiento Roblez. A fair result against one of the best young players in the game.

At the Australian Open, Teo cruised to the 3rd round where he faced off against world #11 Mario Avendano (who was a mainstay in the top 5 for a long period). Teo loses in straight sets but he matches last year's results again. Britrock's Sean Mendez was upset in the first round by another up and coming star in Uson but Lebydenko reaches the 3rd round before being knocked out by #12 Ene Colon. Arbizu had an unfortunate draw, going up against world #2 Tony Archer in the first round and he stood no chance. ntndeacon's other player, Benavediz, ran through the qualifiers but was knocked out in the first round as well. Mark has helpfully covered his players in this tournament!

Remember how I said we might be seeing a change in the #1 spot soon? This is where it happens as Dotto is knocked out in the QFs by #7 Marcello Borsellino. Tony Archer reaches the SFs but that swing is sufficient to propel Archer to the #1 spot in the world. This was a tournament which I think shows the changing in the guard is taking place as #6 Feliciano Putignani wins his first Grand Slam, beating a super-talented 22 year old, Gaspare Caprera, in the finals.

Teo then heads off for another WTC match and Sweden crushes Brazil 5-0 overall. This should mean that Sweden will top their group as their final match is against a Bolivian team that has seen better days as they currently field the #211 and #777 players in the world for singles.

It's the 2 big 500 indoor tournaments up next for Teo so good luck to him.

Ghazi Mehmett

Just one tournament for Ghazi during this period and it was disappointing as he was bounced in the first round of a FT3 in Brazil for both singles and doubles. He will be playing another FT3 in week 7 and hoping for a better result.

Claude Curtayne

Similarly, just 1 tournament for Claude as he takes part in his first amateur tournament but there was a lot of tennis to be played. He had to play qualifiers for both singles and doubles and reached the SFs for singles and QFs for doubles, playing a total of 11 matches. While he was beaten soundly in the SFs, he was exhausted by then, but a fair enough result for Claude in his first non-junior tournament (not counting a scheduling mistake I made a long time ago). This pushes him to #2098 in singles and his grind begins as well.

law90026 · 04-04-2016, 12:51 PM

So just a quick look at some of the best young players coming up through the ranks right now using Brian's ranking system:

1. Tony Archer is the best player with a 10.21 rating. At 26 years old, he's probably around his peak.
2. The recent Australian Open finalist, Caprara, is 22 years old and a 10.11, with a -3% aging factor! Odds are high he's going to be a future no. 1.
3. Marcello Borsellino, 25 years old, is at 10.06 and already ranked #7 in the world.
4. Putignani, the winner of the Australian Open, is 9.99 at age 26.
5. 22 year old Mjej Aghavelian is ranked #33 in the world and rated at 9.78.
6. 25 year old Milton Aguilar may have had the boat sail past him as he hasn't been able to break into the top 10 and others are now coming up past him. Rated at 9.74.
7. Sarmiento Roblez, 22 years old and ranked #16, is rated at 9.71. He has a 5% aging factor though so he might already be peaking/peaked.
8. Ferdinand Duran, 24 years old, is #8 and rated 9.68 but he has a 2% aging factor.
9. Juan Larran, #27 and rated 9.62, is 23 but his 4% aging factor will be a hurdle for him at this stage.

As a reference, Sean Mendez is at 9.54 while Teo Rask is only a 9.22. Arbizu is a 9.01 while Lebydenko is a 9.22 as well.

I have to say though that Mark's guys look good! Elezgueta, at age 21, is a 9.28 rated player although his 4% aging factor is a potential issue. Borowski, at age 19, is 8.79, so already potentially a top 100 player.

MarkBGregory · 04-04-2016, 02:17 PM

Thanks Law! Yeah, that's the problem with all three of my seniors - they all have positive aging factors, even Borowski at 101%. But, we'll see I guess!

law90026 · 04-06-2016, 03:47 AM

Year 323 Weeks 7 to 16

Teo Rask

So Teo’s season is starting to fall apart a little at this early stage. Not sure if it’s an indication he’s beginning to fall back based on age but staying in the top 30 this year may be a more realistic goal than staying in the top 20.

After the Australian Open, Teo was off to the Rotterdam 500 event, a place he has made 2 consecutive finals. This year though, he was knocked out in the 2nd round, albeit by rising star Lucas Coscino in 3 close sets. Here, Britrock’s Sean Mendez made the QFs before losing to world #4 Gianluca Barrafuldi.

Teo didn’t take part in the Memphis 500 this year, electing instead to take part in the Open 13 250 event. Here he made the SFs as the #1 seed before losing to #6 seed Jean Paul Demercastel in the SFs.

Week 11 was Indian Wells, where Teo was seeded #22. He made the 3rd round before facing off against world #2 Dotto and was beaten 6/2, 6/4. This was a tournament where youth again showed its strength as the finalists were Sarmiento Roblez and Gaspare Carprara, with Roblez winning his first Masters. Sean Mendez and Andrei Lebydenko also made the 3rd round before losing to Timmy Toy (a mild upset over Sean Mendez) and world #1 Tony Archer respectively. Joaquim Arbizu also took part but was knocked out in the 2nd round by Timmy Toy.

Week 13 was the next Masters at Miami. Teo was upset by Frank Maydon in the 2nd round and he loses yet more ranking points in the first half of the year. #7 seed Marcello Borsellino won this tournament, beating #5 seed Putignani in the finals. Sean Mendez and Andrei Lebydenko were also both upset in the 2nd round by unseeded Luca Granda and Nikalaos Metaxas respectively.

Week 15 was the final WTC Group match for Sweden against Bolivia. Remember how I said it should be an easy win? I was wrong as Sweden was upset 3-2, behind the strong play of world #158 Francisco Olbera. Olbera is a 32 year old former world #3 but there’s really no reason for both Teo and Mendez to lose to him. Still, Sweden top the group and will face Spain in the QFs. Spain currently field world #25 Lucas Coscino (who has a 3-1 record over Teo) and world #23 Adam Preto for singles and former world #1 Antonio Filho plays doubles. It will be a tough match.

Teo had a distinct lack of form so he took part in the Hassan II 250 event, where he was seeded #2. Shock upset in the 2nd round though as he loses to world #82 Shao Hoo-gwo, who admittedly had a good tournament as he reached the SFs before losing to #5 seed Frank Maydon.

Teo is still ranked #20 although I expect that to drop a little more. Where to from here? He won’t be taking part in Monte Carlo in light of his current state of play and will be looking towards finding form for the clay Masters coming up.

Ghazi Mehmett

Ghazi took part in 4 tournaments during this period, all FT3 events. In Israel, he reached the SFs of the singles draw, before losing to Ivo Almayda 6/3, 6/3. In Ghana, he again reached the SFs before losing to Joaquin Amelgueta 6/2, 6/3. The Hungary FT3 was disappointing as he was dumped in the 2nd round. He made up for that in a France FT3, as he reached the finals before losing to Lugomir Sekanic 6/3, 6/4.

The most recent result should push Ghazi somewhere into the bottom half of the 400s. He will probably take part in a few more FT3s to see how he does before considering whether to move up to FT2s in the 2nd half of the year.

Claude Curtayne

Claude took part in just 1 amateur tournament during this period and he won it comfortably. I suspect he’s actually ready for FT3s but I think I will let him take part in 1 more amateur tournament first before making the switch. Currently ranked #1525 in the world.

MarkBGregory · 04-06-2016, 07:18 AM

Juan Jose Elezgueta

A difficult start to the season has just about levelled out for the Argentinian, and he's now par for the course: he finished last year ranked 119th, and he's dragged himself back up to 118th with three decent performances at Challenger level.

Week 9 saw him take part in the CH2 on the clay of Meknes, Morocco. Unseeded, he took out 6th seed Joao Rodriguez in the first round and eased past Frank Luxa in the second, before a comprehensive 6-0 6-1 defeat to top seed Gregorio Yapo stopped his run in its tracks. Two weeks later he was in Chile at another CH2, and once again got drawn against Joao Rodriguez in the first round. This time he lost 4-6 7-5 6-2.

Undeterred, a CH2 in Marrakesh two weeks later finally bore fruit. Again coming from an unseeded position, Elezgueta took out the second seed in the first round, the fifth seed in the quarters and the sixth seed in the semis before finally losing 7-6(7) 6-3 to top seed Giotto Mansi in the final.

Elezgueta then entered the Monte Carlo Masters this week, and did nicely to come through qualifying and win his first round match before coming up against 4th seed and world #6 Feliciano Putignani in the second. A decent performance from the Argentinian, but an expected defeat in the end, 7-5 7-6(2). I sense he's not far away from breaking through to the elite.

Igor Borowski

Borowski's ranking has been boosted by three wins at World Team Cup level since the Australian Open, adding 75 vital points to his ranking. Despite being two years younger, the Belarussian isn't far behind Elezgueta at 157th right now.

He's entered two tournaments aside from the WTC since the AO, reaching the SFs of a CH2 in Japan Indoors, seeded #3, and last week reaching the QFs of a CH3 in America as fifth seed, losing to eventual champion Stuart Legh, seeded 4th.

Christian Kulle

Kulle continues to rise through the Futures ranks, having played two tournaments since the last update and winning both. At a FT3 in Tunisia, he came through unseeded to the final and beat Jurgen Adler 6-0 6-0(!), and a few weeks later stepped up a level to FT2 in his homeland of Sweden. Seeded seventh, he came through again to the final before beating second seed Duana Brockless 6-2 6-2.

law90026 · 04-07-2016, 11:27 PM

Year 323 Week 17 to 26

Teo Rask

At a 250 event in Bucharest, Teo restored a little stability to his season by reaching the finals as the #1 seed before losing to #2 seed Feliciano Rebellin in the finals, 4/6, 6/1, 6/2. Rebellin is a 22 year old that is rising up the ranks quite quickly and is talented (9.42 rating), so not really too upset about the loss although a win would have been even better of course.

Then 2 successive 1st round exits at the Madrid and Rome Masters made me seriously consider pulling Teo from singles play and start focusing on becoming a trainer. Just poor overall. A bunch of FOFC players took part but Lebydenko and Elezgueta were all knocked out in the 1st round as well. Sean Mendez made a good run though, reaching the QFs and claiming the scalp of world #7 Putignani in the 3rd round before losing to unseeded Jean Paul Demercastel, the 30 year old who just won’t go away! The tournament was won by world #2 Arnaldo Pirovano, who crushed Feliciano Rebellin in the finals. See what I mean when I say Rebellin is a talented player?

In Rome, besides Teo, Sean Mendez was also upset in the 1st round, losing to #11 seed Danil Mamine. That’s the problem in the smaller Masters tournaments where there are only 16 seeds, it becomes a crapshoot for everyone else. Lebydenko made the 2nd round before losing to world #1 Tony Archer. Joaquim Arbizu lost in the first round to Burt Tinker. Success for the tournament goes to Elezgueta, who reached the 3rd round before falling to world #3 Dotto. This was a tournament won by world #2 Pirovano, so back to back Masters titles for him and he beat world #10 Sarmiento Roblez in the finals.

In order to find some form before the French Open, Teo then took part in the 250 Power Horse Cup. However, the #2 seed lost in the QFs to Magui Pitillas, so another early’ish exit for him.

Then, a pleasant surprise for Teo in the French Open. Seeded #22, he cruised in the first round, beating a qualifier 6/0, 6/2, 6/1. In the 2nd round, he faced a former junior world #1 in Matthias Huber 7/5, 6/1, 7/5. This set up a match against #14 seed Antonio Lopezcastro and Teo won easily 6/4, 6/0, 6/1, to reach the 4th round. It’s always nice to get further than expected in a major tournament and Teo shows that he shouldn’t be written off just yet. In the 4th round, Teo was up against world #8 Gianluca Barrafuldi but was unable to upset him, losing 6/4, 6/1, 6/2.

Elsewhere, Sean Mendez reached the 3rd round before losing to world #7 Putignani. Lebydenko also made the 3rd round before losing to the hottest player on tour right now, world #2 Arnaldo Pirovano. Joaquim Arbizu had an unlucky draw as he was up against #15 seed Feliciano Rebellin in the 1st round and was beaten there. Elezgueta made it to the 2nd round before losing to world #6 Bill Comfort.

The French Open was won by the #13 seed Aleksei Yatskay, a player who has bounced around the top 10 to 15 positions in the world. He beat world #2 Pirovano in the finals, who has been crazy good during this clay season.

Ghazi Mehmett

2 tournaments for Ghazi during this period. In singles, he was knocked out in the 1st round of a FT3 but made the SFs of the other FT3. In doubles, he reached the QFs for both FT3 tournaments. He is at #499 in the world right now.

Claude Curtayne

Claude won another amateur tournament in week 18 and reached the doubles SFs for that same tournament. He then tried to move up to a FT3 tournament but his low ranking meant that he faced the #2 seed early on and he was knocked out in the 2nd round. He will probably play 1 more amateur tournament to get his ranking below #1000 before taking part in FT3s again, just to try and get a ranking in tournaments. Currently ranked #1071 in the world.

Brian Swartz · 04-08-2016, 12:22 AM

I think Teo is just in a bad slump. Not that this helps since you can't really do anything about it other than hope he starts playing better, but he shouldn't have started declining yet, at least not enough to notice. He should be right at the end of his prime.

That might actually make it worse, since I thought this would be his last really good year, a chance to maybe finish in the Top 15, make the quarters at a Slam somewhere, that kind of thing. Next year the aging process will probably start making him drop a bit. *sadface*

MarkBGregory · 04-08-2016, 10:03 AM

Thanks Law for summing up Elezgueta's results in the big events. A small catch up from my side of things too:

Juan Jose Elezgueta

As Law said, it's been a good clay court season for Elezgueta. Having reached the 2nd round of the Monte Carlo Masters, The Argentinian made it through qualifying for the Madrid Masters before being beaten in R1, but his big result came in Rome. Again coming through qualifying, he secured an amazing 7-5 6-3 victory over world #14 Aniceto Lopezcastro in the second round before an inevitable defeat to former world #1 Valentino Dotto.

Since then, Elezgueta made the second round of Roland Garros (the first time he had entered a big event directly), and then the third round of Wimbledon, having beaten 27th seed Lucas Coscino in the second round. This week, week 30, Elezgueta is playing in a CH+ event in Colombia, and has reached the semi-finals so far. He's now 74th in the world.

Igor Borowski

As Borowski is a hard court specialist, it's been a quiet clay season for the Belarussian. He's remained a firm contender on the Challenger circuit, but he results have slowed slightly, with his best result coming at a CH3 on Grass, his least favourite surface, in Week 23. He's heading over to Masters action in Canada and Cincinnati before the US Open. Ranked 142nd.

Christian Kulle

Kulle's made the most of a selection of Futures events in his home country, reaching the semi-finals and picking up the title at two Swedish FT1 events. Outside of Sweden he's been a little less successful, but this week he's currently into the semis of an FT1 in Israel. Ranked just outside the top 400, there's still a little ways to go to know whether or not he'll make it big.

Brian Swartz · 04-10-2016, 09:30 AM

It's fascinating to me how hyper-competitive the 'first page' is in this world, especially right now. Archer was #1 not long ago at all, and is now down to fourth. Four players within less than 800 points fighting for the top spot, and it seems almost random who takes it at any given point in time. None of them has as many points as #3 in my universe!

law90026 · 04-11-2016, 12:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brian Swartz

I think Teo is just in a bad slump. Not that this helps since you can't really do anything about it other than hope he starts playing better, but he shouldn't have started declining yet, at least not enough to notice. He should be right at the end of his prime.

That might actually make it worse, since I thought this would be his last really good year, a chance to maybe finish in the Top 15, make the quarters at a Slam somewhere, that kind of thing. Next year the aging process will probably start making him drop a bit. *sadface*

Heh it's all good. Teo is playing at his level so I'm not too disappointed. I think this will be his 3rd year where he finishes around the #20 position and it's been a decent run. World 2 is crazy competitive I suspect so that doesn't help.

Still there's a lot I learnt from managing Teo and hopefully I get a good generated player when I use my credits to create a player!

Any tips for that process?

law90026 · 04-11-2016, 12:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brian Swartz

It's fascinating to me how hyper-competitive the 'first page' is in this world, especially right now. Archer was #1 not long ago at all, and is now down to fourth. Four players within less than 800 points fighting for the top spot, and it seems almost random who takes it at any given point in time. None of them has as many points as #3 in my universe!

It is crazy right now! 4 guys in their primes battling it out and 2 future no.1 players in the mix as well.

Brian Swartz · 04-11-2016, 03:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by law90026

hopefully I get a good generated player when I use my credits to create a player!

Any tips for that process?

You're basically guaranteed to get a good player, they just may not be great. More on that in a bit here. I always create a new player on Sunday of Week 52. The first thing you have to do is fire an existing one, since you can't create a new one without an empty spot in your roster. This can make things a little interesting if you have enough credits to create more than one player, since if you want to try for someone better you have to fire someone first, and then if the RNG doesn't treat you well you're kind of sunk due to somebody else hiring whoever it is you got rid of. Doing it at the beginning of the week lets you use that week for xp before you enter any tournaments. A small thing, but grab every advantage you can. IIRC the players start off at exactly 20 form so you'll have time to put in a few practice weeks before you need to do your first junior tournaments.

