So I figured I would give a quick update as to where I am in my main world GW3.

I have tried a few things with varying degrees of success and have just started long term planning.

I have bought a 37 year old, ex world number 10, Hugo Drescher. He is aging fast and only playing at about 70% efficiency in the more physical aspects of the game due to age. However I hope to make him a trainer (you get trainers by having a player with enough xp and turning them into a trainer). The higher the skills the better the trainer. As an ex no 10, Drescher has some high skills. I will train him for a bit more though as I don't need one just yet. He is also a decent doubles player and will focus there. As I type he has recently competed in Wimbledon. He got a bye through to the final qualifier and won it solidly 6/4,6/4. In the doubles he had the misfortune of ending up vs the no.2 seeds. Still he had a decent team mate and put up a show. They won the second set and brought the 4th to a tie breaker before going down.

In the singles he was again left to due failed tie breakers. He lost the first two sets on tie breakers (all conclusively) before finally losing his serve in the 3rd set and going down 6-3. Still slams offer loads of xp and given how much the skill jumps cost when at this level I need it all. He will spend a period on the practise courts now before the US open. Maybe finding a challenger to keep his form up.

My other player is 14 year old Bruno Corbalan. He is also playing at a reduced capacity due to age but in this case it will get better in time. My biggest issue is that as endurance is affected by age twice he really can't do a lot of training. For the moment he has been pulled from doubles practise sessions (there are no junior doubles practise sessions so he was getting destroyed by adults, more competitive matches lead to more xp) and from singles competitions (uses up more energy and practise weeks are more valuable). As a case in point after reaching the semi finals in both singles and doubles at a jg5 (lowest junior level) recently he has had to lose a week of practise to recover. This will change as he ages and gets naturally fitter. This is also why I don't need a trainer just yet as as trainer is for those players with a bit more energy left over. He will get there. He was picked specially to be a player who will reach a high endurance.

Splitting this into two from now on. Too much happens too quickly. I have enjoyed these as it makes me spot players I am against on a regular basis and brings the world to life.

Hugo Dreschner
So it turns out there are precious few events on the professional circuit at the end of the year. So this lead to Dreschner's form going lower than I would like. He ended up taking some exp penalties in practising before managing to find two quick warm up competitions to get him in some sort of shape for the Australian Open.

The world cup events:
First up was the world cup final with Denmark. The Danish side are struggling for numbers and nearly have 2 auto losses with only 1 player in the top 600. That means if Dreschner can win in the doubles the match is all but over. Broberg did his work for the Danes winning both his matches but thankfully the German doulbes won in straight sets to help Germany to a 3-2 win.

Then we had Monaco in a qualifier to move up to tier 1. Monaco are now a struggling side, two players in the top 30-40 range makes them dangerous but vulnerable at this level. In singles we have the higher ranks and there was only a single upset with the 31st ranked Patroni taking out the 28th ranked Lacic. With Dreschner helping the doubles side to a straight sets win it left us promoting after a 4-1 win.

The world cup began with us in a group of the US, Spain, Germany and Sweden. The US team is incredible, with 3rd and 6th in the world, and will top the group with ease. Spain are pretty strong too and will be safe. That leaves it to the match between us and Sweden to decide who will end up in a play off to avoid relegation. First up was Spain who had an expected and deserved 4-1 win in matches. They had a much more accomplished doubles team. Sweden were predictably destroyed by the US side.


Australian Open:
During the Australian Open itself we just went with doubles due to stamina issues. Probably a bit of a risk as it could all be over in one match, especially as I won't get a seed. In the end I got pretty lucky. Not only did I get a first round without a seed but the 16th seeds got knocked out in the first round giving me a second round too! The third round is where the luck ran out unfortunately. Ran into the 6th seeds and was competitive for the first set but lost 6/4, 6/1. Still 180 ranking points won't hurt anything. 52nd in the rankings but would need a big jump for top 50.

Won't make much difference at this stage of his career but Dreschner will be playing as many clay practise sessions and competitions as he can to get ready for the clay season.

After the win in Accra Corbalan managed to get onto the national squad. The U15s are in a group with Italy, Russia and Australia. A quick look round and it looks like only the US and Italy can really challenge a strong Spainish squad. All of our rankings are about the same point (high 200s, low 300s) which is pretty decent for this age group.

First up were the Australians who are likely to be the kicking boys of this group. We won with the loss of a single set across all 5 best of 5 set matches.

This was followed up with a similar performance vs Russia. Finally we ended up against Italy. Qualification to the quarters was assured for both sides but topping the group would mean avoiding the US till at least the sems. Italy had two players around the 200 ranking mark and a weak speat around the 500th mark. Unfortunately I could not make ground in either my singles match or the doubles. Caravia managed to come from two sets down to win his first match but lost from 2 sets up in his second. It was not enough. Oh well still only a 1 in 4 chance of meeting the US. And of course we meet the US on hard courts which suit them slightly better.

