February W15/W25 ITF tournaments, India (Jhajjar, Gurugram, Bengaluru)

[Dinesh]

Entry list for W15 Jhajjar, starting next week, 06/Feb:

01 Vaidehi Chaudhari 522
02 Tamara Curovic SRB 524
03 Jasmin Jebawy GER 640
04 Zeel Desai 652
05 Alexandra Iordache ROU 822
06 Marie Mettraux SUI 921
07 Humera Baharmus 937
08 Fanny Ostlund SWE 962
09 Vanessa Ersoz SWE 994
10 Sevil Yuldasheva UZB 1026
11 Akanksha Dileep Nitture 1110
12 Yubrani Banerjee 1135
13 Sai Samhitha Chamarthi 1197
14 Celine Simunyu IRL 1213
15 Milana Maslenkova UZB 1254
16 Shach Lieberman ISR 1271
17 Farhat Aleen Qamar 1271
18 Soha Sadiq 1290

Vaidehi should justify her seeding here by reaching the final at least, if not by winning the title. Not going to expect any other Indian players to surprise us.

[sameerph]

Pretty good foreign presence here with 10 foreign players listed in main draw. Hope an Indian takes the title in first 3 week ( 2 W15's in Jhajjar and 1 W15 in Gurugram). Last 2 weeks are W25 and W40 in Bengaluru. So, Ankita, Karman, Rutuja, Sahaja are likely to return for that. In fact I feel Sahaja should have played these W15's too if she is not playing anywhere else in that period. Few extra points and good match practice would not hurt.

[PKBasu]

I'm surprised Sahaja isn't playing this tournament. These were relatively easy points for her to pick up and build into the kitty, but perhaps she is moving onto bigger challenges.

[Dinesh]

Agree that Sahaja should have played these tournaments, to at least, work on her DF issues???

Main draw for week 1 at Jhajjar:


(1) Vaidehi CHAUDHARI IND vs Ishwari MATERE IND
Sai Samhitha CHAMARTHI IND vs wc Kundali MAJGAINE IND
q vs q
(6) Humera BAHARMUS IND vs wc Riya UBOVEJA IND

(3) Zeel DESAI IND vs wc Kashish BHATIA IND
Celine SIMUNYU IRL vs Ilaria SPOSETTI ITA
Shachf LIEBERMAN ISR vs q
(8) Vanessa ERSOZ SWE vs q

(5) Fanny ÖSTLUND SWE vs Akanksha Dileep NITTURE IND
Sevil YULDASHEVA UZB vs wc Ritu OHLYAN IND
Yubrani BANERJEE IND vs q
(4) Alexandra IORDACHE ROU vs Milana MASLENKOVA UZB

(7) Marie METTRAUX SUI vs q
q vs q
Elena Giovanna GIESSLER GER vs Farhat Aleen QAMAR IND
(2) Tamara CUROVIC SRB vs Soha SADIQ IND

[Dinesh]

A notable result from the second round of the qualifying draw, 16 yo Sahira Singh (ITF-1458) upset 13th seed Swedish player (ITF-1062) in 3 sets. Only 2 foreign players left in the final round of QD.

[sameerph]

In Jhajjar, qualifier Mihika Yadav upset 7th seeded Swiss player Mettraux in the second round. I think just a month back we wondering where Mihika has gone. Good to see that she is still able to play at a decent level. Other 3 Indian seeds - top seed Vaidehi, Humera and Zeel took their appointed places in QF. In fact except for Mihika's upset all other seeds went thru to the QF.

So, 4 Indians in QF - Vaidehi and Humera will play each other, third seed Zeel meets 8th seed Sweede Erosz with winner to meet winner of Vaidehi-Humera match. Mihika in other half and will play second seeded Serbian Curovic in the QF.

[jayakris]

In Jhajjar, qualifier Mihika Yadav upset 7th seeded Swiss player Mettraux in the second round. I think just a month back we wondering where Mihika has gone. Good to see that she is still able to play at a decent level.