You have three things you can control in terms of how good the player is. Name and nation obviously don't matter here. I don't remember the exact terminology the game uses, but I'll be creating a new player in less than two weeks now so this stuff is fairly fresh in my mind having done it a few times.

** Aging -- Three settings, something like Peak Early, Peak Normal, or Peak Late. I always choose the one that gives a low aging factor, for longevity(and poor juniors/early development of course as the tradeoff).

** Best Attribute -- You can choose one of strength, speed, endurance, talent, to have a better chance to get a good 'roll' on. I think those are the only ones in there but I would double-check it as I don't recall for certain. I go with endurance. As has been discussed it is in my opinion the most important. Having said that in a fast world I would consider whether talent may be more important for you.

** Worst Attribute -- You also have to choose one that has a better chance of being lower. I have always chosen one of the athletic ones, strength and speed. I think speed is probably the best choice here as strength is probably a little more important but you could argue that either way.

Finally, cross your fingers :P.

Prospective Results

I've created four players so far, with at least one more coming soon -- I have the credits to do two more at the end of the year here, so if the first one goes bad I have a 'backup' so to speak. Three of them are players I'm managing right now, the fourth wasn't quite as good so I jettisoned them. Here's how they came out on the TESS scale:

** Anil Mehul -- 8.9 TE(4.4 Talent, 4.5 Endurance), 6.6 SS(3.4 strength, 3.2 speed), 95% aging. Best of any of them in endurance and aging factor, but relatively 'meh' talent and athleticism.

** Girish Girsh -- 8.7 TE(4.4 Talent, 4.3 Endurance), 6.1 SS(2.9 strength, 3.2 speed), 96% aging. Girsh was the most developed(most starting skill and service) so that mitigated at least somewhat the fact that he was a little more limited. He also had a higher mentality(3.8), Mehul was at 3.4.

** Shyam Senepathy -- 8.8 TE(4.5 Talent, 4.3 Endurance), 5.7 SS(3.5 strength, 2.2 speed), 96% aging. I haven't written much about him because he's the one that I 'threw back'. This was mostly because of the low speed around the court. Another 3.4 mentality here. He's not terrible by any stretch, mismanagement has him barely inside the Top 300 at age 20, but he could have been good -- just not quite as good as the others.

** Prakash Mooljee -- 8.9 TE(4.7 Talent, 4.2 Endurance), 6.8 SS(3.5 Strength, 3.3 Speed), 97% aging. On the TESS scale he is the best I've turned out; on the other hand he was the least developed in terms of skill/service, sort of the other end of that process from Girsh. He's doing very well though. Mentality came out at 3.4 again.

Conclusions

The game promises a strong but not necessarily world class player, and I think these results bear that out. There has been a great degree of consistency in an admittedly very small sample size. From reading the forums years ago on the subject, it is or at least was possible to get a really fantastic player significantly better than this, but quite rare. I imagine it's also probably possible to get one somewhat worse. I do think you can expect to get players who are better than the ones you can hire in a busy world(unless you are consistently lucky and quick) this way.

law90026 · 04-11-2016, 04:14 AM

That's great info thanks!

law90026 · 04-11-2016, 05:41 AM

Year 323 Weeks 27 to 46

Teo Rask

Teo entered Wimbledon in week 27. In Round 3, he faced off against #11 seed Danil Mamine and beat him 6/4, 6/2, 7/6(5), which set up a 4th round match against #7 seed Gianluca Barrafuldi. This led to a titanic match, which Barrafuldi won 7/5, 6/4, 4/6, 3/6, 10/8. A close match and no shame in the loss and overall a good tournament for Teo as he reached another 4th round of a Grand Slam this year. Tony Archer won the tournament, beating #12 seed and UK national Milton Aguilar in the finals. Sean Mendez reached the 4th round before losing to Tony Archer, Andrei Lebydenko reached the 3rd round before losing to #6 seed Bill Comfort while Elezgueta reached the 3rd round before losing to Tom Liekmar.

Week 29 was the 250 Swedish Open and Teo reached the SFs before losing to #1 seed Adam Preto 7/5, 6/3.

The 250 event at Gstaad was the next tournament Teo entered in and he reached the finals before losing to #2 seed Ene Colon 6/4, 6/3 in the finals.

The Canadian Masters was a wash-out as Teo lost in the first round to #14 seed Feliciano Rebellin. This tournament was won by #4 seed and now world #1 Marcello Borsellino, who beat #5 seed Feliciano Putignani in the finals. Gianluca Barrafuldi was a major roadblock for Britrock as he beat Sean Mendez in the first round then Lebydenko in the 2nd round in an odd scheduling quirk.

Over at the Cincinnati Masters, Teo made it to the 2nd round before losing to #11 seed Gaspare Caprara (who has since entered the world top 10), 6/3, 6/4. The tournament was won by #8 seed Sarmiento Roblez, beating Caprara in the finals. A first round loss for Mendez against a qualifier sums up how tough a year he has had, while Lebydenko lost in the 2nd round to #15 seed Stephen Peters.

At the US Open, Teo played to his #21 seed, reaching the 3rd round before losing to #9 seed Caprara (yes him again!). It was a drubbing as Teo lost 6/2, 6/0, 6/2. Mendez also reached the 3rd round before losing to unseeded Nikolaos Metaxas (a player that Teo has lost to on multiple occasions as well), while ntndeacon’s Arbizu reached the 3rd round before losing to #16 seed Stephen Peters. Arbizu actually beat Lebydenko in the 2nd round as well in a clash of FOFC players. Digamma’s Kanjeric also had a nice run as he battled through the qualifying rounds and reached the 2nd round of the main draw before losing to #13 seed Danil Mamine. Caprara won his first Grand Slam here, beating Borsellino in the finals.

In the WTC Cup QFs, Sweden were humiliated 5-0 by Spain as Teo and Mendez were outclassed by Spain’s Uson and Preto. Not much to be said here.

Then to the 250 event at St Petersberg where Teo won his first title of the year, beating #7 seed Ruslan Aznabaev in the finals.

At the Malaysian Open, Teo reached the SFs before losing to #2 seed Feliciano Rebellin, who would go on to beat #1 seed Aleksei Yatskay in the finals as well.

Teo bowed out in the 2nd round of the Shanghai Masters, losing to #7 seed Dotto. Losing is putting it kindly, it was a 6/1, 6/0 massacre. #8 seed Ferdinan Duran won the tournament, beating #5 seed Caprara (yes him again!) in the finals. It was a tournament of upsets as #1 seed Borsellino was knocked out in the 2nd round by wildcard Metaxas, #2 seed Pirovano lost in the 3rd round to unseeded Uson and #4 seed Tony Archer lost to unseeded Mjaj Aghavelian in the 2nd round (who also beat Dotto in the QFs). Lebydenko also had his part to play as he upset #12 seed Yatskay in the 2nd round before losing to Duran in the 3rd round. Mendez went out in the 2nd round though, also to Duran.

Teo then defended his title at the Stockholm Open, beating #2 seed Mathieu Trottier in the finals 6/1, 6/2, for his 2nd title of the year.

In the final tournament of the year, Teo was knocked out in the 2nd round of the Paris Masters, losing to #9 seed Gianluca Barrafuldi. It wasn’t as close a match as their titanic showdown in Wimbledon, Barrafuldi winning comfortably 6/3, 6/4 this time. #3 seed Tony Archer won the tournament, beating #6 seed Roblez in the finals. Mendez reached the 2nd round before losing to world #1 Borsellino while Lebydenko was knocked out in the 1st round by unseeded Agia.

With that, Teo’s season ends and he finishes at #22 in the world (barring any other players losing points during the last few weeks of the year), which is about where I thought he might end up after the first half of the year. In line with expectations and it will be interesting to see if Teo can hang on to a top 30 spot next year (I suspect he can if I continue to let him focus on singles rather than start to dabble in doubles and preparing to become a trainer).

Ghazi Mehmett

The problem with Futures tournaments is that they are such a random bag of players it’s really hard to tell how a player will do. Ghazi played in 5 FT3 tournaments during this stretch and won 1, came in 2nd once and reached 3 QFs. I guess that means he’s not quite ready to move up to the FT2 level but it’s also hard to improve the ranking without playing the bigger Futures events. Patience I tell myself. He still has 1 or 2 tournaments before the year ends so I suspect he ends up somewhere in the 300s when all is said and done.

Claude Curtayne

Claude won another amateur tournament in week 28 and that officially pushed him into the top 1000 in the world and it was a full slate of Futures tournaments for him thereafter. Results were also erratic for him, as he was knocked out in the first round once, reached 1 QF, reached a SF and won 1 FT3. He’s ranked #587 in the world and I think he gets close to the #500 spot before the year ends.

Vittorio Annunzo

Vittorio’s junior career is coming to an end and he will finish somewhere in the 30s at junior level. He started the year in the teens and so it’s disappointing he has dropped so far in the junior rankings, although that doesn’t necessarily mean anything in the grand scheme of things. He did take part in an amateur tournament in week 46 and reached the 3rd round there so he has his first official ranking point and is ranked #2387 in the world!

Brian Swartz · 04-11-2016, 07:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by law90026

Ghazi played in 5 FT3 tournaments during this stretch and won 1, came in 2nd once and reached 3 QFs. I guess that means he’s not quite ready to move up to the FT2 level but it’s also hard to improve the ranking without playing the bigger Futures events. Patience I tell myself.

On the last sentence, you are telling yourself the right thing

. I took a closer look at Ghazi, and he basically seems to be playing about at his ranking; i.e., he does well when he's highly seeded, but when he's down around 5th or 6th in an event he's generally not taking down the players ranked above him. That would tell me stay where you are at for a while longer; playing bigger Futures events won't help(more consistently winning/getting to the finals of FT3's will

). And once that happens you can move up. At 7.81, I would expect him to have a much better futures year upcoming that the one he just got done with. The only other thing, which you may already be doing, is looking at the schedule of events each week. If there are a lot of big futures, you may be able to get away with a FT2 on occasion since the field will get diluted. But on the lighter weeks they will be backed with players in the Top 300 or better and that wouldn't be useful. .02.

Quote:

That's great info thanks!

You're welcome.

law90026 · 04-11-2016, 08:52 AM

And Dotto has been fired by his manager! Plus the top 2 players in the world are both managed by the same player, Loxu. Craziness all round.

Brian Swartz · 04-13-2016, 02:07 PM

Must have moar updates! :P

law90026 · 04-14-2016, 03:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brian Swartz

Must have moar updates! :P

Heh been busy and the world moves so fast! Update on my guys coming up but no update on year-end stuff because we are already in week 12!

law90026 · 04-14-2016, 03:04 AM

Year 324 Weeks 1 to 11

Teo Rask

The retirement tour has begun. Teo can probably still hang around for 2 to 3 more years and maintain a top 50 position (I think) but, let’s face it, he’s never going to win a Masters or a Grand Slam. So rather than drag it out, I’ve decided this will be Teo’s last year. With that, I can elect not to play a single Masters event which have been a real drain on his ranking points the past 2 years. Put it this way, if you’re not in the top 16 in the world, you’re likely to be knocked out early’ish in these events unless your talent level is really high so it’s a double whammy for Teo from that perspective.

In week 1, Teo played for Sweden again, along with Sean Mendez, against a young German team. While the Swedes both beat 40th ranked Tom Liekmar, they also both lost to rising start Matt Huber and Sweden loses their first match in the WTC 3-2.

Off to the Qatar 250 event and Teo reached the QFs before losing to #2 seed Adam Preto.

At the Australian Open, Teo was knocked out a round early as he was upset in the 2nd round by unseeded Dominik Bigos, who is a 22 year old up-and-comer (9.44 rating). Andrei Lebydenko was knocked out in the 3rd round by #12 seed Danil Mamine while Sean Mendez made it to the 4th round before losing to #2 seed Sarmiento Roblez, who went on to win the tournament by beating #4 seed Gaspare Caprara in the finals. Joaquim Arbizu also reached the 3rd round before losing to #6 seed Marcello Borsellino. Dragi Kanjeric (digamma’s guy) was knocked out in the 1st round by another unseeded player while Igor Borowski was knocked out in the first round by #17 seed Burt Tinker.

At the 2nd round of WTC matches, Teo won both his singles matches as Sweden swept Brazil 5-0.

Teo then went on an indoor tournament spree, taking part in back-to-back-to-back 250 events in France, San Jose and France again. He had a series of good results, coming in 2nd (losing to #2 seed Feliciano Rebellin), 2nd (losing to #1 seed Burt Tinker) and 1st (beating #2 seed Arnold Jarvilaturi) respectively. This pushes him up to #19 in the world.

Teo then skipped the first Masters of the year but went on to win a doubles FT3 tournament to keep his form up.

Ghazi Mehmett

Ghazi has played 3 tournaments during this period, 1 FT2 and 2 FT3s. Results have been quite good as he reached the SFs of the FT2 and won 1 of the FT3s although he was knocked out in the 2nd round of the other FT3. Up to #384 in the world and he has reached the finals of another FT3 event in week 12.

Claude Curtayne

Claude has only played in 2 FT3s during this period, winning one and coming in 2nd in the other. His high form as a result of good results means that he could play less tournaments overall which is good for his long-term growth. Up to #444 in the world and it looks like he will be a better professional than Ghazi based on how quickly his results have come although it’s early days yet of course.

Vittorio Annunzo

Vittorio has also had a successful start to his professional career. He played in 2 amateur tournaments, winning 1 and coming in 2nd in the other. His ranking is fluctuating around the #1000 mark so his next tournament may be a futures event, depending on how things pan out. I’m hoping for an amateur tournament to be honest but we’ll see how that goes.

law90026 · 04-17-2016, 11:15 AM

Year 324 Weeks 12 to 31

Teo Rask
So I made a boo boo and misunderstood what it means to miss the Masters events. I had thought, for some bizarre reason, that skipping a Masters event meant that I was banned from taking part in a Masters event the next year. Turns out I get 0 points and it still counts. Ah well.

Teo continues to head towards becoming a trainer and he's going to be a 5.3 to 5.4 trainer at the end of this year I think.

In the 3rd round robin WTC match against Estonia, Teo again lost both singles and Sweden lost 3-2. They end the group in 3rd place, which is a tad disappointing. Sean Mendez split his singles matches.

Off to a 250 clay event at Hassan where Teo lost in the QFs to #6 seed Valenti Agia, 6/2, 6/2.

A slightly better tournament after that as Teo entered a 250 event at Bucharest and was seeded #1. Unfortunately, he lost to #3 seed Matthieu Trotter in the finals, 4/6 6/3 7/5.

At Estoril, another 250 clay event, Teo faced off against #7 seed Elezgueta in the QFs and youth prevailed, 6/1 3/6 6/2.

At the Power Horse Cup, another 250 clay event, Teo lost to #6 seed Burgermeister 6/3, 6/2 in the QFs.

Further disappointment in the French Open, where Teo had reached the 4th round last year. This year, as the #21 seed, Teo lost in the 2nd round to Ruslan Aznabaev, 7/6⁵ 3/6 6/7² 7/5 6/4. Sean Mendez and Andrei Lebydenko both reached the 3rd round before losing to #1 seed Roblez and #11 seed Uson respectively. Arbizu also reached the 2nd round before losing to #10 seed Preto. Elezgueta unfortunately lost in the first round when he was drawn against #27 seed Mansi. Kanjeric will rue this as a missed opportunity as he was knocked out in the 1st round as he lost to another qualifier there.

#5 seed Pirovano won the tournament, beating #8 seed Yatskay in the finals.

First grass tournament of the year at Halle and Teo made the SFs before losing to old rival Tom Liekmar.

At Eastbourne, Teo was knocked out in the QFs by unseeded John Elliot.

Wimbledon resulted in a 3rd round loss to #13 seed Feliciano Rebellin. Sean Mendez lost in the 3rd round to #14 seed Sean Peters while Andrei Lebydenko had a shock 1st round loss to unseeded David Villa. Arbizu lost to #9 seed Preto in the first round. Elezgueta had a good tournament though, reaching the 3rd round before losing to John Elliot, who also beat Kanjeric in the first round. Borowski also lost in the first round.

Wimbledon continues to be #7 seed Tony Archer's favourite Grand Slam as he won his 4th consecutive title here, beating #12 seed Mjej Aghavelian in the finals.

At the Swedish Open, Teo was the #2 seed and he reached the finals but lost to the #1 seed Stephen Peters. This is actually Teo's 3rd finals in the past 4 years but he's only won 1 of them.

At Bogota, Teo was seeded #4 but lost to #6 seed Giotto Mansi in the SFs.

Teo is still ranked #24 in the world at this time.

Brian Swartz · 04-17-2016, 11:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by law90026

Teo continues to head towards becoming a trainer and he's going to be a 5.3 to 5.4 trainer at the end of this year I think.

How do you figure? He's in the 4.2-4.3 range right now, will take a LONG time for him to get that much higher.

Quote:

I had thought, for some bizarre reason, that skipping a Masters event meant that I was banned from taking part in a Masters event the next year. Turns out I get 0 points and it still counts. Ah well.

Correct answer here is actually 'both', if you finished in the last year's top 30(check).

law90026 · 04-17-2016, 11:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brian Swartz

How do you figure? He's in the 4.2-4.3 range right now, will take a LONG time for him to get that much higher.

