Qualifying Draw

[Dhruv]

Code: Select all

1  VANC Andreea (ROM)         vs    DZIAMIDZENKA Natallia (BLR)
   FOLDENYI Anna M (HUN)      vs    TAKEMURA Ryoko (JPN)
   ARAI Maki (JPN)            vs    CHAKRAVARTI Rushmi (IND)
WC BHAMBRI Ankita (IND)       vs 6  ZHENG Jie (CHN)
2  BEYGELZIMER Yulia (UKR)    vs    MUSGRAVE Trudi (AUS)
JAYALAKSHMY J. Sai (IND)      vs    YARYSHKA Alena (BLR)
WC VENKATARAMAN Archana (IND) vs    BONDARENKO Valeria (UKR)
   KALYUZHNAYA Olga (RUS)     vs 8  SUN Tian Tian (CHN)
3  VENTO-KABCHI Maria (VEN)   vs WC LAKHANI Isha (IND)
   KOZHOKINA Ekaterina (RUS)  vs    MALHOTRA Manisha (IND)
   TAMEISHI Keiko (JPN)       vs    IM Jin-Hee (KOR)
   KINEBUCHI Akiko (JPN)      vs 7  YOSHIDA Yuka (JPN)
4  RAO Sunitha (USA)          vs WC VAKHARIA Megha (IND)
   BONDARENKO Katerina (UKR)  vs    YAN Zi (CHN)
   GRANT Kim (RSA)            vs    LI Ting (CHN)
   KIRILENKO Maria (RUS)      vs 5  BONDARENKO Alyona (UKR)

Well this is the qualifying draw. Jay if you want to start another topic go ahead and do it. You can split this one from my post on in the moderator mode and post it as a new topic.

[jayakris]

OK, I split the topic, Dhruv. Cool. I love the moderator power!

Anyway, on the qualifying draw ..


Can you believe that Kateryna amd Valeria Bondarenko made the qualifying draw but the three Indians above them, Radhika, Sonal and Sheetal didn't ?

What happened? Did they not even try to take a chance.

If they didn't, I don;t want to hear any complaints from them about lack of opportunities. If tennis is to be your life, you have got to jump through whatever hoops and take whatever chances you can take, to make it.

I guess I am being hard on them, while they may have some explanation of their own... But I am really perturbed at them missing it .. All THREE of them. How? .. yes, the chances are very low for them to upset the top-350 types they would play but isn't trying it what they all should live for? Where else will they ever get a chance to play a top-250 player?

Jay

[Daniel]

Just wondering if any of these players check out Jay's site or this forum -- at least they will know what a chance they missed out on...

Or is there a chance that they possibly aren't acquainted with the WTA procedures and never knew that they would eventually be able to literally walk into the qualy draw as DAs?

[jayakris]

Quite a lot of them read the notes, I am told. Occasionally I get an email from somebody too.

I guess they simply miscalculated. It is just not that often for the qualies draw cut to fall at a WTA event to #650 .. What I felt was that if I were playing (and eating, drinking and breathing tennis for my life) I would simply take a train and go. In the worst case, you would at least get a chance to see all these top-100 players (who should be your idols) playing in person.

I am sure all three know the rules of the entry, even if they didn't expect the cut to fall below 500. There must be something else that caused all three to miss it; I don't know what.

Jay

[Dhruv]