I think this is her first QF in a pro event, which is truly hard to believe, at age 23. This is somebody who was ranked #32 in the world in the juniors in late 2017. Just looking over her pro events during the last 5 years and seeing the number of early losses just made me nearly cry. She has only played the India events in the last 4 years. I don't know how she has even carried on this long. I am glad that she finally got to a QF.

[sameerph]

Yes, Mihika lost 36 06 against second seed Curovic in QF though. Vaidehi thrashed Humera 61 60.in QF and Zeel had good 3 set comeback win against 8th seed.

Top 4 seeds are all thru to SF where 2 remaining Indians Vaidehi and Zeel will meet each other.

[Dinesh]

Solid form from Vaidehi. Hope she goes all the way here.

[jayakris]

Top seed Vaidehi took care of 3rd seed Zeel, 46 61 62... She faces the 2nd seed Curvic in the final. Go Vaidehi!!!

[jayakris]

At the W15 in Jhajjar, Haryana, India (Clay)

[F] (1) Vaidehi Chaudhari (IND,524) l. Tamara Curovic (SRB,533), 64 26 36

Vaidehi had a Jhajjar semifinal and a Gurugram final last year at this time, so this final was good to keep her ranking.

[jayakris]

It is sad that Mihika Yadav did not get a wildcard this week, after playing 6 matches last week to qualify in and reach the QF, including two three-setters in the main draw. Mihika is made to again play qualies, and has won two rounds to reach the final qualies on Tuesday.

Instead it is Kundalini Majgaine, Himanshika Singh, Sahira Singh, Divya jyoti Sahu who got wildcards to the main draw. Who the heck are they even? AITA should be ashamed of themselves. At least they could do something with the wildcard they have, when the local organizers can be expected to give their WCs to local players like they always do.

Horrible .

[sameerph]

All those qualifiers got bundled out in first round without a fight and unfortunately, Mihika lost in final qualifying round this week, mostly tired due to playing so many matches.

In the meantime, 19 year qualifier Sandeepti Singh Rao created a huge upset in second round beating top seeded 386th ranked Latvian Diana Marinkevica in straight sets 76(5) 62.

Apart from that 4 Indian seeds took their appointed places in QD- Second seed Vaidehi Chaudhri, fourth seed Zeel Desai,fifth seed Shrivalli Rashmika Bhamidipaty and 8th seed Humera Baharamus. Vaidehi, Zeel and Humera all beat foreign players.

So, there will be 5 Indians in QF this week. There will be 1 all Indian QF between Sandeepti and Shrivalli, Vaidehi meets 6th seeded Romanian, Zeel meets 7th seeded Swede and Humera meets second seed and last week's winner Curovic.

[jayakris]

In the meantime, 19 year qualifier Sandeepti Singh Rao created a huge upset in second round beating top seeded 386th ranked Latvian Diana Marinkevica in straight sets 76(5) 62.

This was indeed a pleasant surprise. Sandeepti is one of those players whose final 2 junior years got totally curtailed by Covid when she was 16. She didn't have a great junior career before that or anything, but had reached a J4 final in India just after turning 16. Not sure if this run is actually showing the emergence of a good player whose development was delayed by Covid, or if it is due to some issue with Marinkevica... But Sandeepti had upset the top seed in the qualies also, Ishwari Matere, and she is not a bad player. And then she beat Sai Samhitha in R1. She has not dropped a set in 5 matches either, and only Marinkevica took her to even a tiebreaker. So it looks like this could be something real here!

Let us see how she does against Shrivalli.

[sameerph]

Sandeepti continues her excellent run with a 62 76(4) win over 5th seeded Shrivalli to move to the SF.

Other matches went as per seedings as third seed Kurovic, second seeded Vaidehi and 4th seeded Zeel won in straight sets.

Repeat of Vaidehi-Zeel SF which Vaidehi won last week and Sandeepti faces a tough task against third seed and last week champion Curovic.