Oh shit, my spreadsheet formula had an error! Well that makes me look even more foolish then!

MarkBGregory · 04-17-2016, 01:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by law90026

Year 324 Weeks 12 to 31

At Estoril, another 250 clay event, Teo faced off against #7 seed Elezgueta in the QFs and youth prevailed, 6/1 3/6 6/2.

I was VERY shocked at this result, it was actually Elezgueta's first ATP 250 event, and he performed admirably against arguably quite a weak field. He continues to hover a little though, making not much progress - currently 79th in the world. I begin to doubt whether he'll ever get to the top 32...

MarkBGregory · 04-18-2016, 12:30 PM

I thought I'd add to law's update with a little more information about my players' progress since the beginning of the GW year.

Juan Jose Elezgueta

It's been a year of rise and fall so far for Elezgueta, but generally progress is being made in the right direction.

Elezgueta finished last year just outside the top 80, and had a tricky few opening weeks of the season. As a clay court specialist with grass secondary, Elezgueta avoided the Australian Open having been knocked out in the first round last year, but did very little by way of compensation. A hard court CH2 was played in Week 2 just to keep form up, but the Argentinian was unseeded and fell to 5th seed Dominik Bigos 6-2 6-4 in the second round. In Week 5, he entered a clay court CH2 in Colombia with higher expectations, but a tough first round draw against 5th seed Pierre-Yves Poidebard led to a disappointing 6-1 3-6 6-4 defeat. Despite the difficult performance, Elezgueta rose to just within the top 80.

Then things started to pick up. A CH2 title was clinched in Week 9 in Morocco, with 5th seed Elezgueta gaining revenge against top seed Poidebard with a 6-3 6-4 victory in the final. Elezgueta stayed in Morocco for another CH2 in Week 13, reaching the final again before losing to unseeded American Evan Farthing. In Week 16, just before the Monte Carlo Masters, Elezgueta headed to Brazil for another CH2, in which he reached the semi-finals as the second seed before losing to 4th seed Tiago Yoshida, a big junior rival of his, 3-6 6-3 7-5. By the end of Week 16, Elezgueta has risen to a career high ranking of 60th.

A first round victory at the Monte Carlo MST event the following week was enough for some more points, and a defeat to third seed Gaspare Caprara in round two was hardly surprising. Then, the highlight of the year: Elezgueta's first foray into ATP 250 territory landed him a semi-final berth as the 7th seed at the Estoril Open, having beaten top seed Teo Rask along the way. A semi-final defeat to #5 Antonio Campelo of Portugal followed, as did a new career high: 53rd.

Elezgueta only reached the 1st round of the Roland Garros GSL and dropped points thanks to his second round appearance in the previous year. Another foray into ATP 250 territory at the Queen's Club afforded a quarter-final appearance as the 10th seed, before a narrow 7-5 7-6(1) defeat to 4th seed Valenti Agia ended his hopes. Then a second consecutive third round appearance at Wimbledon held his ranking steady, the highlight being a victory over 18th seed Ene Colon, 3-6 6-4 6-1 7-6(5). Post-Wimbledon, thanks to a big points drop before RG, he was at 74th in the world.

But the position has been somewhat recovered in more recent weeks. A meagre second round finish at the Olympics was more of a novelty than a highlight, but two consecutive clay court CH1 events have paid dividends, with a title in Sam Marino in Week 34 as the third seed, beating top seed Joaquim Arbizu in the final, and a semi-final appearance the following week in Italy, losing 6-1 6-1 to Italian Fabio Fagnini, who was enjoying the home advantage. Elezgueta currently sits in 65th in the world.

According to the 10-point scale, his rating is 9.49.

Igor Borowski

It's been a great year so far for 21-year-old Borowski, who started the year ranked roughly 130th but is now 89th.

The year started poorly though, with only WTC performances standing out amongst poor singles results across the board. 1 win in Week 1 at the WTC was followed by a second round exit at a hard-court CH2 in Brazil - entered as a wildcard, Borowski lost 2-6 7-6(7) 6-2 to eighth seed John Elliot in the second round. A straight-sets first round defeat to #17 Burt Tinker in the Australian Open GSL in Week 4 was followed by two more WTC victories in Week 6 and another CH2 second round defeat in Week 7, losing unseeded to second seed Gregorio Yapo 6-2 6-3. By the end of Week 7, Borowski had slumped to outside the top 150, and before he was back in competitive action again, he fell as low as 171st.

But three consecutive weeks boosted his ranking phenomenally. A CH2 in Mexico was won from an unseeded position after defeating the 1st, 3rd, 4th and 7th seeds en route to the title, and the following week he did it again, this time as the top seed, defeating third seed Charlie Armour 6-7(3) 6-2 6-1 in the final. After that, another two wins in the final round robin of the WTC not only gave him 50 more points but also secured Belarus' place in the knockout stage. In three weeks, Borowski had risen from outside the top 170 to inside the top 120, and it wouldn't stop there.

Week 20 saw a CH1 in Korea, and Borowski fulfilled his 7th seeding before losing to top seed Dominik Bigos 6-3 7-6(4). The following week he was at a CH2 in Uzbekistan, and reached the semi-finals from an unseeded position after defeating second seed Dominik Fetsko in the second round before losing to third seed Jan Dieter Eckener 7-6(3) 6-4. After several weeks of practice, Week 27 saw a disappointing first round exit at Wimbledon GSL before an even more disappointing first round exit at a US CH3 to fourth seed William Holden. At this point, Borowski was hovering just outside the top 100.

Then came the breakthrough, with four successful point-securing weeks in Weeks 30, 33, 36 and 38. Seeded second at a Canadian CH2 in Week 30, he reached the final before losing again to Eckener 6-2 6-3, before a semi-final appearance at a Chinese CH1 ended in defeat to unseeded Elroy Huffaker (one of my former players) 7-6(3) 2-6 7-6(4) despite Borowski winning 111 points to 112. A CH3 victory in Thailand completed an excellent spell, before two more WTC wins gave Belarus a spot in the Level 3 semi-finals and 50 more ranking points for Borowski.

According to the 10-point scale, his rating is 9.37. He's the highest-ranked 21-year-old in the current rankings, which is a very good sign.

Christian Kulle

Kulle has absolutely dominated the Futures circuit this year, and has deservedly broken into the top 200 at the tender age of 20.

Apart from one semi-final appearance in Week 1, Kulle's record at Futures events reads thus: Week 6 FT1, WIN; Week 10 FT2, WIN; Week 13 FT1, WIN; Week 17 FT1, WIN; Week 22 FT1, WIN; Week 31 FT1, WIN. Not bad at all, and the reason why eventually it became necessary to play some Challengers.

In Week 25, Kulle rather ambitiously took part in a CH1 on Grass (his least favourite surface) and unsurprisingly lost in the first round. However, his efforts since have been better: a second round and a quarter-final appearance at two hard court CH3s in the States, and even a victory at a Kazakh CH3 a couple of weeks ago, winning unseeded and beating the 1st, 3rd, 4th and 6th seed en route to victory.

Kulle now sits 169th and will probably not play any Futures level tennis for a good long while - unfortunately. The transition has been relatively smooth but must continue apace, as the Swede has a very high aging factor which may let him down in the long run.

According to the 10-point scale, his rating is 9.18.

Harald Babbel

Babbel is only 15, but is progressing well. He's ranked 133rd in the junior rankings, which makes him the highest ranked 15-year-old, although he's due to turn 16 in two weeks. He made a couple of JG3 finals but has won three JG4 events, and I'm attempting to turn him into a grass court specialist with a clay court secondary.

Brian Swartz · 04-19-2016, 05:30 PM

You have some very good players -- much better than any of mine are, even accounting for the fact that they are aging quicker. I would expect Elezqueta and Borowski to move up quite a bit next year.

law90026 · 04-19-2016, 10:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brian Swartz

You have some very good players -- much better than any of mine are, even accounting for the fact that they are aging quicker. I would expect Elezqueta and Borowski to move up quite a bit next year.

It's true, they are very good. Elezgueta is the 20th best player based on the rating scale so he should have a very good year coming up.

law90026 · 04-20-2016, 04:00 AM

End of a Career

And that’s it for Teo Rask. I’ve fired him after struggling with the decision for a few days.

I didn’t want to keep him hanging around for another couple of years because he wasn’t really going to get anywhere in terms of his career but I couldn’t convert him to a trainer yet because of the 30 year old age requirement. On top of that, I had identified a trainer candidate that would immediately be a 5+ trainer. So it was time to bite the bullet and bid adieu to Teo.

Teo peaked as a top 20 player and has been hanging around the high teens and low twenties for the past 3 years or so. He finishes his career with more than $4million in earnings, a 760-300 win record, 9 250-level tournament wins, 3 500-level runner-up positions and 11 250-level runner up positions. He also reached the QFs of the French Open once and made a few 4th round appearances at the French Open and Wimbledon. It’s been a decent career for him I think but he was always held back by his relatively low athleticism and mentality.

So what’s next?

Claude Curtayne looks decent at this time, having reached a high of #271 in the world. He will be playing Challengers next year in all likelihood.

Vittorio Annunzo also looks ok, reaching #519 in his first year in the pros. Another year of Futures tournaments for him next year.

I had dropped Ghazi Mehmett earlier in the year and picked up a new 14 year old, Argentinean Ariel Ruano. He’s got decent talent and endurance as well as -5% aging factor so let’s see if he can be developed into a good player.

I also picked up 37 year old Jose Fernandez de Prada, who has maxed out serve and doubles. I’m just waiting for another 2k experience or so to convert him into a trainer. After that, either I spend my credit to create a player or I see if there are any good young players available at the time.

On to Year 325!

Brian Swartz · 04-20-2016, 08:01 AM

Sounds like a good plan. Did pretty well with Teo for what you had to work with.

MarkBGregory · 04-20-2016, 11:58 AM

A quick note before the year 'officially' ends:

Bit of a milestone coming up. Igor Borowski and co (but mainly Borowski) are in the WTC Playoffs to win promotion to Level 2 this week. They're up against Zimbabwe. Belarus are ranked 31st in comparison to Zimbabwe's 41st, and it's being played on Hard which is a huge advantage for us. However, 66th-ranked Barry Button, 30yo, is the main danger, and with both Button and Borowski playing two singles rubbers AND the doubles, it could be a matter of who matches up the best out of that leading pair.

MarkBGregory · 04-22-2016, 02:53 PM

Weeks 1-11

I'll start this update with Igor Borowski, because he has leapfrogged Elezgueta to become my highest-ranked player. The good news: Borowski and co. secured an easy 4-1 victory over Zimbabwe in the WTC Playoffs in Week 51 to reach Level 2, with Borowski winning both his singles rubbers and his doubles match. However, Level 2 has been tough so far, with Belarus losing both matches, despite Borowski winning 3 out of 4 singles matches.

Borowski has entered three tournaments so far this year, reaching the 2nd round of the Australian Open, reaching the semi-finals of an ATP 250 indoors (Open 13, France) and most recently Indian Wells, where a tough draw saw him lose to world #6 Andres Uson 6-4 6-1 in the second round. He's up to 47th in the world though, and I think he'll break the top 32 by the end of the year.

Juan Jose Elezgueta is having a similarly good season but has made less progress purely because he's defending a fair amount of points. He's risen from 68th to 58th since the start of the year, reaching a couple of Challenger semi-finals, either side of a first round defeat at the Australian Open, before a big runner-up run at the Copa Claro in his home nation, his best ever result at ATP 250 level. For the first time in his career, Elezgueta has a full roster of 18 tournaments, so his ranking is a true one. I still think he needs a spell of good luck to get close to the top 32 this year - it's now or never, I feel, given his age factor is already down to 96% aged 23.

Christian Kulle's first tournament of the year was a disaster, losing in round one of a CH1 in New Caledonia, but since then he's done well - qualified successfully for the Australian Open before a narrow first round defeat, before a CH2 semi-final in Bergamo was followed by a final appearance this week (and a likely defeat, match is happening in the next GW day) in Japan. I think it'll be another year before Kulle gets close to the elite.

Harald Babbel has another year after this one of junior eligibility, but he's already ranked 32nd in the junior rankings despite only playing one tournament at JG2 level or above. Still looking to replace him with a better model if the opportunity arises...

Brian Swartz · 04-22-2016, 03:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mark B Gregory

it's now or never, I feel, given his age factor is already down to 96% aged 23.

Looks like a good start for you. My players have peaked at about 91% FWIW, so I think you still have some time. My guess is he will probably peak at age 24-25 instead of 26-27 for players with a lower aging.

MarkBGregory · 04-28-2016, 07:57 AM

Weeks 11-45

Time flies in this world. I've been super busy with work and just about managed to keep up with tournament registrations. For the first time today I've got a few moments to update you all on the goings on. It's been one hell of a year.

Igor Borowski and Juan Jose Elezgueta have been yo-yo-ing all year to be my number one player. Borowski is around a year and a half younger, remember, currently 22y27w, while Elezgueta has recently hit 24y2w. As a reminder, Elezgueta has Clay court favouritism with Grass secondary, while Borowski has Hard court favouritism with Indoor secondary.

As you can imagine, Borowski retained his lead ahead of Elezgueta in the rankings throughout the Hard court season, while Elezgueta regained the advantage during the clay and grass seasons. In Week 11, Borowski reached the 2nd round at Indian Wells, and then Week 13 saw him go one better in Miami, reaching the third round. He defeated 23rd seed Sean Mendez 6-7(5) 6-4 7-5 in the second round before losing to 10th seed Bill Comfort. Two WTC Level 2 victories added another 70 points onto his ranking, pushing him up to 54th by the end of Week 15. During this time Elezgueta played entirely practice tournaments, and sat just behind Borowski at 56th.

Then came the clay court season. Between Weeks 16-23, Elezgueta played two 250s, two MSTs and one Slam (in Paris, of course). Meanwhile, Borowski satisfied himself with two CH1 appearances. Elezgueta's first 250 was nothing special, reaching the second round, but a massive title in Week 18 in Bucharest scored him 250 points and a huge rankings boost just before the Masters events. Elezgueta came through unseeded to win the title, beating 5th seed Ruslan Aznabaev, second seed Nwankwo Ba, third seed Stuart Legh and fourth seed Matthieu Trottier in the final. Not exactly an easy one to win, but a huge result for the Argentinian. Both Masters events in Madrid and Rome were a slight letdown thanks to tough draws, with Elezgueta only reaching the 2nd round unseeded both times. Roland Garros was also tough, resulting in another 2nd round appearance and a static ranking. In the meantime, Borowski reached the final of a CH1 on Hard in Busan in Week 20, before winning a Grass court (?!) CH1 in Nottingham in Week 24. Directly before Wimbledon, Elezgueta was ranked 48th, while Borowski's challenger performances had taken him ahead of Elezgueta to 45th.

Wimbledon saw Borowski outperform Elezgueta again, reaching the third round compared to Elezgueta's second round appearance. Elzegueta's redemption came thanks to some excellent scheduling in the latter half of the year, mixing high-level Challengers up with 250 events to propel the Argentinian into the top 32 for the first time:

Elezgueta wanted to continue playing competitively post-Wimbledon after a slightly disappointing result, so he entered a CH+ in Germany and went on to win it as the top seed, beating Spaniard Lucas Coscino in the final. A week later, Borowski took part in a CH1 in Spain, but only reached the second round.

Elezgueta continued to impress, reaching the final of the 250 Kitzbuhel Cup in Austria unseeded, beating world #19 Guadalfajara in the quarters before losing 6-2 6-0 to world #4 Pirovano in the final. This result was followed by another 100-point haul after a CH1 victory in San Marino in Week 34. Meanwhile, Borowski was taking part in the Canadian and Cincinnati Masters in Weeks 33&34, making the 2nd round of the former and the third round of the latter. By the end of Week 34, Borowski was ranked just inside the top 40, while Elezgueta was ranked just ever so slightly higher.

Elezgueta forewent the US Open and has since played two CH events, levels 1 & 2, and won both, leaving him now ranked 33rd in the world. However, it gets more exciting for Borowski at this stage:

Borowski also decided not to enter the US Open due to high form, and instead focussed on the Masters events at the end of the year. A QF appearance at a CH+ preceded a 2nd round appearance in Shanghai - another disappointment, as far as talent goes - but then came the performance of his career. Borowski, as a qualifier, reached the semi-finals of the Paris Indoor Masters.

Borowski's route to the semis:

QR1: BYE
QR2: bt Francisco Olbera WR 168 6-2 6-4

R1: bt [Q] Falko Gimelstob WR 41 6-4 6-2
R2: bt [1] Sarmiento Roblez WR 1(!!) 6-1 3-6 6-3
R3: bt [11] Giotto Mansi WR 11 7-6(5) 1-6 7-6(4)
QF: bt [12] Burt Tinker WR 12 7-6(1) 7-6(4)
SF: lost to [3] Andres Uson WR 3 6-2 6-1

WHAT A RUN!! Yes, you read correctly, Borowski defeated the world number one in Paris. What a legend!! The result propelled Borowski from 44th to 30th in the world, and depending on end-of-season result, I may well have two players in the top 32 come the start of next year. The only way is up for Borowski at this stage!