Code: Select all

   KALYUZHNAYA Olga RUS       bt    DZIAMIDZENKA Natallia BLR 3-6 6-3 7-5
   AKEMURA Ryoko JPN          bt    FOLDENYI Anna M HUN 6-2 6-3
   CHAKRAVARTI Rushmi IND     bt    ARAI Maki JPN 6-1 6-3
6  ZHENG Jie CHN              bt WC BHAMBRI Ankita IND  6-4 6-2
2  BEYGELZIMER Yulia UKR      bt    MUSGRAVE Trudi AUS 6-3 6-3
   YARYSHKA Alena BLR         bt    JAYALAKSHMY J. Sai IND 6-2 7-5
WC VENKATARAMAN Archana IND   bt    BONDARENKO Valeria UKR 2-6 6-1 6-2
8  SUN Tian Tian CHN          bt    Takehara 6-3 6-1
WC LAKHANI Isha IND           bt 3  VENTO-KABCHI Maria VEN 6-4 7-6(1)
   MALHOTRA Manisha IND       bt    KOZHOKINA Ekaterina RUS 6-3 6-2
   IM Jin-Hee KOR             bt    TAMEISHI Keiko JPN 6-0 6-1
   KINEBUCHI Akiko JPN        bt 7  YOSHIDA Yuka JPN 6-7(6) 6-1 7-5
4  RAO Sunitha USA            bt WC VAKHARIA Megha IND 6-2 6-3
   YAN Zi CHN                 bt    BONDARENKO Katerina UKR 4-6 6-1 6-0
   LI Ting CHN                bt    GRANT Kim RSA 6-4 6-1
   KIRILENKO Maria RUS        bt 5  BONDARENKO Alyona UKR 6-4 6-3

Second Round

Code: Select all

   KALYUZHNAYA Olga RUS     vs   AKEMURA Ryoko JPN 
   CHAKRAVARTI Rushmi IND   vs 6 ZHENG Jie CHN 
2  BEYGELZIMER Yulia UKR    vs   YARYSHKA Alena BLR 
WC VENKATARAMAN Archana IND vs 8 SUN Tian Tian CHN
WC LAKHANI Isha IND         vs   MALHOTRA Manisha IND
   IM Jin-Hee KOR           vs   KINEBUCHI Akiko JPN 
4  RAO Sunitha USA          vs   YAN Zi CHN 
   LI Ting CHN              vs   KIRILENKO Maria RUS 

Some really nice wins by the Indian women. esp Isha. More comments later

[jayakris]

Man, what an incredible upset win by Isha Lakhani ! .. I simply do not believe it. I am stunned.


Here are the Indian's matches with rankings.

Code: Select all

  Rushmi Chakravarthi (IND,384) d.   Maki Arai (JPN,647)           61 63
6 Jie Zheng (CHN,182)           d. W Ankita Bhambri (IND,NR)       64 62
  Alena Yaryshka (BLR,458)      d.   J. Sai Jayalakshmy (IND,500)  62 75
W Archana Venkatraman (IND,928) d.   Valeria Bondarenko (UKR,667)  26 61 62
W Isha Lakhani (IND,NR)         d. 3 Maria Vento-Kabchi (VEN,167)  64 76(1)
  Manisha Malhotra (IND,345)    d.   Ekaterina Kozhokina (RUS,382) 63 62
4 Sunitha Rao (USA,176)         d. W Megha Vakharia (IND,719)      62 63

Here are the second round matches of interest, with rankings:

Code: Select all

6 Jie Zheng (CHN,182)           vs   Rushmi Chakravarthi (IND,384) Sunday
8 Tian Tian Sun (CHN,223)       vs W Archana Venkatraman (IND,928) Sunday
  Manisha Malhotra (IND,345)    vs W Isha Lakhani (IND,NR)         Sunday
4 Sunitha Rao (USA,176)         vs   Zi Yan (CHN,289)              Sunday

The winner of the Isha-Manisha match gets an unseeded player in the next round too.. Things couldn't be better.

Jay

[Dhruv]

Code: Select all

   KALYUZHNAYA Olga RUS     d.    AKEMURA Ryoko JPN        64 36 63
6  ZHENG Jie CHN            d.    CHAKRAVARTI Rushmi IND   64 63 
2  BEYGELZIMER Yulia UKR    d.    YARYSHKA Alena BLR       66 (retd.)
8  SUN Tian Tian CHN        d. WC VENKATARAMAN Archana IND 62 60  
   MALHOTRA Manisha IND     d. WC LAKHANI Isha IND         63 63   
   KIM Jin-Hee KOR          d.    KINEBUCHI Akiko JPN      61 64
   YAN Zi CHN               d. 4  RAO Sunitha USA          63 16 63    
   KIRILENKO Maria RUS      d.    LI Ting CHN              63 63

