ITF Junior Circuit 2022- India

[sameerph]

Kriish is coming along really well. He will be close to 240 in the rankings now. As I see he will be the 8th best ranked player in ITF junior rankings from those born 2007 and later. If he continues in that territory very good chance that he will go to top 60 or so by end of next year to eligible for grand slam juniors. He may even do it earlier if he is able to win some higher level tournaments.

Next week there is J3 in Pune to round off this circuit. So, more points in the offing there. Hope our players are able to take title/s. Looks like top 4 seeds among boys will all be Indians- Kriish will be second seed behind Aman Dahiya ( don't know why he is still playing junior tournaments.

Among girls too top 3 seeds will be Indians, Suhitha Maruri and Madhurima Sawat coming in as first and third seeds to join Sonal Patil who will be second seed. But, there are 2 Thai girls among lower seeds and French girl Margot who won back to back titles in last 2 weeks will be the biggest threat.

[sameerph]

Upsets galore in Boys in ITF J3 in Pune in second round.

Top 3 seeds all went out - top seed Aman Dahiya lost to Hitesh Chauhan who has been showing some promising results this week, second seed Kriish Tyagi got upset by Indian American Srikeshav Murugesan after winning the first set 61- looks like Kriish must have been tired after winning back to back titles in last 2 weeks which is sad for him and third seed Daksh Prasad lost to Taiwanese player. We have 4 Indian boys in QF- Hitesh, 4th seed Bushan Haobam, qualifier 14 year old Samarth Sahita and 17 year old Adhrit Awal. Hitesh will play Samarth in QF, 4th seed Bushan plays 7th seed Taiwanese in QF and Adhrit plays another Taiwanese.

In girls, 5 of the the 8 seeds are thru to QF which include Indians top seed Suhita Maruri, third seed Madhurima Sawant and sixth seed Tejaswi Dabas. 2 other Indian in QF - 14 year old lucky loser Aishwarya Jadhav who beat a Russian player in second round and 13 year old wild card Maya Rajeshwaran Revathi who upset the fifth seeded Thai player. Maya is rop ranked Indian among under 14 and under girls and Aishwarya is #3. So,good results for them at under 18 level.
Maya will play Madhurima in QF while top seed Suhitha has the toughest match against last 2 weeks winner French girl Margot, Tejaswi meets 4th seed Thai and Aishwarya meets Indian American Saina Deshpande who upset second seed Sonal Patil.

[gbelday]

Keshav is a really good player (the one who beat Tyagi). He’s from NJ. Super offensive game style. takes everything on the rise and can disrupt any player. Makes a lot of mistakes but consistency will come. He was a phenom in the junior USTA circuit up until the 12s but didn’t quite grow much and struggles physically. But I see good things for him in the future.

He did say that he had a tough time with the air quality in Delhi but likes Pune a lot better.

[jayakris]

On the girls' side, I was really waiting to see how the 13 year old wildcard Maaya Rajeshwaran would do. She does seem to be a big talent. In fact I went "damn!" when I saw that she was drawn against qualifier Prisha Shinde, another 13 year old who seems to be talented. I was sad that these two were going to beat each other up ... But Prisha retired late in the first set. Good job by Maaya in a good upset after that to make the QFs.

I would have advised Kriish, Hanu Patel, Sonal etc not to play the middle J4 event and to be fresh for the J3 that counts for more. All three went out in the first two matches after 10 matches and finals in the previous two weeks. Phanthala from France seems to keep going though - 12 wins on the trot in India. Would love to see Suhitha take her out in the QF, but I don't know if she can. Till somebody beats Phanthala, she is the best in the circuit.

Aishwarya Jadhav (14 year old) also seems to be quite good! She is the only player to take a set off Margot Phanthala in 12 matches. She has qualified in the last two weeks, is an LL this week, taken out good players like Aaditi Bhat (USA), Asmi Adkar, and the Russian player this week, and she is in the QFs. Her losses have only been to Phanthala, Podgorichini and Prisha Shinde (in Q3 this week). I doubt she has enough in the tank to beat Pune girl Saina Deshpande (USA). Aishwarya has played 15 matches (!) in three weeks including 8 in the qualies. Nobody thought of giving her a wildcard, I guess. She was in our u14 team at the world final-16 after all (and she is from Kolhapur, Maharashtra. Hello, MSLTA? They gave the WC to Ira Shah from Pune who lost to the Russian who then lost to Aishwarya). But Aishwarya's work has indeed been noted!

[sameerph]

2 Indian boys in SF. 14 year old Hitesh Chauhan continues his good run beating fellow 14 year old Samarth Sahita 75 in third set and Adhrit Awal is a surprise semi finaiist beating Taiwanese player. Hitesh and Adhrit play each other in SF. Other SF will be between Taiwane seventh seed who beat 4th seed Bushan Haobam and 6th seeded Serbian.