Now, breathe...

Christian Kulle has had a year of gradual improvement, with focus on the occasional Challenger tournament but otherwise training, practice, training, practice... Rinse, lather, repeat. Kulle was RUP at a CH2 in Week 15, made the semis of a CH2 in Week 21, qualified for Wimbledon but was beaten in the first round in Week 27, before another RUP appearance at a CH3 in Week 28. Week 33 saw a SF appearance in at a CH1, and Week 35, he was again a finalist at a CH3. He didn't actually win a Challenger event until Week 42, where he came through unseeded to collect the trophy at the CH2 in Tiburon. He's currently ranked just outside the top 100.

Meanwhile, Harald Babbel has just turned 17 and will be in his final year of junior eligibility next year. He's currently ranked 24th in the junior rankings.

law90026 · 04-28-2016, 11:49 AM

Really nice performances!

britrock88 · 05-03-2016, 02:38 PM

I'm enjoying the interaction between your guys and mine both on the court and in the Swedish/Argentinian rankings for WTC matches. Keep up the good work!

law90026 · 05-05-2016, 09:08 AM

So it’s been too long since I updated. Here we go with a quick summary of what’s happening in world 2.

Grand Slams Update

So the last update was at the end of year 322 and we are currently actually in week 36 of year 326. Without going into too much detail, here’s what happened.

In Year 323, the Australian Open was won by Feliciano Putignani, who beat out Gaspare Caprara in the finals. This marked the transition from the Dotto era into a new hyper-competitive era which saw the #1 spot change hands multiple times. At the French Open, Aleksei Yatskay beat Arnaldo Pirovano in the finals. Wimbledon remains the favourite hunting ground for Tony Archer as he won his 3rd straight title, beating home favourite Milton Aguilar in the finals. Caprara did manage to win his first Grand Slam this year as he beat Marcello Borsellino in the finals of the US Open.

In Year 324, Sarmiento Roblez won the Australian Open, again beating out Caprara in the finals. The French Open was won by the previous year’s runner-up Pirovano, who beat Yatskay in a finals rematch. Tony Archer won his 4th consecutive Wimbledon title, beating (then) rising star Mjej Aghavelian in the finals. Carprara defended his title at the US Open, beating Andres Uson in the finals.

In Year 325, Roblez defended his Australian Open title, beating Putignani in the finals. Adam Preto won his first (and thus far only) Grand Slam at the French Open, beating Pirovano in the finals. For those keeping score, that’s 4 straight finals for Pirovano (he made the finals in Year 322 as well) but only 1 title at Roland Garros. The Archer era at Wimbledon came to an end this year as Andres Uson won his first Grand Slam, beating rising star John Elliot in the finals. Veteran star Marcello Borsellino won his first Grand Slam at age 28 by beating Uson in the finals, who comes in as a runner-up again.

In Year 326, Caprara finally won his first Australian Open title, beating Roblez and preventing a three-peat. Giotto Mansi was the surprise winner of the French Open as the #10 seed, beating another surprise finalist in #23 seed Pierre-Yves Poidebard. World #1 Caprara won his first Wimbledon title this year, beating last year’s runner-up Elliot in the finals.

Top 10

1. Gaspare Caprara, 26 years old, 13910 points: I’ve mentioned him a while back as a future world #1 and, true enough, he has reached the pinnacle. He has been the world #1 for 87 weeks and won 4 Grand Slams and 9 Masters titles to date. By far the best player in the world with a 10.43 rating, he has a good long reign at the #1 spot ahead of him.

2. Andres Uson, 25 years old, 10000 points: Uson is a distant 2nd although things could have been different if he had managed to win a couple more Grand Slams in the past year. He has 1 Grand Slam so far along with 2 Masters titles. Rated at 10.01.

3. Marcello Borsellino, age 29, 6220 points: Teo Rask used to be whipped by Borsellino and he continues to play strongly despite being the oldest man in the top 10. He finally won his first Grand Slam last year and has 4 Masters titles as well. Still the 4th best player in the world with a 9.97 rating.

4. Sarmiento Roblez, 26 years old, 5780 points: Roblez has actually reached the #1 spot before and held it for 39 weeks. He looks to be on his way down now since he has a 105% aging factor but it’s been a good career for him, with 2 Grand Slams and 6 Masters titles. Rated 9.69.

5. Mjej Aghavelian, 26 years old, 4970 points: A player that was on the way up as Teo Rask was on the way down, Mjej hasn’t won any major tournaments thus far although he did reach a Wimbledon finals in Year 324. Rated at 10.18, he still has time to win some titles.

6. Giotto Mansi, 26 years old, 4810 points: A one-time Grand Slam winner, Giotto Mansi is a relatively surprising top 10 player based on his rating (9.37). Let’s see if he can maintain his position this year.

7. Dominik Bigos, 25 years old, 4265 points: Rated at 9.78, Bigos is a top 10 player based on talent. Has not won any Majors yet though.

8. Burt Tinker, 25 years old, 3805 points: Another top 10 player based on talent (9.75 rating) who has not won a Major yet.

9. John Elliot, 24 years old, 3765 points: A potential top 5 player based on the fact that he’s the youngest player in the top 10 at this time and a 9.58 rating. Also no majors although he has reached a Wimbledon finals.

10. Adam Preto, 27 years old, 3245 points: Probably on the way out of the top 10, Preto has won 1 Grand Slam and 1 Major in his career. 9.49 rating.

As always, there’s a host of younger players that are making their way up the ranks. One of the most obvious potential top 10 players is Mark’s Igor Borowski (9.78 rating) and Christian Kulle (9.74 rating). Another one to look out for is 23 year old Kulovano (9.56 rating), 21 year old Weinberg (9.52 rating) and 21 year old Botosov (9.49 rating).

MarkBGregory · 05-06-2016, 04:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by britrock88

I'm enjoying the interaction between your guys and mine both on the court and in the Swedish/Argentinian rankings for WTC matches. Keep up the good work!

It's been an interesting year or so in game! Enjoying Borowski's rise and Kulle is just outside the top 32 now after a 250 win in his home country. Elezgueta has become static, won't break through now really.

MarkBGregory · 05-06-2016, 06:03 PM

With my last update coming after Week 45 in Year 325, I'll give a recap of what's been going on with my players in what has been roughly a year's worth of in-game action.

Juan Jose Elezgueta is really being hit hard by his 105% aging factor. The Argentinian has just turned 25, and started the year in 32nd in the world rankings - on the cusp of mandatory Masters entries, but also too high for Challenger entries - a tough place to be. During the course of the year, he's not dropped below 37th in the world, but he's also not been higher than 32nd. Stagnation at its very worst. Igor Borowski started the year in 33rd, and is now 23 years old. He's got a huge year ahead of him, as he currently sits 17th in the world after a gradual climb. Meanwhile, Christian Kulle has shot up the rankings from just inside the top 100 to 38th with a couple more weeks left to go. A year younger than Borowski but with a higher aging factor, this could be a big year for the Swede coming up too. Here's how it all went down:

Week 1 saw both Borowski and Elezgueta take part in the first round of the World Team Cup. Belarus were enjoying their second season at Level 2, and took on China in their first round match, with Borowski winning both his singles and his doubles match and leading Belarus to a 4-1 victory. Elezgueta meanwhile let Argentina down a little bit, struggling on the elected hard courts and losing in straight sets to Czech Dominik Bigos and then in five to Radek Stepanek, with the Argies also going down 3-2.

In Week 2, Christian Kulle enjoyed an unseeded title at a CH2 in Brazil, beating second seed Tiago Yoshida, another player who had come through the ranks with Elezgueta, in the final.

Week 4 saw all three players enter the Australian Open. Elezgueta was seeded 31st, while Borowski was seeded 32nd. Kulle, unseeded, was drawn against third seed Sarmiento Roblez and predictably lost, although going down 6-0 6-2 6-4 wasn't too disheartening. Elezgueta disappointed, having perennially struggled here, going out 6-2 6-4 6-4 to Hugh Heffernan of the States. Borowski fulfilled his seeding and made the third round, before losing to 8th seed Dominik Bigos in straight sets. Not a pretty tournament in general for my guys.

Week 6 saw Elezgueta and Borowski back in WTC action. Belarus took on The Netherlands, and Borowski won his first singles match easily and his doubles rubber, but fell 6-4 6-3 5-7 6-7(4) 6-3 to Sjors Versloot, who came up in the same age group as Elezgueta, leading to an eventual 3-2 defeat for the Belarussians despite leading 2-1 after the doubles. Elezgueta redeemed himself slightly on the grass courts of Germany, narrowly losing in five to Jan Dieter Eckener, the world #22, but beating world #30 Matthias Huber in straight sets to cap a 4-1 victory for the Argentines.

Week 7 saw Elezgueta and Kulle back in action, with Elezgueta competing in a 250 in Chile, while Kulle attempted a 250 of his own in Croatia. The Swede was drawn against 7th seed Tom Liekmar in the first round and narrowly went out 7-6 3-6 6-3, while Elezgueta, as seventh seed, reached the quarters before top seed Adam Preto finished him off in three sets. Kulle then entered another 250 in Week 8 in the US and went one better, reaching the second round, before taking a set off top seed Burt Tinker, but an unsuccessful couple of attempts at 250 level meant it was back to Challengers - for him for a while at least.

In Week 9, Elezgueta headed to Copa Claro, a 250 in which he had made the final last year. As fifth seed, the Argie ran into the man he lost to in that final, top seed Alexei Yatskay, and once again was defeated, 6-4 3-6 6-4. Meanwhile, Igor Borowski went unseeded to Memphis for an indoor 500 event, and was inches away from being the only non-American in the semis after a 6-4 2-6 6-3 defeat to third seed Stuart Legh.

Week 11, of course, was time for Indian Wells. Only Borowski entered, but he did well. As 32nd seed, he snuck a bye through the first round and beat Ning An in the second. Unseeded Mitch Renon was next - a player who had beaten 6th seed Arnaldo Pirovano in the previous round, and Borowski won comfortably 6-2 6-4 to set up a fourth round clash with 17th seed Juan Larran. As a clay court specialist, Larran, despite being slightly more skilled, was not enjoying the hard courts, and Borowski snuck a 7-5 7-6 win to reach the quarters. World #2 Andres Uson awaited and an inevitable 6-3 6-2 defeat followed.

In between Masters events in Week 12, Kulle headed to Sarajevo for an indoor CH2. As second seed, Kulle beat Tom Liekmar 6-1 6-2 in the final to wrap up some more vital points.

All three players were in action during Week 13. Kulle won another Ch2 Indoors (beating Ning An in the final), while Elezgueta won a CH2 in Morocco as the top seed, beating Gregorio Yapo in the final. Borowski, as expected, was at the Masters event in Miami, and was seeded 30th, coming through the first two rounds before 14th seed Feliciano Rebellin beat him 6-4 6-2.

Kulle's reputation and rise in rankings had seen him gain a place representing Sweden in the WTC third round robin match in Week 15. Sweden are also in the Top Level, like Argentina, and so it was big news for Kulle, who ended up winning both of his singles matches despite losing 3-2 overall against Latvia. Despite the result, the Swedes still qualified for the next round (winning just one of their three RR matches), while elsewhere Elezgueta could only summon one victory as Argentina slipped to a 3-2 defeat and exited the competition. Meanwhile, Borowski once again won both his singles matches in a 3-2 defeat to Serbia - but again, one victory and solid performances in defeat saw the Belarussians qualify for the knockout stages.

Then came the clay court season, and, hopefully, some respite for the struggling Elezgueta. The Argie entered the Monte Carlo Masters in Week 17 in an attempt to get his season back on track, but a rough draw saw him meet Sarmiento Roblez in the second round and go down without much of a fight.

To preserve form, Igor Borowski was forced to play some clay court 250 events, and one of those came in Week 19 in Munich. Borowski was seeded second and surprised a few by fulfilling that seeding to reach the final, before eventually losing to Matthias Huber 3-6 6-3 6-2.

In Week 20, Kulle went under the radar a little with a CH1 title in Korea, but it was finally Elezgueta's time to make waves in a big draw. Elezgueta entered the Madrid Masters unseeded, and in the second round he defeated 11th seed Burt Tinker in straight sets before securing a quite astonishing 6-4 3-6 6-3 victory over world #3 Sarmiento Roblez, whom he had lost to just three weeks ago in Monte Carlo. The Argie then met fellow non-seed Evan Farthing in the quarters but went down 6-4 6-4.

Elezgueta again showed his colours in Rome in Week 21, beating world #4 Marcello Borsellino in the second round, but couldn't back it up with victory against Aleksei Yatskay in the third, losing 6-2 6-7 6-3. Kulle again was in Challenger action, at a CH2, and lost to Arnold Jarvilaturi in the final.

After a couple weeks off, Borowski continued to capitalise on the weaker draws in the weeks before major tournaments by entering another German clay court 250, the Power Horse Cup, in Week 22. This time the Belarussian was top seed, but he unfortunately went down in the semis to fifth seed Tvrdislav Jovisevic 5-7 6-2 6-4.

Week 23 saw Elezgueta enter Roland Garros. On the back of some impressive performances in clay court Masters events, I was hopeful of a decent return. But Elezgueta just missed out on a seeding and was drawn yet again against Sarmiento Roblez in the first round, their third encounter in six weeks, and fourth in total. This time there would be no shock, with Roblez triumphing in straight sets.

A week before Wimbledon, in Week 26, Borowski entered a grass court 250 - another surface on which he's not hugely comfortable - to grab some form before the main event. Again, things went well, with Borowski seeded third, and the Belarussian reached the semis before losing 6-4 6-3 to Dominik Bigos.

Week 27: Wimbledon. Everyone entered. Kulle and Elezgueta, unseeded. Borowski seeded 25th. Kulle was drawn against Dominik Bigos in the first round, and the Czech completed the treble over my players with a straight sets victory, 6-3 7-6 6-3 - not a heavy loss by any means for the youngster. Elezgueta secured a morale-boosting first round victory against 30th seed Tomek Barys to make the second round, where he beat Armando Cuenca with ease before he too lost to Bigos in round three - although it was tight, 6-3 6-4 1-6 6-7 6-2. Borowski dropped just seven games in his opening two matches, before a 7-5 6-4 5-7 7-5 victory over rising star Adrian Weinberg took him into round four. His campaign ended in straight sets against Mjej Aghavelian.

Directly after Wimbledon, Elezgueta took part in the CH+ he had won last year in Week 28, successfully defending his title as the top seed. In Week 29, both Kulle and Borowski were back in action, with Kulle disappointing by only reaching the QFs of a CH1, while Borowski made another 250 semi-final on the grass of Newport, losing to top seed John Elliot.

Week 30 saw Kulle make up for his poor performance the previous week with a CH2 title in Canada as top seed, while in Week 31, Borowski, as second seed, once again made an American 250 semi-final before losing to an America, this time third seed William Holden.

With Kulle and Elezgueta recovering their form in practice events, Borowski was left to solely focus on the Masters events preceding the US Open. In Week 33, the Belarussian entered the Canada Masters unseeded, gaining instant revenge against 14th seed Feliciano Rebellin for his Miami defeat in Week 13 in the first round with a 6-7 7-6 6-2 victory. Matthias Huber was dispatched, again in three sets, in the second round, before two tiebreaks settled a rematch against John Elliot, which the Belarussian won. It was only 4th seed Marcello Borsellino who stopped the run of the Belarussian, and only just, with a 6-4 6-7 6-3 win.

Week 34 was Cincinnatti, and Borowski still couldn't find a seeding. Up against Sarmiento Roblez, the Belarussian went down in straight sets.

A quick flirting with a hard court 250 - the Winston Salem Open - for Elezgueta achieved a quarter-final finish in Week 35, before Slam time in Week 36 saw all three players enter. Elezgueta and Kulle remained unseeded, while Borowski picked up the 20th seeding. Kulle showed his chops in the first round, taking out 25th seed Stephen Peters 3-6 6-3 6-4 6-4, while Elezgueta also won, beating Borowski's old junior rival Santino Gott 7-6 6-3 7-6. Borowski eased past a qualifier in straight sets. Round two saw Borowski and Kulle easily through again, dropping just five and seven games respectively, but Elezgueta fell in four to 18th seed William Holden. The third round was the end of the line for both Kulle and Borowski, with Kulle being disapatched by Feliciano Rebellin and Borowski taking a set off world number one Gaspare Caprara before going down 4-6 7-6 6-1 6-2.

Week 38 saw the WTC quarter-finals, with both Sweden and Belarus in action. Kulle finally got the chance to team up with britrock's Sean Mendez, despite it being on clay, and the pair both secured wins over Polish Krzyzstof Hendzel which helped scrape Sweden through 3-2 over Poland. Borowski's Belarus, meanwhile, faced Estonia, and Borowski was the hero on clay(!), winning both his singles matches (one against world #19 Arnold Burgermeister) and his doubles match to put Belarus in contention for promotion to the highest tier with a 3-2 victory. Great stuff.

The semi-finals weren't far away, but Week 39 saw Kulle again in action, stepping back up to 250 level. The Swede made the quarters of the St Petersburg Open (unseeded) before losing to Aleksei Yatskay (anyone feel like everyone has been losing to literally the same players all year???), while Elezgueta picked up another Challenger title on clay as the top seed.

