Somdev's decision to not turn pro last year

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Re: Somdev's decision to not turn pro last year

Post by PKBasu »

Well, the level of participation in the poll itself suggests there is a lot of interest in Prasenjit's (prasen9's) question...
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Re: Somdev's decision to not turn pro last year

Post by gvhvhg »

I do think his game would have been even better had he turned pro a year ago, but I don't think too much damage has been done.
I don't know if that's necesarrily true (the first part of that thought that is.) The sheer number of practices and matches Somdev played this year is far greater than he would have played had he been on the tour. I think this gave Somdev the opportunity to work on his game. The highest levels of competetive tennis don't necesarilly allow you to do that. If you think about it, if your somewhere in the 75-100 range, and youre playing ATP tournaments every week, chances are youre not going to play more than a few matches per tournament before you run into a higher ranked player. But in college, especially as the most dominant player, Somdev had the opportunity to try out so many different things in his matches and improve his mental strength as well as attain a supreme level of confidence. Similarly I think that over the past four years Federer has had the opportunity to take his game to levels he wouldnt have been able to if he was just another top ten player, simply because he was so dominant.
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Re: Somdev's decision to not turn pro last year

Post by arjun2761 »

This is unorthodox logic although Somdev may have made it work. CW is that you get better by playing better opponents (and the opponents even at challenger level are a lot better than at college level where you typically get 500-1000 level players).  If a steady diet of playing relative patsies makes you better,  all those Euro soccer players would be making a beeline to play in India :D
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Re: Somdev's decision to not turn pro last year

Post by 60611 »

From a tennis perspective, he played alot more tennis by staying a 4th year, albeit against not as good competition.  But the important thing is he was able to work on his game anytime he wanted, and get accustomed to winning, and winning big.  There is no doubt he's a much better player now than he was a year ago.

From an economic standpoint, I still think it was a good decision.  He's adored by UVa fans and I would imagine he will have several plum job offers if tennis doesn't work out because of injury/when he retires.  I'm not sure that would happen if he left after 3 years.

Not surprisingly, Somdev got it right here.
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Re: Somdev's decision to not turn pro last year

Post by arjun2761 »

My argument was based on tennis alone.

Of course, getting a degree and the loyalty (and plum job offers) of the UVa influentials are a huge plus!!  Now, it would be nice if the UVa influentials were able to get him a WC or two in the US (US open and Legg Mason would be nice) :D  As it stands now, he is even having to qualify into challengers although his results will probably take care of that by the next tournament he plays.
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Re: Somdev's decision to not turn pro last year

Post by prasen9 »

arjun2761 wrote: This is unorthodox logic although Somdev may have made it work. CW is that you get better by playing better opponents (and the opponents even at challenger level are a lot better than at college level where you typically get 500-1000 level players).  If a steady diet of playing relative patsies makes you better,  all those Euro soccer players would be making a beeline to play in India :D
I am with Arjun on this one.  The only advantage of college I think was he got good coaching.  If he had the money to employ a good coach and fitness instructor/physiotherapist, then college would not have done him much good.  I think he utilized the facilities to get better that he may not have had.  And he has simply matured to get better in the last year.
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Re: Somdev's decision to not turn pro last year

Post by BSharma »

The question that was asked was about Somdev specifically.  Somdev has not followed the conventional course and he is charting his own course.  None of us had guessed in June 2008 that he would be beating the players that he has defeated in the past month.  :D
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