3 Indian girls in SF. Phanthala from France continues her incredible run by taking out top see Suhitha Maruri in 3 close sets. Aishwarya Jadhav manages to find enough energy to beat Saina Deshpande 7-5 in third set after losing the first set. Aishwarya will meet 17 year old Madhurima Sawant who beat Maaya Rajeshwaran in QF. Other 14 year old Tejaswi Dabas beats 4th seed Thai girl in the QF and will meet Phanthala in the SF.

[jayakris]

I am glad that Aishwarya came through yesterday. I was worried that I might have jinxed her with some high praise

What is the story on Tejasvi Dabas? Weird results. I mean she went gangbusters this January, winning the Chandigarh J3 etc, and then had a long year of no good results. Here she is, on a run again. I believe she was in Australia earlier too. By the way, is she still 14 years of age? I see a picture of her in this article from 4.5 years ago where she doesn't look like a 10 year old. In fact, I see this video from 3.5 years ago, of a lady in Australia trying to help her on her internet show with a "please help this talented player" message - where the lady actually mentions that "she is struggling with her age-related issues, but she never gave up". She certainly looks much older than 11 years in that picture too. Here is one picture from last year when she won an u18 event, and that is a 13 year old? But ITF says 14 years old now. So, what is story here?? Something seems not to fit...

[sameerph]

I have also read about her age related issues. It seems she was not selected for our under 14 teams because of these issues. That is why I am not so upbeat on her as the other 13-14 years which have shone in this circuit like Aishwarya and Maaya.

Overall, I get a feeling that after dry pipeline for almost 4-5 years since Sumit. Karman etc we are finally getting to see some talent again both on boys and girls side.

Among boys, we will have 3 players ( Aryan, Manas and Yuvan) in top 50 at the start of next year. Hopefully Rushil will recover from bit of a slump which he is having in second half of this year and join them towards the end of next year. Then, there are 4 more players from 2007 batch who look real promising and already doing well in 18 and under ITF circuit- Kriish , Rethin, Rayan Sajjid and Hitesh Chauhan and couple from 2006 batch also doing well in US - Aditya Govila and Cahir Warik. So, at least 10 from boys side from 2005 to 2007 borns who look to have potential. Next 2-3 year will show where they are heading but as of now it looks better than last few years.

On girls side- not so much depth but some promising signs but we can talk for sure after a few months.

[sameerph]

Hitesh in the boys final with another tough win 76(9) in the third set against fellow Adhrit Awal . Don't know if he will anything left in the tank in the final against 6th seeded Serbian Daskalovic who got a walkover today.

Madhurima Sawant proved too good in the SF against Aishwarya who must be pretty tired and she will meet unbeaten in this circuit French girl Phanthala who beat Tejaswi Dabas in SF.

[jayakris]

^^ Both the foreigners won at Pune on Saturday. Oh well... But it was a very nice run by Hitesh, who should move up from near #700 to around #475, to be right behind Manas, Kriish, and Rethin, ahead of Rayan from among those "2007 kids". We have a few players who should get to the top-75 levels of ITF juniors (some hopefully top-20) in the coming 2-3 years.

Meanwhile, Rethin Pranav S. (IND,321) is at the prestigious JA Orange Bowl in Plantation, Florida, USA, and has reached the final qualies. He beat Siddhartha Lama (USA,1213) by a 63 63 score and then upset the 16th seed Patrick Jozwicki (AUT,260), 62 67(3) [10-6]. He plays 16 year old, 6th seed Thanaphat Boosarawongse (THA,158) next. The other Indians in the qualies, Aditya Govilla and Cahir Warik, could not repeat their good work in the J1 qualies in Florida last week, and went down in the Q1 round.

[sameerph]

News about collaboration between ITF and ATP -

ITF AND ATP WORK TO ACCELERATE CAREERS OF PROMISING YOUNG PLAYERS

Each player ranked in the Top 20 of the ITF Junior Boys Year-End Rankings will be granted up to eight Accelerator Spots at ATP Challenger Tour 50 and 75 tournaments the following season. These will be split between Main Draw (Top 10) and Qualifying (11-20), with players also eligible for two Accelerator Spots at M15 or M25 ITF World Tennis Tour events.

Players ranked 21-30 in the year-end ITF Junior Rankings will be eligible for eight spots at M15 or M25 events.

For players ranked in the Top 20 of the ITF Junior Girls Year-End Rankings, there will be a total of five opportunities to access main draws at women’s events on the ITF World Tennis Tour, from W15 to W100 level – depending on ranking. For the first time this will include access to the new W40 category, introduced for 2023 as part of the ITF’s drive for gender parity across the sport.

This is really good news particularly for boys ranked in top 20 in year end rankings. They will get to play as many 8 challengers directly. We do not have anyone that good but hope we have someone next year.