Week 40 saw the WTC semis. For Kulle and Sweden, it was a nightmare. Mendez, ranked 34th, and Kulle, ranked 46th, took on Roblez, ranked 4th, and Caprara, ranked 1st, of the United States. On Clay. Without too much detail, Sweden lost 5-0. For Borowski and Belarus - utter heartbreak. Borowski again was the hero in Singles, winning both his matches against Slovakian opposition, but a 7-5 3-6 6-4 2-6 8-6 defeat in the doubles was the deciding factor. Never mind; Belarus still could earn promotion if they win their playoff at the close of the season.

Elezgueta has taken part in tournaments in every week since Week 40, in order to bolster his form before the close season. It's been a bit of a letdown, with a CH2 title followed by a first round exit at the Shanghai Masters. A 250 semi-final appearance was then followed by a 500 first round exit: quite demonstrative of Elezgueta's season - too good for Challengers but not good enough to make it big. Borowski just entered the Shanghai Masters and was one place away from a seeding. Unfortunately, he lost to unseeded Falko Gimelstob in round one anyway, his worst performance for a long time. The real story of the last couple weeks was Christian Kulle' debut 250 title in Sweden - as sixth seed, he beat second seed Arnold Burgermeister in the semis before a 7-6 4-6 7-5 victory (from 0-3 down in the decider) against Fabio Fagnini sealed things.

I got carried away there. Hope you enjoyed the round-up. Borowski with a semi-final appearance (from qualifying) to defend at the Paris Masters next week, before huge WTC playoffs to come for Belarus. ALLEZ!

law90026 · 05-06-2016, 08:32 PM

Great write-up!

ntndeacon · 07-06-2016, 03:15 PM

My younger players, Dragos Patrescu of Romania , just entered the legends of Romania. Getting up to a high of 32 in singles and 97 in doubles.

law90026 · 08-17-2016, 12:16 PM

Soooooo a long belated update? I'm still playing the game and currently have players on both RR2 and RR10. RR2 is the most competitive world and there is a real difference in terms of how far your players can go between the 2 worlds.

RR2

My last update was year 326. It's now year 338 so it's an entirely new generation of players.

My current #1 is 27 year old Dean Ho from Singapore. He's the current world #3, an achievement I'm really proud of on RR2. Over his career thus far, he has won 3 Masters titles (2 in Monte Carlo, 1 in Canada) and was a runner up in the recent Australian Open. He has also been a runner-up in 4 other Masters events. There is an outside chance that he might make to #1 in RR2 if everything breaks his way.

The interesting thing about Dean and this adds credence to what MarkBGregory posted in the other thread re player selection is that Dean had high talent and endurance at his peak but his athletic ability was average/mediocre. However, he was able to overcome this with strong training and a really high mentality.

My #2 is 20 year old Daniel Anatasov of Bulgaria, currently ranked #262 in singles. It's his 2nd year out of the juniors and he should be able to make the breakthrough into the top 200 by the next year. However, I don't have super high hopes for him overall.

2 juniors round out the crop, 17 year old Argentinian Jose Luis Estete and 15 year old Fernando Madruga.

I have 20 days to go for my VIP package on RR2 and I'm contemplating whether to re-up. It was a lot easier a few weeks back when it seemed like my players were headed nowhere but the recent success of Dean suggests that it may be worth competing on this world still.

RR10

So we start RR10 with a summary of my former #1 player Evgeni Katenin of Russia. He's now 30 years old and had a 104% aging factor so he's deteriorating fast now, although he did manage to be a top 10 player for quite a few years. He was a former #1 junior and peaked at #3 in the world. Currently he's #21 but he's been losing early'ish in most Majors so the writing is clearly on the wall.

In terms of his wins, he won 1 US Open (and was runner-up in another), won 3 Masters (Miami, Canada and Shanghai) and had significant achievements in mostly hardcourt tournaments. What was frustrating for his career was that, at his peak, he was consistently matched up with a world #1 player, Shyam Sandy, and he was rarely able to beat him. If the draws had been slightly more favourable, I suspect Evgeni would have won more.

Then we go on to my current top players, world #4 Rio Cavaleiro and #7 Edmundo Alcoforado, both from Brazil. Based on Brian's ranking system, they would be the 2nd and 4th best players in the world. Both are 23 but with high aging factors so their peak is fast approaching, if not already past.

Rio has, to date, won 1 Masters (Cincinnati), was runner-up in a French Open, a World Tour Finals and 2 Masters.

Edmundo has had a little less success so far but his time seems to be coming, with recent SF appearances in the French Open and Australian Open.

Final player is 22 year old Heath Kidwell from the US, ranked #40. He's slowly moving up the ranks and should make the top 32 by year's end I suspect.

law90026 · 08-17-2016, 10:52 PM

RR2
So apparently I'm prescient. Dean Ho has become world #1 in RR2, although it's largely due to a relatively weak top 10 crop at this time I suspect (the really good players are older and weaker and the newer generation hasn't made it push yet). Still, I'm going to take it as an achievement!

The jump from #3 to #1 arises because Dean won the US Open, his first Grand Slam title. There were signs he was close when he came in 2nd in the year's Australian Open and it's good to see him push through and win the final Grand Slam of the year.

He achieved this by cruising through the first 3 rounds without dropping a set. In the 4th round, he faced off against #23 seed Beccatini and he won 6/4, 7/6(3), 4/6, 6/3. It was a close match, closer than the scoreline indicated. The QFs was another tough one as he faced off against #5 seed Gareth Sprunt, an American playing on homesoil, but Dean won 7/6(6), 4/6, 6/2, 6/4. The SFs was against #18 seed Jorgen Bjornstrand and this was a straighforward win, 6/3 6/2 7/5. The finals opponent was #20 seed Octavi Armamino, who had beaten world #1 Maxim Kot in the SFs in a crazy 5-setter (7/5 3/6 7/6(4) 3/6 7/6(4)) but it took a lot of him and Dean beat him comfortably, 6/4 7/6(9) 7/5. Dean was lucky since a lot of seeds were knocked out but you can only beat who is in front of you!

RR10

Over at RR10, the most recent tournament was the Monte Carlo Masters, where #4 seed Rio Cavaleiro reached the finals before losing to #3 seed Falco Campisi. Falco had also despatched #5 seed Edmundo Alcoforado in the SFs.

The clay season is about to begin in RR10, as we have the Madrid and Rome Masters coming up then the French Open. I have some hopes that the 2 Brazilians will be able to make some noise during this stretch.

law90026 · 09-11-2017, 03:12 AM

A reboot

I took a long hiatus from RR10 after my 2 Brazilians began to slowdown and only recently started playing again. This time I'm on RR6.

The players
19 year old Omar Al-Sadat from Isreal: Currently ranked #293 after completing his first year in the pros. He probably won't get too far in the grand scheme of things but is a placeholder until I find a replacement youngster to train.

14 year old Luca Caliari from Switzerland: My recent junior pick-up from the newgens with a potential TESS rating of 16! Banking on him to do well in the long-term.

I'm keeping an eye on a created player that was abandoned but still on the hiring freeze clock at this time, will see if I can pick him up.

04-06-2016, 07:18 AM	#113
MarkBGregory n00b Join Date: Apr 2016 Location: Cyprus	Juan Jose Elezgueta A difficult start to the season has just about levelled out for the Argentinian, and he's now par for the course: he finished last year ranked 119th, and he's dragged himself back up to 118th with three decent performances at Challenger level. Week 9 saw him take part in the CH2 on the clay of Meknes, Morocco. Unseeded, he took out 6th seed Joao Rodriguez in the first round and eased past Frank Luxa in the second, before a comprehensive 6-0 6-1 defeat to top seed Gregorio Yapo stopped his run in its tracks. Two weeks later he was in Chile at another CH2, and once again got drawn against Joao Rodriguez in the first round. This time he lost 4-6 7-5 6-2. Undeterred, a CH2 in Marrakesh two weeks later finally bore fruit. Again coming from an unseeded position, Elezgueta took out the second seed in the first round, the fifth seed in the quarters and the sixth seed in the semis before finally losing 7-6(7) 6-3 to top seed Giotto Mansi in the final. Elezgueta then entered the Monte Carlo Masters this week, and did nicely to come through qualifying and win his first round match before coming up against 4th seed and world #6 Feliciano Putignani in the second. A decent performance from the Argentinian, but an expected defeat in the end, 7-5 7-6(2). I sense he's not far away from breaking through to the elite. Igor Borowski Borowski's ranking has been boosted by three wins at World Team Cup level since the Australian Open, adding 75 vital points to his ranking. Despite being two years younger, the Belarussian isn't far behind Elezgueta at 157th right now. He's entered two tournaments aside from the WTC since the AO, reaching the SFs of a CH2 in Japan Indoors, seeded #3, and last week reaching the QFs of a CH3 in America as fifth seed, losing to eventual champion Stuart Legh, seeded 4th. Christian Kulle Kulle continues to rise through the Futures ranks, having played two tournaments since the last update and winning both. At a FT3 in Tunisia, he came through unseeded to the final and beat Jurgen Adler 6-0 6-0(!), and a few weeks later stepped up a level to FT2 in his homeland of Sweden. Seeded seventh, he came through again to the final before beating second seed Duana Brockless 6-2 6-2. Last edited by MarkBGregory : 04-06-2016 at 07:19 AM.

05-05-2016, 09:08 AM	#143
law90026 College Benchwarmer Join Date: Jan 2006	So it’s been too long since I updated. Here we go with a quick summary of what’s happening in world 2. Grand Slams Update So the last update was at the end of year 322 and we are currently actually in week 36 of year 326. Without going into too much detail, here’s what happened. In Year 323, the Australian Open was won by Feliciano Putignani, who beat out Gaspare Caprara in the finals. This marked the transition from the Dotto era into a new hyper-competitive era which saw the #1 spot change hands multiple times. At the French Open, Aleksei Yatskay beat Arnaldo Pirovano in the finals. Wimbledon remains the favourite hunting ground for Tony Archer as he won his 3rd straight title, beating home favourite Milton Aguilar in the finals. Caprara did manage to win his first Grand Slam this year as he beat Marcello Borsellino in the finals of the US Open. In Year 324, Sarmiento Roblez won the Australian Open, again beating out Caprara in the finals. The French Open was won by the previous year’s runner-up Pirovano, who beat Yatskay in a finals rematch. Tony Archer won his 4th consecutive Wimbledon title, beating (then) rising star Mjej Aghavelian in the finals. Carprara defended his title at the US Open, beating Andres Uson in the finals. In Year 325, Roblez defended his Australian Open title, beating Putignani in the finals. Adam Preto won his first (and thus far only) Grand Slam at the French Open, beating Pirovano in the finals. For those keeping score, that’s 4 straight finals for Pirovano (he made the finals in Year 322 as well) but only 1 title at Roland Garros. The Archer era at Wimbledon came to an end this year as Andres Uson won his first Grand Slam, beating rising star John Elliot in the finals. Veteran star Marcello Borsellino won his first Grand Slam at age 28 by beating Uson in the finals, who comes in as a runner-up again. In Year 326, Caprara finally won his first Australian Open title, beating Roblez and preventing a three-peat. Giotto Mansi was the surprise winner of the French Open as the #10 seed, beating another surprise finalist in #23 seed Pierre-Yves Poidebard. World #1 Caprara won his first Wimbledon title this year, beating last year’s runner-up Elliot in the finals. Top 10 1. Gaspare Caprara, 26 years old, 13910 points: I’ve mentioned him a while back as a future world #1 and, true enough, he has reached the pinnacle. He has been the world #1 for 87 weeks and won 4 Grand Slams and 9 Masters titles to date. By far the best player in the world with a 10.43 rating, he has a good long reign at the #1 spot ahead of him. 2. Andres Uson, 25 years old, 10000 points: Uson is a distant 2nd although things could have been different if he had managed to win a couple more Grand Slams in the past year. He has 1 Grand Slam so far along with 2 Masters titles. Rated at 10.01. 3. Marcello Borsellino, age 29, 6220 points: Teo Rask used to be whipped by Borsellino and he continues to play strongly despite being the oldest man in the top 10. He finally won his first Grand Slam last year and has 4 Masters titles as well. Still the 4th best player in the world with a 9.97 rating. 4. Sarmiento Roblez, 26 years old, 5780 points: Roblez has actually reached the #1 spot before and held it for 39 weeks. He looks to be on his way down now since he has a 105% aging factor but it’s been a good career for him, with 2 Grand Slams and 6 Masters titles. Rated 9.69. 5. Mjej Aghavelian, 26 years old, 4970 points: A player that was on the way up as Teo Rask was on the way down, Mjej hasn’t won any major tournaments thus far although he did reach a Wimbledon finals in Year 324. Rated at 10.18, he still has time to win some titles. 6. Giotto Mansi, 26 years old, 4810 points: A one-time Grand Slam winner, Giotto Mansi is a relatively surprising top 10 player based on his rating (9.37). Let’s see if he can maintain his position this year. 7. Dominik Bigos, 25 years old, 4265 points: Rated at 9.78, Bigos is a top 10 player based on talent. Has not won any Majors yet though. 8. Burt Tinker, 25 years old, 3805 points: Another top 10 player based on talent (9.75 rating) who has not won a Major yet. 9. John Elliot, 24 years old, 3765 points: A potential top 5 player based on the fact that he’s the youngest player in the top 10 at this time and a 9.58 rating. Also no majors although he has reached a Wimbledon finals. 10. Adam Preto, 27 years old, 3245 points: Probably on the way out of the top 10, Preto has won 1 Grand Slam and 1 Major in his career. 9.49 rating. As always, there’s a host of younger players that are making their way up the ranks. One of the most obvious potential top 10 players is Mark’s Igor Borowski (9.78 rating) and Christian Kulle (9.74 rating). Another one to look out for is 23 year old Kulovano (9.56 rating), 21 year old Weinberg (9.52 rating) and 21 year old Botosov (9.49 rating). Last edited by law90026 : 05-05-2016 at 09:10 AM.

07-06-2016, 03:15 PM	#147
ntndeacon Pro Starter Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Alabama	My younger players, Dragos Patrescu of Romania , just entered the legends of Romania. Getting up to a high of 32 in singles and 97 in doubles. __________________ Up the Posh!

04-02-2016, 11:15 AM	#101
law90026 College Benchwarmer Join Date: Jan 2006	Year 322 Weeks 41 to 45 (or more or less the end of the season!) Teo Rask Teo's season has come to an end save for maybe some doubles matches to maintain form after this. The full-season analysis will be a different post but suffice to say Teo ended the year at #21 just 3 points away from the #20 spot. At the Shanghai Masters, Teo went out in the 2nd round to #12 seed Lopezcastro. He then defended his title at the 250 indoor event in Stockholm, beating Jean Paul Demercastel in 3 sets in the finals (5/7 7/6⁵ 6/2). The final Masters of the year was at Paris and it was a little disappointing for Teo here as he went out in the 2nd round (he reached the 3rd round last year). He faced off against eventual runner-up Marcello Borsellino in the 2nd round and lost 7/6³ 6/4. Ghazi Mehmett Just one tournament during this period, a clay FT3 in Brazil. Ghazi reached the QFs but was knocked out there. He goes up to #654 in the world after that.

04-03-2016, 12:41 PM	#102
law90026 College Benchwarmer Join Date: Jan 2006	End of Year 322 Review Teo Rask The goals were: 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) Teo actually managed to finish the year in the #19 spot as a player ahead of him dropped some points after week 45 (probably from challenger events). So success in an anti-climatic fashion! For Teo's Grand Slam performances, it was a fail as Teo managed 4 3rd-round exits for a total of 360 points. There was a level of consistency here but it would have been nice to see a big push in 1 of the Grand Slams. For the Masters, Teo managed 540 points so he succeeded here. Similarly, it was consistently 2nd or 3rd round exits here for a total of 540 points. For the other tournaments, Teo actually managed 1,360 points so just a little off last year's total. Overall, Teo probably played around the level expected. I would expect to see something similar this year so similar goals: The goals this year are: 1. Stay in the top 20 2. Maintain or better the Grand Slam performances (360 points) 3. Better the Masters performances (540 points) 4. Maintain or better the 500/250 performances (1,360 points) Ghazi Mehmett Ghazi just fails to make the top 500 as he finishes the year #540 in the world. He is close and should be able to push in this year. My expectations are for Ghazi to finish the year in the 200s so that he can push for Challengers next year. Claude Curtayne Claude's juniors career comes to an end. He was ranked as high as #19 but finished #30 in the world. He won 4 junior singles tournaments and 17 doubles tournaments, including the Wimbledon junior doubles title with Vittorio Annunzio. I think Claude enters the pro ranks more developed than Ghazi so I'm setting a top 500 goal for him as well.