Somehow I pulled out a great serving display against Agustin Arenas (who had knocked me out of a hard court competition several months earlier) and won with only the loss of a single set, though the last did go to a tie breaker. Then Caravia, our top seed won his first match, our doubles pairing got crushed but we don't really have much in the doubles department, before Caravia managed to do the double handing Arenas his second loss! We lose the final rubber but it is irrelevant as we go through 3-2!

Next up Argentina. They lost 2 group matches but got through on sets won. Should be handy enough. I had missed that despite his low seeding, Hector Yanez had yet to lose a match in the competition. This kept up beating both Corbalan and Caravia in straight sets. Thankfully however one player can only be in two matches and so we went through 3-2 to face Italy in the final.

Plenty of excitment being involved in the international scene but it also provides greate exp points and increases form to allow me more practise sessions so I am definitely motivated to ensure I don't lose that place.

Bruno Corbalan:

Next up for Bruno Corbalan was a hard court JG5. Overall it went well, Bruno got the maximum amount of matches out of it. In the end he was seen off in 3 sets by the Serbian hard court specialist Poznan Colanovic in 3 tough sets. Corbalan also managed to add the doubles crown to his collection. The World Cup finals was meant to be next up but Tevez managed to pip Corbalan in the rankings by a single point and take Corbalan's place on the team! In the end Spain won 3-2 in a battle of the clay court specialists. Instead Bruno decided to try the move up to JG4 level with a clay court competition in Hilversum. For whatever reason it was lightly attended and he eased to the singles and doubles trophies. Not great experience though as no one could put up much of a fight. Another in Warsaw proved more competition. Surprisingly so in fact and most sets went the distance and most matches went to 3 sets. In the end he was too tired to put up much of a fight against Amati from Italy who was still sporting from the WC defeat to Spain. However due to Amati conserving energy (he is no where near as fit) Corbalan was able to pick up the doubles crown. With a win and a finals appearance it seemed like the time to move off of clay at JG4 level as he still needs more time on other surfaces.

A hard court JG4 in Hong Kong was his next stop and it seemed like a fair few regulars went for a clay JG4 in Losinj, Croatia which was won by Koritala who has beaten Corbalan a few times. Still with that and two other hard JG4s on at the same time it left Corbalan to once again take both trophies and get into the top 200 ranked juniors. At 16 years and a few weeks old there is no one left ranked higher who is 15 or under which is not bad. Again easy wins don't provide much experience but do provide a lot of matches and form to let him spend more time in training.

To up the competition a bit Corbalan was sent to the Cape Coast and a JG3 on hard. Might be reaching at this level to go on hard courts but the JG4 on clay was well attended and this looked like it would be sparsely attended. Of course I forgot about all the computer controlled players which enter in. The players that the game sends into JG4 or JG5 are no match for Corbalan but these are a step above. It was quickly proven as I went out in round 1 of the doubles 6/3, 6/3. In the singles I had a big task against Toni Lozada from Chile. He was just reaching peak form and is a superior baseline player. It made him tough to hang with and Bruno lost the first set 6/4. Still Toni had no serve to speak of which proved crucial as he sent in 34! double faults as Corbalan squeaked through 4/6, 7/5, 7/5. That could have gone badly and Corbalan was entirely outplayed, just those double faults saved him. Round 2 was a match against Ukranian Wild Card Alexey Konychev who had Lozada's weak serve but was not quite as strong from the baseline which gave me an easier 6/1, 7/5 win. There will also be a ranking bump in about 12 weeks of about 70 places as the 18 year olds all get flushed from the list and the place on the U16 squad should be there for the taking though I am sure it will be competitive again so I won't be able to sit back too much. Ray Hartog was next, a bit more balanced than my previous two matches in terms of his serve but was much less athletic. The first set I overpowered him. The second was much closer and Corbalan had to survive set point but eventually came through on a tie break. The semi final was against 172nd ranked Ian Mosley from the UK. He is a physical beast as well as having a good baseline game and a not terrible serve. Still Corbalan is just playing himself to optimal form. In the end however a few more double faults crept into Corbalan's game. He still had the advantage there but not enough to make up for Mosley's in the baseline game. Pity as he threw away 3 set points in the first set but still the semi final was a decent performance and competitive matches give more exp. Up to 185th in the rankings.

