[Brian Swartz]

The Italian Open showed that Prakash Prisha continues to be good ... but not quite good enough to beat down the best of the other juniors. Skipping double to allow enough form to participate in that at Roland Garros, he met his first big challenge in the form of hardcourt-focused junior no. 1 Bryan Andersen of Canada in the quarterfinals. Prisha won as expected, 6-4, 6-4. In the semis, Iran's Fehrang Forrughi, then ranked 3rd, was too much to overcome in a 7-5, 6-4 decision. Forrughi would go on to beat Herena in the final, moving up to #2. Three big tournaments, three different winners. Forrughi is quite similar to Prisha, just a little better right now. He's got a bit faster aging factor and didn't have the doubles waste at the start of his run. He's likely to be competition throughout Prisha's time in tennis. He does have footspeed and mental weaknesses, but has better power and enough technical skill to carry him through to victory here.

In any case, having slipped to 9th in the rankings coming in, Prakash moved back up to 8th but that's all. Last chance to make a big splash is coming soon at RG.