04-03-2016, 01:14 PM	#103
law90026 College Benchwarmer Join Date: Jan 2006	End of Year Summary The Australian Open was won by world #1 Valentino Dotto, beating world #4 Bill Comfort in straight sets in the finals. Dotto continued his good start to the year by winning the first Masters, Indian Wells, beating world #10 Daniel Mamine in the finals. At the Miami Masters, it was world #2 Tony Archer that won the title, beating world #6 Feliciano Putignani in the finals. Eventual world #9 Aleksei Yatskay beat eventual world #5 Arnaldo Pirovano in the Monte Carlo Masters. Pirovano showed that he was a growing force to reckon with though as he won the Madrid Masters, beating world #3 Gianluca Barrafuldi in the finals. The Rome Masters was a bit of an odd one as the finals was contested by world #9 Ferdinand Duran and world #11 Ene Colon, after Dotto and Archer were upset in the early stages. Colon won this tournament, his first Masters title. This was a precursor for the French Open, where both Dotto and Archer were knocked out in the 3rd round. It was an all-Argentinean final as world #3 Barrafuldi faced off against compatriot and world #5 Pirovano in the finals. This time, Barrafuldi prevailed, taking revenge for the earlier Masters loss in Madrid and taking home his 3rd French Open title. At Wimbledon, it was #2 Archer that won the title but he faced off against Pirovano, who made another Grand Slam finals. A very good strong year for Pirovano but he was unable to prevail against Archer, who might possibly be the best player on the tour right now. With this, Archer defends his Wimbledon title. At the Canada Masters, world #4 Bill Comfort beat #2 Archer in the finals. It's Comfort's first Masters title. The Cincinnati Masters saw #1 Dotto and #2 Archer face off in the finals and Archer prevailed in 3 sets. The gap between the 2 is getting smaller and we may see the change in the top spot sooner rather than later. Of course, Dotto then proceeds to win the US Open after that, beating #4 Comfort in the finals. This is Dotto's 4th successive title here, an impressive streak. At the Shanghai Masters, the top 4 seeds all got bounced by the 3rd round. It left #9 Ferdinand Duran to face off against #6 Feliciano Putignani in the finals and Duran came out the winner. It's Duran's first Masters title while Putignani is still searching for his first one. The last Masters of the year at Paris was won by #1 Dotto, beating #7 Marcello Borsellino in the finals. At the WTF Finals, it was #2 Archer that won the title, beating #7 Borsellino in the finals. Overall, it was a more open year this time around. While Dotto continues to reign at the top, he only managed 2 Grand Slams (Australian and US) and 2 Masters titles this year, which is a far cry from previous years. Instead, we see the next generation begin to press hard, with Archer closing the gap at the top to just 600 points by year's end and with other players like Comfort, Pirovano and Putignani also beginning to make regular appearances in Masters and Grand Slam finals. Year End Top 10 #1 Points: 9,390 Valentino Dotto Age: 28 #2 Points: 8,790 Tony Archer Age: 26, #3 Points: 7,010 Gianluca Baruffaldi Age: 29 #4 Points: 6,840 Bill Comfort Age: 26 #5 Points: 6,230 Arnaldo Pirovano Age: 25 #6 Points: 5,150 Feliciano Putignani Age: 26 #7 Points: 5,030 Marcello Borsellino Age: 25 #8 Points: 4,815 Ferdinand Durán Age: 24 #9 Points: 3,925 Aleksei Yatskay Age: 27 #10 Points: 3,890 Danil Mamine Age: 26

04-03-2016, 01:26 PM	#104
law90026 College Benchwarmer Join Date: Jan 2006	So some shoutouts for other FOFC people in RR World 2: Britrock's guys continue to be strong. Mendez and Lebydenko ended the year at #15 and #20 respectively. I expect Mendez to continue to improve on that this year. Ntndeacon's Arbizu looks like he might have a decent year ahead as well. He's currently ranked #59 but he's got talent to move up more although he is getting a little older. I'm also following digamma's Hein Siedler closely. Hein finished as the #11 ranked junior in the world and he will be starting his professional career at the same time as Claude Curtayne.

04-03-2016, 02:14 PM	#105
MarkBGregory n00b Join Date: Apr 2016 Location: Cyprus	A quick update on my three players in GW2 as well: Juan José Elezgueta is entering his 22nd year and is hovering just outside the top 100. This year, he's planning to enter the majority of the Grand Slams, starting with the Australian Open in Week 4, although his clay court specialism will probably see him do best at Roland Garros. I'm hoping for him to break the top 50 this year, although his lack of stamina will continue to hold him back and may mean he never gets further than that. Milestones: Elezgueta won his first Challenger title this year, a CH2 in his homeland in Buenos Aires, defeating the 1st, 3rd and 4th seeds along the way. Igor Borowski graduated from the junior tour two years after Elezgueta, but is already ranked 289th in the world, having played just 13 tournaments last year. He's the fifth highest ranked 19-year-old at the turn of the year. He'll also be entering the Australian Open, as he's a hard court specialist, and that will enable him to assess what his target needs to be for the upcoming year. I'd like to see him inside the top 100, but it's a big target for such a young player. Milestones: Borowski had an amazing end to the year, winning 6 Futures titles, including two FT2s, in the last six months, climbing from outside the top 500 to inside the top 300 in the process. Christian Kulle finished his final year of junior eligibility with aplomb: he won the final JGA in Casablanca and ended up #1 in the junior rankings. He's only played one senior tournament so far, so he's ranked well outside the top 1500 in the world, but I'm hoping a year similar to Borowski's should take him closer to the top 200-300 by the end of the year. Milestones: Kulle won three Junior Slams: the Australian Open, US Open and the Casablanca Cup.

04-03-2016, 07:54 PM	#106
law90026 College Benchwarmer Join Date: Jan 2006	Nice results Mark!

04-04-2016, 04:33 AM	#107
MarkBGregory n00b Join Date: Apr 2016 Location: Cyprus	Thanks law! Mixed results at the start of the new year, I'll update once the Australian Open is over.

04-04-2016, 10:12 AM	#108
MarkBGregory n00b Join Date: Apr 2016 Location: Cyprus	I've leave Law to do a full update, but I'll catch you up on the first few weeks for my lads, now the Australian Open is over. Juan Jose Elezgueta has had a pretty crap start to the year, to be honest. It's now been three years since he graduated the junior tour, and so he'll be turning 22 this year. He's a clay court specialist from Argentina, with a fondness for grass too, but I thought I'd enter him into the Australian Open, to see what sort of impact he could make on the hard courts. I expected him to have to qualify for the main draw, therefore picking up some decent experience and ranking points, but he snuck into the main draw as the last direct acceptance, which kinda sucked. He promptly got beaten by Latvian Varis Ozols in the first round. The following week, he entered a clay court CH2 Challenger, much more up his street. Unfortunately, it seemed to be quite a strong field, and Elezgueta was unseeded and played the 2nd seed Gregorio Yapo in the first round, losing 6-7(4) 6-4 6-1. Thanks to a Futures title dropping off his ranking from last year, he's actually slipped five places in the rankings to #124. Igor Borowski has had a completely different set of results. Borowski only graduated from the junior tour last year, but his stats already looked decent enough to enter the Australian Open. Ranked #295, he had to come through qualifying, but did so nicely without dropping a set, before a completely unexpected 6-3 7-5 6-3 first round victory against Canadian Alan Lockett gave him a place in the second round. He played Falko Gimelstob, who was in the same junior year as Elezgueta, and lost 7-6(2) 6-7(4) 6-2 7-5 in a decent performance. The following week he entered a FT1 Futures event Indoors in his home country of Belarus. Because the AO lasts two weeks, his points from the competition hadn't come on yet, so he was only seeded 5th, but he still managed to come through to the final before losing to Victor Baiao 5-7 6-4 6-4. The two week boon means Borowski climbed 90(!) places to #205 in the world - still eligible for Futures but not far from competing at Challenger level. And, an added bonus - he was called up for his country in the World Team Cup this week too! Christian Kulle is no longer a junior #1 - he's now fighting to see where he belongs in the big leagues. He's only played one event so far this year, in the same week as the Australian Open - a FT3 Futures on Hard in Belgium. He had to qualify for the main draw, but had an excellent week, reaching the final before losing to the top seed Nicolas Della Longa 6-3 6-4 in the final. He's up to #1110 in the world now, still a long way to go. I also hired a fourth player, German Harald Babbel, who looks okay in terms of Talent and Endurance but could use some work mentally and physically. I'll probably drop him as soon someone half decent comes along, but I'm training him up as normal for now.

04-04-2016, 12:34 PM	#109
law90026 College Benchwarmer Join Date: Jan 2006	Year 323 Weeks 1 to 6 Teo Rask The year for Teo starts with a WTC match for Sweden against France. As has been the case in recent times, Teo and Sean Mendez play singles for Sweden and they are up against #27 Jean Paul Demercastel and #55 Pierre-Yves Poidebard. It's a close one as Sweden win 3-2 and Teo plays the part of the hero this time by winning both his singles and Mendez winning his match against Poidebard. Elsewhere, ntndeacon's Joaquim Arbizu plays for Ecuador and they lose to Russia 3-2. Arbizu actually beat world #9 Aleksei Yatskay but lost to world #10 Danil Mamine, splitting his matches. Compatriot and world #8 Ferdinand Duran also split his matches and it was over when the Ecuadorian doubles lost as well. Off next to the Sydney 250 for some form and Teo reaches the QFs before losing to world #16 Sarmiento Roblez. A fair result against one of the best young players in the game. At the Australian Open, Teo cruised to the 3rd round where he faced off against world #11 Mario Avendano (who was a mainstay in the top 5 for a long period). Teo loses in straight sets but he matches last year's results again. Britrock's Sean Mendez was upset in the first round by another up and coming star in Uson but Lebydenko reaches the 3rd round before being knocked out by #12 Ene Colon. Arbizu had an unfortunate draw, going up against world #2 Tony Archer in the first round and he stood no chance. ntndeacon's other player, Benavediz, ran through the qualifiers but was knocked out in the first round as well. Mark has helpfully covered his players in this tournament! Remember how I said we might be seeing a change in the #1 spot soon? This is where it happens as Dotto is knocked out in the QFs by #7 Marcello Borsellino. Tony Archer reaches the SFs but that swing is sufficient to propel Archer to the #1 spot in the world. This was a tournament which I think shows the changing in the guard is taking place as #6 Feliciano Putignani wins his first Grand Slam, beating a super-talented 22 year old, Gaspare Caprera, in the finals. Teo then heads off for another WTC match and Sweden crushes Brazil 5-0 overall. This should mean that Sweden will top their group as their final match is against a Bolivian team that has seen better days as they currently field the #211 and #777 players in the world for singles. It's the 2 big 500 indoor tournaments up next for Teo so good luck to him. Ghazi Mehmett Just one tournament for Ghazi during this period and it was disappointing as he was bounced in the first round of a FT3 in Brazil for both singles and doubles. He will be playing another FT3 in week 7 and hoping for a better result. Claude Curtayne Similarly, just 1 tournament for Claude as he takes part in his first amateur tournament but there was a lot of tennis to be played. He had to play qualifiers for both singles and doubles and reached the SFs for singles and QFs for doubles, playing a total of 11 matches. While he was beaten soundly in the SFs, he was exhausted by then, but a fair enough result for Claude in his first non-junior tournament (not counting a scheduling mistake I made a long time ago). This pushes him to #2098 in singles and his grind begins as well.

04-04-2016, 12:51 PM	#110
law90026 College Benchwarmer Join Date: Jan 2006	So just a quick look at some of the best young players coming up through the ranks right now using Brian's ranking system: 1. Tony Archer is the best player with a 10.21 rating. At 26 years old, he's probably around his peak. 2. The recent Australian Open finalist, Caprara, is 22 years old and a 10.11, with a -3% aging factor! Odds are high he's going to be a future no. 1. 3. Marcello Borsellino, 25 years old, is at 10.06 and already ranked #7 in the world. 4. Putignani, the winner of the Australian Open, is 9.99 at age 26. 5. 22 year old Mjej Aghavelian is ranked #33 in the world and rated at 9.78. 6. 25 year old Milton Aguilar may have had the boat sail past him as he hasn't been able to break into the top 10 and others are now coming up past him. Rated at 9.74. 7. Sarmiento Roblez, 22 years old and ranked #16, is rated at 9.71. He has a 5% aging factor though so he might already be peaking/peaked. 8. Ferdinand Duran, 24 years old, is #8 and rated 9.68 but he has a 2% aging factor. 9. Juan Larran, #27 and rated 9.62, is 23 but his 4% aging factor will be a hurdle for him at this stage. As a reference, Sean Mendez is at 9.54 while Teo Rask is only a 9.22. Arbizu is a 9.01 while Lebydenko is a 9.22 as well. I have to say though that Mark's guys look good! Elezgueta, at age 21, is a 9.28 rated player although his 4% aging factor is a potential issue. Borowski, at age 19, is 8.79, so already potentially a top 100 player.

04-04-2016, 02:17 PM	#111
MarkBGregory n00b Join Date: Apr 2016 Location: Cyprus	Thanks Law! Yeah, that's the problem with all three of my seniors - they all have positive aging factors, even Borowski at 101%. But, we'll see I guess!

04-06-2016, 03:47 AM	#112
law90026 College Benchwarmer Join Date: Jan 2006	Year 323 Weeks 7 to 16 Teo Rask So Teo’s season is starting to fall apart a little at this early stage. Not sure if it’s an indication he’s beginning to fall back based on age but staying in the top 30 this year may be a more realistic goal than staying in the top 20. After the Australian Open, Teo was off to the Rotterdam 500 event, a place he has made 2 consecutive finals. This year though, he was knocked out in the 2nd round, albeit by rising star Lucas Coscino in 3 close sets. Here, Britrock’s Sean Mendez made the QFs before losing to world #4 Gianluca Barrafuldi. Teo didn’t take part in the Memphis 500 this year, electing instead to take part in the Open 13 250 event. Here he made the SFs as the #1 seed before losing to #6 seed Jean Paul Demercastel in the SFs. Week 11 was Indian Wells, where Teo was seeded #22. He made the 3rd round before facing off against world #2 Dotto and was beaten 6/2, 6/4. This was a tournament where youth again showed its strength as the finalists were Sarmiento Roblez and Gaspare Carprara, with Roblez winning his first Masters. Sean Mendez and Andrei Lebydenko also made the 3rd round before losing to Timmy Toy (a mild upset over Sean Mendez) and world #1 Tony Archer respectively. Joaquim Arbizu also took part but was knocked out in the 2nd round by Timmy Toy. Week 13 was the next Masters at Miami. Teo was upset by Frank Maydon in the 2nd round and he loses yet more ranking points in the first half of the year. #7 seed Marcello Borsellino won this tournament, beating #5 seed Putignani in the finals. Sean Mendez and Andrei Lebydenko were also both upset in the 2nd round by unseeded Luca Granda and Nikalaos Metaxas respectively. Week 15 was the final WTC Group match for Sweden against Bolivia. Remember how I said it should be an easy win? I was wrong as Sweden was upset 3-2, behind the strong play of world #158 Francisco Olbera. Olbera is a 32 year old former world #3 but there’s really no reason for both Teo and Mendez to lose to him. Still, Sweden top the group and will face Spain in the QFs. Spain currently field world #25 Lucas Coscino (who has a 3-1 record over Teo) and world #23 Adam Preto for singles and former world #1 Antonio Filho plays doubles. It will be a tough match. Teo had a distinct lack of form so he took part in the Hassan II 250 event, where he was seeded #2. Shock upset in the 2nd round though as he loses to world #82 Shao Hoo-gwo, who admittedly had a good tournament as he reached the SFs before losing to #5 seed Frank Maydon. Teo is still ranked #20 although I expect that to drop a little more. Where to from here? He won’t be taking part in Monte Carlo in light of his current state of play and will be looking towards finding form for the clay Masters coming up. Ghazi Mehmett Ghazi took part in 4 tournaments during this period, all FT3 events. In Israel, he reached the SFs of the singles draw, before losing to Ivo Almayda 6/3, 6/3. In Ghana, he again reached the SFs before losing to Joaquin Amelgueta 6/2, 6/3. The Hungary FT3 was disappointing as he was dumped in the 2nd round. He made up for that in a France FT3, as he reached the finals before losing to Lugomir Sekanic 6/3, 6/4. The most recent result should push Ghazi somewhere into the bottom half of the 400s. He will probably take part in a few more FT3s to see how he does before considering whether to move up to FT2s in the 2nd half of the year. Claude Curtayne Claude took part in just 1 amateur tournament during this period and he won it comfortably. I suspect he’s actually ready for FT3s but I think I will let him take part in 1 more amateur tournament first before making the switch. Currently ranked #1525 in the world.