One thing that has become clear is that on average Bruno is getting less double faults and is one of the few juniors at this level scoring aces. These are powerful weapons and represent free points or at least not giving them away. The serve can still be a bit random but is a powerful weapon for him. The match vs Hartog showed this perfectly. In set 2 he had set point but double faulted. I won the next point to get an advantage and he double faulted again to send it to a tie break. To balance him out a bit he will need to work on his baseline game a bit more overall. I had been going with serve if it was less than 70% of the cost of skill but I think I will switch t 60% now. The fact that in each competition you get players with such heavy specialties is annoying but it will changes as Corbalan travels up through the ranks. There are only so many competitions at the higher levels on each surface so you can only be so picky. Another reason I really need to get my indoor/grass game up in the next while. Skill development is still slow but steady. Having not brought a player through the ranks in this game I don't know if it is a cause for concern yet.



Hugo Drescher:

Things have been quieter here. Results are nice but don't matter as much. All that matters is getting the experience to be a trainer. Still getting knocked out of the Cincinnati masters and the US Open in round 1 was disappointing as well as not making the main draw in the Paris Masters. Some Quarter Finals in a pair of 500s were nice and stopped him from losing his doubles rank too much staying at 43rd. His singles rank is still decreasing but that is not a terrible thing. It will give him the chance to play some minor competitions when the winter break hits and there are no big competitions on. I may increase his stats a bit more but will hold back enough exp to turn him into a trainer whenever I want in case I find a new prospect or simply need one for Corbalan at a moment's notice.

Bruno Corbalan:

As expected Spain top their group but once again end up in a quarter final appearance against the US who had a surprise lose to Sweden. It will be on hard courts, Corbalan is alright on hard courts but our other players are no where near as balanced while the US count the court as a strength across the board. I reckon our players are better but for some reason some of the Spainish players are being designed purely for clay. Annoyingly none of my matches are really going the distance and a fair few have been too easy for good experience. Still Corbalan's endurance is now high enough that he can also spend time with a trainer during these weeks. Then frustratingly I get punished for flicking around too much on my phone! I must have accidentally hit the don't make available for international matches button! Not the end of the world as I had a practise competition set anyway but still an annoying and stupid mistake on my part. Spain was already against it but now it might take a miracle. Will have to keep an eye on this setting in future so lesson learned at least. Would have like a confirmation screen for the setting but still I can only blame myself for the lost experience. Predictably Spain lost 3-2 with Caravia supplying two wins. I can't imagine Corbalan would get white washed so it almost certainly cost us a place in the semi/final which would have been even more experience.


With plenty of matches in the WC going on Corbalan has had little need for other competitions. The main exception being a JG2 in clay on France. With a few JG2s and 2 JG1s going on at the same time I wanted to take advantage of a slightly weaker field than usual. In the end I lost to the Swiss Burmann who has been doing great things and is up to 65th in the world after winning this. Coming in seeded 4th I managed to avoid him till the semi finals. I feel like I could have beaten the no. 2 seed so I feel a little unlucky not to make it to the final but still a succesful week. A second JG2 ended up a bit more succesful. Getting to the semi finals means I won't see dip in ranking as old results become invalid (only your top 6 results from the last 52 weeks count and I had 1 of my top 6 running out in a few weeks). Even better was a run to the final in the singles competition. I would have like to win but it was a close 3 set match.

As I have simply been defending WC points from last year and not really entering competitions my ranking has drifted lower a bit to just outside the top 100. Since then Corbalan is back up to 74th in the junior rankings after some solid performances at a few more JG2s and JG3s but despite making a few finals and semi finals he avoided any more titles. Mostly centered around the Med. He has just turned 17 with a little less than half the year to go. I reckon this, more than anything, will stop him from reaching the pinnacle of the junior rankings as he will move on from juniors in a year and a half at the same time as players who are already 17 and a half. Still he will need to enter a few slams next season, for fun if nothing else. With his endurance and ability improving he has started entering into doubles again in practise competitions as he can keep up with some of the lower end adults.

Getting into the next national squad will be tough as it goes from U16s to U18s so it is a wider range of ages but we will see after all the 18 year olds drop out at the end of the year. After some decent results in those JG2/JG3s he is up to 72nd in the world.



Natalio Arvizu:

Has been jumping up the ranks with a better competition schedule. I have yet to win one with him but as long as he is getting into the later rounds of JG5s I am ok with it. Potentially could make the Argentinian squad if the U15s make it to the semi final/final he could make up the ground but I reckon he will have to wait till next year. None of the Argentinian's in his age group seem that competitive (Yanez, who now has two straight set WC wins vs Corbalan and generally terrorised that age group is 2 years older).

He has reached the level of JG5s on any surface or JG4s on his favoured clay and even took the doubles and singles title at a JG5 in Israel. His progress seems to be ahead of Bruno's at this age but he is also maturing faster so I am unsure how much that has to do with it. Up to 311th for the moment.