Final Round

Code: Select all

 
   KALYUZHNAYA Olga (RUS)     vs 6  ZHENG Jie CHN 
2  BEYGELZIMER Yulia (UKR)    vs 8  SUN Tian Tian CHN
   MALHOTRA Manisha (IND,345) vs    KIM Jin-Hee (KOR,299)
   YAN Zi (CHN)               vs    KIRILENKO Maria RUS

[PKBasu]

Are there still points available for winning a round in a WTA tournament qualifier? (bonus points have presumably been eliminated)?
This is a classy way for Isha Lakhani to enter the ranking lists...Archana Venkatraman's win too was pretty impressive, for one of our "older" players who has been over-shadowed in recent years by the emergence of the fabulous brigade of 14-17 year olds.

[Dhruv]

Points for the Qualifiers for this tournament are

Code: Select all

QLFR  R3  R2  R1 
5.5  3.5  2    1

Also yes there are quality points and Isha gets 2 of them for her win. The rest of our players also pick up a few points.

In Tournaments where prize money is $25,000 or greater:
?? Qualifiers earn Main Draw Round points based on the highest round reached in the Main Draw plus the Round
points specified in the Qualifier (QLFR) column, and the Quality points earned in both the Main Draw and
Qualifying.

[gvhvhg]

any idea what time Manisha's match is on......... mabye we can meet in the chatroom.

So Isha gets a total of four pts, 2 quality and two for making Q2?

[Dhruv]

That's what I understand after the reading the points book. So that means she will be ranked, but around 1000-1050 mark, when the new rankings come out in 9 days time. The points fron this tourney only go on the calendar after the tournament has finished.

The Indian matches tommorow are: (Indian Standard Time)

15:00 Manisha Malhotra vs Jin-Hee Kim
19:50 Sania Mirza/Mary Pierce vs Rushmi Chakravarti/J.Sai Jayalakshmi

The site will try and have live scores from Monday, but no gaurantees. It'll be pretty early/late for me though so I won't be there but maybe some others can go into the chat.

[PKBasu]

A tough but not impossible final match-up in the Qualifier for Manisha.
Now that her partner has pulled out due to injury (and presumably she hasn't been able to replace Chanda Rubin too quickly), she should be extra-motivated to win...

[Dhruv]

Manisha won today and moved into the main draw and if I am reading my earlier post correctly she has so far accumulated 5.5 QLFR + 1 Main Draw + 2 Quality Points(top 251-500 wins) = 8.5 points.

Not bad so far. Should move her up to about the 317 mark. Now we also have two women in the a WTA tournament (a first maybe). Hopefully one maybe both manage to get a win. That should give the home crowd something to cheer about.

[jayakris]

That is just about her highest ranking. I have a vague memory of her being at around #299 once, but I am not sure. I am pretty sure she has been around #320 once I think.

In any event, a great job by Manisha. She is probably playing at her best level and is no longer a prospect or anything, but these kinds of accomplishments by experienced players like Manisha would tremendously help the youngsters in India to believe in themselves and develop the "can do" attitude, and to also develop the spirit to persevere. Thank you Manisha! .. And keep it going .. What the heck, let's get a main draw win (but all the qualifiers have tough spots in the draw)!

Jay

[PKBasu]

Sania/Mary started with a flourish, winning the first set 6-3, but then appeared to disintegrate in set 2, losing it 1-6. This is becoming a bit of a pattern with Sania (and actually has occasionally been a problem with the volatile Mary Pierce too).
Perhaps Sania needs to work a bit on her mental strength, to sustain it for an entire match and not spend too much physical/mental energy at the start of a match. Such things can only come with match-practice, so it is a great thing that she plans to spend this year actually touring the globe playing tournaments.
I won't be up to see whether they pulled it back in the final set, but this has been a promising week for Indian women's tennis regardless of the final outcome of this match...