04-07-2016, 11:27 PM	#114
law90026 College Benchwarmer Join Date: Jan 2006	Year 323 Week 17 to 26 Teo Rask At a 250 event in Bucharest, Teo restored a little stability to his season by reaching the finals as the #1 seed before losing to #2 seed Feliciano Rebellin in the finals, 4/6, 6/1, 6/2. Rebellin is a 22 year old that is rising up the ranks quite quickly and is talented (9.42 rating), so not really too upset about the loss although a win would have been even better of course. Then 2 successive 1st round exits at the Madrid and Rome Masters made me seriously consider pulling Teo from singles play and start focusing on becoming a trainer. Just poor overall. A bunch of FOFC players took part but Lebydenko and Elezgueta were all knocked out in the 1st round as well. Sean Mendez made a good run though, reaching the QFs and claiming the scalp of world #7 Putignani in the 3rd round before losing to unseeded Jean Paul Demercastel, the 30 year old who just won’t go away! The tournament was won by world #2 Arnaldo Pirovano, who crushed Feliciano Rebellin in the finals. See what I mean when I say Rebellin is a talented player? In Rome, besides Teo, Sean Mendez was also upset in the 1st round, losing to #11 seed Danil Mamine. That’s the problem in the smaller Masters tournaments where there are only 16 seeds, it becomes a crapshoot for everyone else. Lebydenko made the 2nd round before losing to world #1 Tony Archer. Joaquim Arbizu lost in the first round to Burt Tinker. Success for the tournament goes to Elezgueta, who reached the 3rd round before falling to world #3 Dotto. This was a tournament won by world #2 Pirovano, so back to back Masters titles for him and he beat world #10 Sarmiento Roblez in the finals. In order to find some form before the French Open, Teo then took part in the 250 Power Horse Cup. However, the #2 seed lost in the QFs to Magui Pitillas, so another early’ish exit for him. Then, a pleasant surprise for Teo in the French Open. Seeded #22, he cruised in the first round, beating a qualifier 6/0, 6/2, 6/1. In the 2nd round, he faced a former junior world #1 in Matthias Huber 7/5, 6/1, 7/5. This set up a match against #14 seed Antonio Lopezcastro and Teo won easily 6/4, 6/0, 6/1, to reach the 4th round. It’s always nice to get further than expected in a major tournament and Teo shows that he shouldn’t be written off just yet. In the 4th round, Teo was up against world #8 Gianluca Barrafuldi but was unable to upset him, losing 6/4, 6/1, 6/2. Elsewhere, Sean Mendez reached the 3rd round before losing to world #7 Putignani. Lebydenko also made the 3rd round before losing to the hottest player on tour right now, world #2 Arnaldo Pirovano. Joaquim Arbizu had an unlucky draw as he was up against #15 seed Feliciano Rebellin in the 1st round and was beaten there. Elezgueta made it to the 2nd round before losing to world #6 Bill Comfort. The French Open was won by the #13 seed Aleksei Yatskay, a player who has bounced around the top 10 to 15 positions in the world. He beat world #2 Pirovano in the finals, who has been crazy good during this clay season. Ghazi Mehmett 2 tournaments for Ghazi during this period. In singles, he was knocked out in the 1st round of a FT3 but made the SFs of the other FT3. In doubles, he reached the QFs for both FT3 tournaments. He is at #499 in the world right now. Claude Curtayne Claude won another amateur tournament in week 18 and reached the doubles SFs for that same tournament. He then tried to move up to a FT3 tournament but his low ranking meant that he faced the #2 seed early on and he was knocked out in the 2nd round. He will probably play 1 more amateur tournament to get his ranking below #1000 before taking part in FT3s again, just to try and get a ranking in tournaments. Currently ranked #1071 in the world.

04-08-2016, 12:22 AM	#115
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	I think Teo is just in a bad slump. Not that this helps since you can't really do anything about it other than hope he starts playing better, but he shouldn't have started declining yet, at least not enough to notice. He should be right at the end of his prime. That might actually make it worse, since I thought this would be his last really good year, a chance to maybe finish in the Top 15, make the quarters at a Slam somewhere, that kind of thing. Next year the aging process will probably start making him drop a bit. sadface

04-08-2016, 10:03 AM	#116
MarkBGregory n00b Join Date: Apr 2016 Location: Cyprus	Thanks Law for summing up Elezgueta's results in the big events. A small catch up from my side of things too: Juan Jose Elezgueta As Law said, it's been a good clay court season for Elezgueta. Having reached the 2nd round of the Monte Carlo Masters, The Argentinian made it through qualifying for the Madrid Masters before being beaten in R1, but his big result came in Rome. Again coming through qualifying, he secured an amazing 7-5 6-3 victory over world #14 Aniceto Lopezcastro in the second round before an inevitable defeat to former world #1 Valentino Dotto. Since then, Elezgueta made the second round of Roland Garros (the first time he had entered a big event directly), and then the third round of Wimbledon, having beaten 27th seed Lucas Coscino in the second round. This week, week 30, Elezgueta is playing in a CH+ event in Colombia, and has reached the semi-finals so far. He's now 74th in the world. Igor Borowski As Borowski is a hard court specialist, it's been a quiet clay season for the Belarussian. He's remained a firm contender on the Challenger circuit, but he results have slowed slightly, with his best result coming at a CH3 on Grass, his least favourite surface, in Week 23. He's heading over to Masters action in Canada and Cincinnati before the US Open. Ranked 142nd. Christian Kulle Kulle's made the most of a selection of Futures events in his home country, reaching the semi-finals and picking up the title at two Swedish FT1 events. Outside of Sweden he's been a little less successful, but this week he's currently into the semis of an FT1 in Israel. Ranked just outside the top 400, there's still a little ways to go to know whether or not he'll make it big.

04-10-2016, 09:30 AM	#117
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	It's fascinating to me how hyper-competitive the 'first page' is in this world, especially right now. Archer was #1 not long ago at all, and is now down to fourth. Four players within less than 800 points fighting for the top spot, and it seems almost random who takes it at any given point in time. None of them has as many points as #3 in my universe!

04-11-2016, 04:14 AM	#121
law90026 College Benchwarmer Join Date: Jan 2006	That's great info thanks!

04-11-2016, 05:41 AM	#122
law90026 College Benchwarmer Join Date: Jan 2006	Year 323 Weeks 27 to 46 Teo Rask Teo entered Wimbledon in week 27. In Round 3, he faced off against #11 seed Danil Mamine and beat him 6/4, 6/2, 7/6(5), which set up a 4th round match against #7 seed Gianluca Barrafuldi. This led to a titanic match, which Barrafuldi won 7/5, 6/4, 4/6, 3/6, 10/8. A close match and no shame in the loss and overall a good tournament for Teo as he reached another 4th round of a Grand Slam this year. Tony Archer won the tournament, beating #12 seed and UK national Milton Aguilar in the finals. Sean Mendez reached the 4th round before losing to Tony Archer, Andrei Lebydenko reached the 3rd round before losing to #6 seed Bill Comfort while Elezgueta reached the 3rd round before losing to Tom Liekmar. Week 29 was the 250 Swedish Open and Teo reached the SFs before losing to #1 seed Adam Preto 7/5, 6/3. The 250 event at Gstaad was the next tournament Teo entered in and he reached the finals before losing to #2 seed Ene Colon 6/4, 6/3 in the finals. The Canadian Masters was a wash-out as Teo lost in the first round to #14 seed Feliciano Rebellin. This tournament was won by #4 seed and now world #1 Marcello Borsellino, who beat #5 seed Feliciano Putignani in the finals. Gianluca Barrafuldi was a major roadblock for Britrock as he beat Sean Mendez in the first round then Lebydenko in the 2nd round in an odd scheduling quirk. Over at the Cincinnati Masters, Teo made it to the 2nd round before losing to #11 seed Gaspare Caprara (who has since entered the world top 10), 6/3, 6/4. The tournament was won by #8 seed Sarmiento Roblez, beating Caprara in the finals. A first round loss for Mendez against a qualifier sums up how tough a year he has had, while Lebydenko lost in the 2nd round to #15 seed Stephen Peters. At the US Open, Teo played to his #21 seed, reaching the 3rd round before losing to #9 seed Caprara (yes him again!). It was a drubbing as Teo lost 6/2, 6/0, 6/2. Mendez also reached the 3rd round before losing to unseeded Nikolaos Metaxas (a player that Teo has lost to on multiple occasions as well), while ntndeacon’s Arbizu reached the 3rd round before losing to #16 seed Stephen Peters. Arbizu actually beat Lebydenko in the 2nd round as well in a clash of FOFC players. Digamma’s Kanjeric also had a nice run as he battled through the qualifying rounds and reached the 2nd round of the main draw before losing to #13 seed Danil Mamine. Caprara won his first Grand Slam here, beating Borsellino in the finals. In the WTC Cup QFs, Sweden were humiliated 5-0 by Spain as Teo and Mendez were outclassed by Spain’s Uson and Preto. Not much to be said here. Then to the 250 event at St Petersberg where Teo won his first title of the year, beating #7 seed Ruslan Aznabaev in the finals. At the Malaysian Open, Teo reached the SFs before losing to #2 seed Feliciano Rebellin, who would go on to beat #1 seed Aleksei Yatskay in the finals as well. Teo bowed out in the 2nd round of the Shanghai Masters, losing to #7 seed Dotto. Losing is putting it kindly, it was a 6/1, 6/0 massacre. #8 seed Ferdinan Duran won the tournament, beating #5 seed Caprara (yes him again!) in the finals. It was a tournament of upsets as #1 seed Borsellino was knocked out in the 2nd round by wildcard Metaxas, #2 seed Pirovano lost in the 3rd round to unseeded Uson and #4 seed Tony Archer lost to unseeded Mjaj Aghavelian in the 2nd round (who also beat Dotto in the QFs). Lebydenko also had his part to play as he upset #12 seed Yatskay in the 2nd round before losing to Duran in the 3rd round. Mendez went out in the 2nd round though, also to Duran. Teo then defended his title at the Stockholm Open, beating #2 seed Mathieu Trottier in the finals 6/1, 6/2, for his 2nd title of the year. In the final tournament of the year, Teo was knocked out in the 2nd round of the Paris Masters, losing to #9 seed Gianluca Barrafuldi. It wasn’t as close a match as their titanic showdown in Wimbledon, Barrafuldi winning comfortably 6/3, 6/4 this time. #3 seed Tony Archer won the tournament, beating #6 seed Roblez in the finals. Mendez reached the 2nd round before losing to world #1 Borsellino while Lebydenko was knocked out in the 1st round by unseeded Agia. With that, Teo’s season ends and he finishes at #22 in the world (barring any other players losing points during the last few weeks of the year), which is about where I thought he might end up after the first half of the year. In line with expectations and it will be interesting to see if Teo can hang on to a top 30 spot next year (I suspect he can if I continue to let him focus on singles rather than start to dabble in doubles and preparing to become a trainer). Ghazi Mehmett The problem with Futures tournaments is that they are such a random bag of players it’s really hard to tell how a player will do. Ghazi played in 5 FT3 tournaments during this stretch and won 1, came in 2nd once and reached 3 QFs. I guess that means he’s not quite ready to move up to the FT2 level but it’s also hard to improve the ranking without playing the bigger Futures events. Patience I tell myself. He still has 1 or 2 tournaments before the year ends so I suspect he ends up somewhere in the 300s when all is said and done. Claude Curtayne Claude won another amateur tournament in week 28 and that officially pushed him into the top 1000 in the world and it was a full slate of Futures tournaments for him thereafter. Results were also erratic for him, as he was knocked out in the first round once, reached 1 QF, reached a SF and won 1 FT3. He’s ranked #587 in the world and I think he gets close to the #500 spot before the year ends. Vittorio Annunzo Vittorio’s junior career is coming to an end and he will finish somewhere in the 30s at junior level. He started the year in the teens and so it’s disappointing he has dropped so far in the junior rankings, although that doesn’t necessarily mean anything in the grand scheme of things. He did take part in an amateur tournament in week 46 and reached the 3rd round there so he has his first official ranking point and is ranked #2387 in the world!

04-11-2016, 08:52 AM	#124
law90026 College Benchwarmer Join Date: Jan 2006	And Dotto has been fired by his manager! Plus the top 2 players in the world are both managed by the same player, Loxu. Craziness all round.

04-13-2016, 02:07 PM	#125
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	Must have moar updates! :P

04-14-2016, 03:04 AM	#127
law90026 College Benchwarmer Join Date: Jan 2006	Year 324 Weeks 1 to 11 Teo Rask The retirement tour has begun. Teo can probably still hang around for 2 to 3 more years and maintain a top 50 position (I think) but, let’s face it, he’s never going to win a Masters or a Grand Slam. So rather than drag it out, I’ve decided this will be Teo’s last year. With that, I can elect not to play a single Masters event which have been a real drain on his ranking points the past 2 years. Put it this way, if you’re not in the top 16 in the world, you’re likely to be knocked out early’ish in these events unless your talent level is really high so it’s a double whammy for Teo from that perspective. In week 1, Teo played for Sweden again, along with Sean Mendez, against a young German team. While the Swedes both beat 40th ranked Tom Liekmar, they also both lost to rising start Matt Huber and Sweden loses their first match in the WTC 3-2. Off to the Qatar 250 event and Teo reached the QFs before losing to #2 seed Adam Preto. At the Australian Open, Teo was knocked out a round early as he was upset in the 2nd round by unseeded Dominik Bigos, who is a 22 year old up-and-comer (9.44 rating). Andrei Lebydenko was knocked out in the 3rd round by #12 seed Danil Mamine while Sean Mendez made it to the 4th round before losing to #2 seed Sarmiento Roblez, who went on to win the tournament by beating #4 seed Gaspare Caprara in the finals. Joaquim Arbizu also reached the 3rd round before losing to #6 seed Marcello Borsellino. Dragi Kanjeric (digamma’s guy) was knocked out in the 1st round by another unseeded player while Igor Borowski was knocked out in the first round by #17 seed Burt Tinker. At the 2nd round of WTC matches, Teo won both his singles matches as Sweden swept Brazil 5-0. Teo then went on an indoor tournament spree, taking part in back-to-back-to-back 250 events in France, San Jose and France again. He had a series of good results, coming in 2nd (losing to #2 seed Feliciano Rebellin), 2nd (losing to #1 seed Burt Tinker) and 1st (beating #2 seed Arnold Jarvilaturi) respectively. This pushes him up to #19 in the world. Teo then skipped the first Masters of the year but went on to win a doubles FT3 tournament to keep his form up. Ghazi Mehmett Ghazi has played 3 tournaments during this period, 1 FT2 and 2 FT3s. Results have been quite good as he reached the SFs of the FT2 and won 1 of the FT3s although he was knocked out in the 2nd round of the other FT3. Up to #384 in the world and he has reached the finals of another FT3 event in week 12. Claude Curtayne Claude has only played in 2 FT3s during this period, winning one and coming in 2nd in the other. His high form as a result of good results means that he could play less tournaments overall which is good for his long-term growth. Up to #444 in the world and it looks like he will be a better professional than Ghazi based on how quickly his results have come although it’s early days yet of course. Vittorio Annunzo Vittorio has also had a successful start to his professional career. He played in 2 amateur tournaments, winning 1 and coming in 2nd in the other. His ranking is fluctuating around the #1000 mark so his next tournament may be a futures event, depending on how things pan out. I’m hoping for an amateur tournament to be honest but we’ll see how that goes.

04-17-2016, 11:15 AM	#128
law90026 College Benchwarmer Join Date: Jan 2006	Year 324 Weeks 12 to 31 Teo Rask So I made a boo boo and misunderstood what it means to miss the Masters events. I had thought, for some bizarre reason, that skipping a Masters event meant that I was banned from taking part in a Masters event the next year. Turns out I get 0 points and it still counts. Ah well. Teo continues to head towards becoming a trainer and he's going to be a 5.3 to 5.4 trainer at the end of this year I think. In the 3rd round robin WTC match against Estonia, Teo again lost both singles and Sweden lost 3-2. They end the group in 3rd place, which is a tad disappointing. Sean Mendez split his singles matches. Off to a 250 clay event at Hassan where Teo lost in the QFs to #6 seed Valenti Agia, 6/2, 6/2. A slightly better tournament after that as Teo entered a 250 event at Bucharest and was seeded #1. Unfortunately, he lost to #3 seed Matthieu Trotter in the finals, 4/6 6/3 7/5. At Estoril, another 250 clay event, Teo faced off against #7 seed Elezgueta in the QFs and youth prevailed, 6/1 3/6 6/2. At the Power Horse Cup, another 250 clay event, Teo lost to #6 seed Burgermeister 6/3, 6/2 in the QFs. Further disappointment in the French Open, where Teo had reached the 4th round last year. This year, as the #21 seed, Teo lost in the 2nd round to Ruslan Aznabaev, 7/6⁵ 3/6 6/7² 7/5 6/4. Sean Mendez and Andrei Lebydenko both reached the 3rd round before losing to #1 seed Roblez and #11 seed Uson respectively. Arbizu also reached the 2nd round before losing to #10 seed Preto. Elezgueta unfortunately lost in the first round when he was drawn against #27 seed Mansi. Kanjeric will rue this as a missed opportunity as he was knocked out in the 1st round as he lost to another qualifier there. #5 seed Pirovano won the tournament, beating #8 seed Yatskay in the finals. First grass tournament of the year at Halle and Teo made the SFs before losing to old rival Tom Liekmar. At Eastbourne, Teo was knocked out in the QFs by unseeded John Elliot. Wimbledon resulted in a 3rd round loss to #13 seed Feliciano Rebellin. Sean Mendez lost in the 3rd round to #14 seed Sean Peters while Andrei Lebydenko had a shock 1st round loss to unseeded David Villa. Arbizu lost to #9 seed Preto in the first round. Elezgueta had a good tournament though, reaching the 3rd round before losing to John Elliot, who also beat Kanjeric in the first round. Borowski also lost in the first round. Wimbledon continues to be #7 seed Tony Archer's favourite Grand Slam as he won his 4th consecutive title here, beating #12 seed Mjej Aghavelian in the finals. At the Swedish Open, Teo was the #2 seed and he reached the finals but lost to the #1 seed Stephen Peters. This is actually Teo's 3rd finals in the past 4 years but he's only won 1 of them. At Bogota, Teo was seeded #4 but lost to #6 seed Giotto Mansi in the SFs. Teo is still ranked #24 in the world at this time.

04-18-2016, 12:30 PM	#132
MarkBGregory n00b Join Date: Apr 2016 Location: Cyprus	I thought I'd add to law's update with a little more information about my players' progress since the beginning of the GW year. Juan Jose Elezgueta It's been a year of rise and fall so far for Elezgueta, but generally progress is being made in the right direction. Elezgueta finished last year just outside the top 80, and had a tricky few opening weeks of the season. As a clay court specialist with grass secondary, Elezgueta avoided the Australian Open having been knocked out in the first round last year, but did very little by way of compensation. A hard court CH2 was played in Week 2 just to keep form up, but the Argentinian was unseeded and fell to 5th seed Dominik Bigos 6-2 6-4 in the second round. In Week 5, he entered a clay court CH2 in Colombia with higher expectations, but a tough first round draw against 5th seed Pierre-Yves Poidebard led to a disappointing 6-1 3-6 6-4 defeat. Despite the difficult performance, Elezgueta rose to just within the top 80. Then things started to pick up. A CH2 title was clinched in Week 9 in Morocco, with 5th seed Elezgueta gaining revenge against top seed Poidebard with a 6-3 6-4 victory in the final. Elezgueta stayed in Morocco for another CH2 in Week 13, reaching the final again before losing to unseeded American Evan Farthing. In Week 16, just before the Monte Carlo Masters, Elezgueta headed to Brazil for another CH2, in which he reached the semi-finals as the second seed before losing to 4th seed Tiago Yoshida, a big junior rival of his, 3-6 6-3 7-5. By the end of Week 16, Elezgueta has risen to a career high ranking of 60th. A first round victory at the Monte Carlo MST event the following week was enough for some more points, and a defeat to third seed Gaspare Caprara in round two was hardly surprising. Then, the highlight of the year: Elezgueta's first foray into ATP 250 territory landed him a semi-final berth as the 7th seed at the Estoril Open, having beaten top seed Teo Rask along the way. A semi-final defeat to #5 Antonio Campelo of Portugal followed, as did a new career high: 53rd. Elezgueta only reached the 1st round of the Roland Garros GSL and dropped points thanks to his second round appearance in the previous year. Another foray into ATP 250 territory at the Queen's Club afforded a quarter-final appearance as the 10th seed, before a narrow 7-5 7-6(1) defeat to 4th seed Valenti Agia ended his hopes. Then a second consecutive third round appearance at Wimbledon held his ranking steady, the highlight being a victory over 18th seed Ene Colon, 3-6 6-4 6-1 7-6(5). Post-Wimbledon, thanks to a big points drop before RG, he was at 74th in the world. But the position has been somewhat recovered in more recent weeks. A meagre second round finish at the Olympics was more of a novelty than a highlight, but two consecutive clay court CH1 events have paid dividends, with a title in Sam Marino in Week 34 as the third seed, beating top seed Joaquim Arbizu in the final, and a semi-final appearance the following week in Italy, losing 6-1 6-1 to Italian Fabio Fagnini, who was enjoying the home advantage. Elezgueta currently sits in 65th in the world. According to the 10-point scale, his rating is 9.49. Igor Borowski It's been a great year so far for 21-year-old Borowski, who started the year ranked roughly 130th but is now 89th. The year started poorly though, with only WTC performances standing out amongst poor singles results across the board. 1 win in Week 1 at the WTC was followed by a second round exit at a hard-court CH2 in Brazil - entered as a wildcard, Borowski lost 2-6 7-6(7) 6-2 to eighth seed John Elliot in the second round. A straight-sets first round defeat to #17 Burt Tinker in the Australian Open GSL in Week 4 was followed by two more WTC victories in Week 6 and another CH2 second round defeat in Week 7, losing unseeded to second seed Gregorio Yapo 6-2 6-3. By the end of Week 7, Borowski had slumped to outside the top 150, and before he was back in competitive action again, he fell as low as 171st. But three consecutive weeks boosted his ranking phenomenally. A CH2 in Mexico was won from an unseeded position after defeating the 1st, 3rd, 4th and 7th seeds en route to the title, and the following week he did it again, this time as the top seed, defeating third seed Charlie Armour 6-7(3) 6-2 6-1 in the final. After that, another two wins in the final round robin of the WTC not only gave him 50 more points but also secured Belarus' place in the knockout stage. In three weeks, Borowski had risen from outside the top 170 to inside the top 120, and it wouldn't stop there. Week 20 saw a CH1 in Korea, and Borowski fulfilled his 7th seeding before losing to top seed Dominik Bigos 6-3 7-6(4). The following week he was at a CH2 in Uzbekistan, and reached the semi-finals from an unseeded position after defeating second seed Dominik Fetsko in the second round before losing to third seed Jan Dieter Eckener 7-6(3) 6-4. After several weeks of practice, Week 27 saw a disappointing first round exit at Wimbledon GSL before an even more disappointing first round exit at a US CH3 to fourth seed William Holden. At this point, Borowski was hovering just outside the top 100. Then came the breakthrough, with four successful point-securing weeks in Weeks 30, 33, 36 and 38. Seeded second at a Canadian CH2 in Week 30, he reached the final before losing again to Eckener 6-2 6-3, before a semi-final appearance at a Chinese CH1 ended in defeat to unseeded Elroy Huffaker (one of my former players) 7-6(3) 2-6 7-6(4) despite Borowski winning 111 points to 112. A CH3 victory in Thailand completed an excellent spell, before two more WTC wins gave Belarus a spot in the Level 3 semi-finals and 50 more ranking points for Borowski. According to the 10-point scale, his rating is 9.37. He's the highest-ranked 21-year-old in the current rankings, which is a very good sign. Christian Kulle Kulle has absolutely dominated the Futures circuit this year, and has deservedly broken into the top 200 at the tender age of 20. Apart from one semi-final appearance in Week 1, Kulle's record at Futures events reads thus: Week 6 FT1, WIN; Week 10 FT2, WIN; Week 13 FT1, WIN; Week 17 FT1, WIN; Week 22 FT1, WIN; Week 31 FT1, WIN. Not bad at all, and the reason why eventually it became necessary to play some Challengers. In Week 25, Kulle rather ambitiously took part in a CH1 on Grass (his least favourite surface) and unsurprisingly lost in the first round. However, his efforts since have been better: a second round and a quarter-final appearance at two hard court CH3s in the States, and even a victory at a Kazakh CH3 a couple of weeks ago, winning unseeded and beating the 1st, 3rd, 4th and 6th seed en route to victory. Kulle now sits 169th and will probably not play any Futures level tennis for a good long while - unfortunately. The transition has been relatively smooth but must continue apace, as the Swede has a very high aging factor which may let him down in the long run. According to the 10-point scale, his rating is 9.18. Harald Babbel Babbel is only 15, but is progressing well. He's ranked 133rd in the junior rankings, which makes him the highest ranked 15-year-old, although he's due to turn 16 in two weeks. He made a couple of JG3 finals but has won three JG4 events, and I'm attempting to turn him into a grass court specialist with a clay court secondary.

04-19-2016, 05:30 PM	#133
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	You have some very good players -- much better than any of mine are, even accounting for the fact that they are aging quicker. I would expect Elezqueta and Borowski to move up quite a bit next year.

04-20-2016, 04:00 AM	#135
law90026 College Benchwarmer Join Date: Jan 2006	End of a Career And that’s it for Teo Rask. I’ve fired him after struggling with the decision for a few days. I didn’t want to keep him hanging around for another couple of years because he wasn’t really going to get anywhere in terms of his career but I couldn’t convert him to a trainer yet because of the 30 year old age requirement. On top of that, I had identified a trainer candidate that would immediately be a 5+ trainer. So it was time to bite the bullet and bid adieu to Teo. Teo peaked as a top 20 player and has been hanging around the high teens and low twenties for the past 3 years or so. He finishes his career with more than $4million in earnings, a 760-300 win record, 9 250-level tournament wins, 3 500-level runner-up positions and 11 250-level runner up positions. He also reached the QFs of the French Open once and made a few 4th round appearances at the French Open and Wimbledon. It’s been a decent career for him I think but he was always held back by his relatively low athleticism and mentality. So what’s next? Claude Curtayne looks decent at this time, having reached a high of #271 in the world. He will be playing Challengers next year in all likelihood. Vittorio Annunzo also looks ok, reaching #519 in his first year in the pros. Another year of Futures tournaments for him next year. I had dropped Ghazi Mehmett earlier in the year and picked up a new 14 year old, Argentinean Ariel Ruano. He’s got decent talent and endurance as well as -5% aging factor so let’s see if he can be developed into a good player. I also picked up 37 year old Jose Fernandez de Prada, who has maxed out serve and doubles. I’m just waiting for another 2k experience or so to convert him into a trainer. After that, either I spend my credit to create a player or I see if there are any good young players available at the time. On to Year 325!

04-20-2016, 08:01 AM	#136
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	Sounds like a good plan. Did pretty well with Teo for what you had to work with.

04-20-2016, 11:58 AM	#137
MarkBGregory n00b Join Date: Apr 2016 Location: Cyprus	A quick note before the year 'officially' ends: Bit of a milestone coming up. Igor Borowski and co (but mainly Borowski) are in the WTC Playoffs to win promotion to Level 2 this week. They're up against Zimbabwe. Belarus are ranked 31st in comparison to Zimbabwe's 41st, and it's being played on Hard which is a huge advantage for us. However, 66th-ranked Barry Button, 30yo, is the main danger, and with both Button and Borowski playing two singles rubbers AND the doubles, it could be a matter of who matches up the best out of that leading pair.

04-22-2016, 02:53 PM	#138
MarkBGregory n00b Join Date: Apr 2016 Location: Cyprus	Weeks 1-11 I'll start this update with Igor Borowski, because he has leapfrogged Elezgueta to become my highest-ranked player. The good news: Borowski and co. secured an easy 4-1 victory over Zimbabwe in the WTC Playoffs in Week 51 to reach Level 2, with Borowski winning both his singles rubbers and his doubles match. However, Level 2 has been tough so far, with Belarus losing both matches, despite Borowski winning 3 out of 4 singles matches. Borowski has entered three tournaments so far this year, reaching the 2nd round of the Australian Open, reaching the semi-finals of an ATP 250 indoors (Open 13, France) and most recently Indian Wells, where a tough draw saw him lose to world #6 Andres Uson 6-4 6-1 in the second round. He's up to 47th in the world though, and I think he'll break the top 32 by the end of the year. Juan Jose Elezgueta is having a similarly good season but has made less progress purely because he's defending a fair amount of points. He's risen from 68th to 58th since the start of the year, reaching a couple of Challenger semi-finals, either side of a first round defeat at the Australian Open, before a big runner-up run at the Copa Claro in his home nation, his best ever result at ATP 250 level. For the first time in his career, Elezgueta has a full roster of 18 tournaments, so his ranking is a true one. I still think he needs a spell of good luck to get close to the top 32 this year - it's now or never, I feel, given his age factor is already down to 96% aged 23. Christian Kulle's first tournament of the year was a disaster, losing in round one of a CH1 in New Caledonia, but since then he's done well - qualified successfully for the Australian Open before a narrow first round defeat, before a CH2 semi-final in Bergamo was followed by a final appearance this week (and a likely defeat, match is happening in the next GW day) in Japan. I think it'll be another year before Kulle gets close to the elite. Harald Babbel has another year after this one of junior eligibility, but he's already ranked 32nd in the junior rankings despite only playing one tournament at JG2 level or above. Still looking to replace him with a better model if the opportunity arises...

04-28-2016, 07:57 AM	#140
MarkBGregory n00b Join Date: Apr 2016 Location: Cyprus	Weeks 11-45 Time flies in this world. I've been super busy with work and just about managed to keep up with tournament registrations. For the first time today I've got a few moments to update you all on the goings on. It's been one hell of a year. Igor Borowski and Juan Jose Elezgueta have been yo-yo-ing all year to be my number one player. Borowski is around a year and a half younger, remember, currently 22y27w, while Elezgueta has recently hit 24y2w. As a reminder, Elezgueta has Clay court favouritism with Grass secondary, while Borowski has Hard court favouritism with Indoor secondary. As you can imagine, Borowski retained his lead ahead of Elezgueta in the rankings throughout the Hard court season, while Elezgueta regained the advantage during the clay and grass seasons. In Week 11, Borowski reached the 2nd round at Indian Wells, and then Week 13 saw him go one better in Miami, reaching the third round. He defeated 23rd seed Sean Mendez 6-7(5) 6-4 7-5 in the second round before losing to 10th seed Bill Comfort. Two WTC Level 2 victories added another 70 points onto his ranking, pushing him up to 54th by the end of Week 15. During this time Elezgueta played entirely practice tournaments, and sat just behind Borowski at 56th. Then came the clay court season. Between Weeks 16-23, Elezgueta played two 250s, two MSTs and one Slam (in Paris, of course). Meanwhile, Borowski satisfied himself with two CH1 appearances. Elezgueta's first 250 was nothing special, reaching the second round, but a massive title in Week 18 in Bucharest scored him 250 points and a huge rankings boost just before the Masters events. Elezgueta came through unseeded to win the title, beating 5th seed Ruslan Aznabaev, second seed Nwankwo Ba, third seed Stuart Legh and fourth seed Matthieu Trottier in the final. Not exactly an easy one to win, but a huge result for the Argentinian. Both Masters events in Madrid and Rome were a slight letdown thanks to tough draws, with Elezgueta only reaching the 2nd round unseeded both times. Roland Garros was also tough, resulting in another 2nd round appearance and a static ranking. In the meantime, Borowski reached the final of a CH1 on Hard in Busan in Week 20, before winning a Grass court (?!) CH1 in Nottingham in Week 24. Directly before Wimbledon, Elezgueta was ranked 48th, while Borowski's challenger performances had taken him ahead of Elezgueta to 45th. Wimbledon saw Borowski outperform Elezgueta again, reaching the third round compared to Elezgueta's second round appearance. Elzegueta's redemption came thanks to some excellent scheduling in the latter half of the year, mixing high-level Challengers up with 250 events to propel the Argentinian into the top 32 for the first time: Elezgueta wanted to continue playing competitively post-Wimbledon after a slightly disappointing result, so he entered a CH+ in Germany and went on to win it as the top seed, beating Spaniard Lucas Coscino in the final. A week later, Borowski took part in a CH1 in Spain, but only reached the second round. Elezgueta continued to impress, reaching the final of the 250 Kitzbuhel Cup in Austria unseeded, beating world #19 Guadalfajara in the quarters before losing 6-2 6-0 to world #4 Pirovano in the final. This result was followed by another 100-point haul after a CH1 victory in San Marino in Week 34. Meanwhile, Borowski was taking part in the Canadian and Cincinnati Masters in Weeks 33&34, making the 2nd round of the former and the third round of the latter. By the end of Week 34, Borowski was ranked just inside the top 40, while Elezgueta was ranked just ever so slightly higher. Elezgueta forewent the US Open and has since played two CH events, levels 1 & 2, and won both, leaving him now ranked 33rd in the world. However, it gets more exciting for Borowski at this stage: Borowski also decided not to enter the US Open due to high form, and instead focussed on the Masters events at the end of the year. A QF appearance at a CH+ preceded a 2nd round appearance in Shanghai - another disappointment, as far as talent goes - but then came the performance of his career. Borowski, as a qualifier, reached the semi-finals of the Paris Indoor Masters. Borowski's route to the semis: QR1: BYE QR2: bt Francisco Olbera WR 168 6-2 6-4 R1: bt [Q] Falko Gimelstob WR 41 6-4 6-2 R2: bt [1] Sarmiento Roblez WR 1(!!) 6-1 3-6 6-3 R3: bt [11] Giotto Mansi WR 11 7-6(5) 1-6 7-6(4) QF: bt [12] Burt Tinker WR 12 7-6(1) 7-6(4) SF: lost to [3] Andres Uson WR 3 6-2 6-1 WHAT A RUN!! Yes, you read correctly, Borowski defeated the world number one in Paris. What a legend!! The result propelled Borowski from 44th to 30th in the world, and depending on end-of-season result, I may well have two players in the top 32 come the start of next year. The only way is up for Borowski at this stage! Now, breathe... Christian Kulle has had a year of gradual improvement, with focus on the occasional Challenger tournament but otherwise training, practice, training, practice... Rinse, lather, repeat. Kulle was RUP at a CH2 in Week 15, made the semis of a CH2 in Week 21, qualified for Wimbledon but was beaten in the first round in Week 27, before another RUP appearance at a CH3 in Week 28. Week 33 saw a SF appearance in at a CH1, and Week 35, he was again a finalist at a CH3. He didn't actually win a Challenger event until Week 42, where he came through unseeded to collect the trophy at the CH2 in Tiburon. He's currently ranked just outside the top 100. Meanwhile, Harald Babbel has just turned 17 and will be in his final year of junior eligibility next year. He's currently ranked 24th in the junior rankings.

04-28-2016, 11:49 AM	#141
law90026 College Benchwarmer Join Date: Jan 2006	Really nice performances!