ITF Team Juniors (u16 Davis/Fed Cup, u14 World Jun. Tennis)

[sameerph]

Damn, our boys lost a very close one against Korea. Our #2 Arnav Paparrkar won his match in straight sets against Korea #2 - this kid has won all 3 of the matches he has played, so need to have a watch on him. Our #1 Tanushh Ghildyal lost to Korean #1 in straight sets. Then, in double Tanushh and Arnav lost the doubles 10-12 in super tie break. Cannot get closer than this. Missed qualification by a whisker.

Japan, Korea, Thailand and Kazakhstan qualify from here.

So, overall after these 4 age group competitions, Japan got all it's 4 teams qualify, Australia got 3, India, Korea and ThaIland 2 each and Kazakhstan. That may give an indication of talent level in this age group.

[sameerph]

Our boys won their classification matches against Hongkong and Indonesia 2-1 to finish fifth in under 14. Korea won the title beating Japan in the final. So, our boys were really unlucky to draw them in the all important QF and then losing out them in doubles after missing 5 matchpoints in super tie break. Anyway, hope these boys learn something from this. Arnav Paparkar won all 5 of the matches he played and lost only 1 doubles match against Korea. He did play #2 in all but 1 matches and was not played against Japan. Still, winning 5 matches does show some talent.

[jayakris]

We are all set for the Junior Davis Cup world-16 in Turkey next week.

Sajid Lodi confident of India’s chances in Junior Davis Cup Finals (The Hindu, Oct 29)

I like it that they are bringing in Kriish Tyagi. Rushil Khosla is a very good anchor. Not sure about Vansh Nandal though, unless they know something about him that is not in his ITF junior record. He hasn't done anything in the ITF circuit (but probably has some wins in the domestic circuit). We have so many other players younger who are better in singles. Of course, Manas, Aryan, Rethin, Cahir, etc would all qualify. If we were sending Manas, Aryan and Rushil, we had a chance to even be in the final 4 or better. But hopefully Rushil and Kriish can take us to the final 8 and Vansh is hopefully a good doubles player to support.

[sameerph]

Don't think Aryan is eligible. He turns 17 this year and has only 1 more year for ITF juniors which for 18 and under. So, he cannot be eligible for 16 and under tis year.

Not sure why Manas is not there though. But if Manas was not available for some reason Rethin should have been there ahead of Vansh Nandal. But, many times in the past I have seen AITA select team based only on domestic rankings which is silly.

[jayakris]

Yes, you are right. Aryan is older. Rethin definitely qualifies.

[jayakris]

Not sure why Manas is not there though. But if Manas was not available for some reason Rethin should have been there ahead of Vansh Nandal. But, many times in the past I have seen AITA select team based only on domestic rankings which is silly.

But AITA does add in the ITF points in their rankings, so I am okay with that (some 20+ years ago they weren't, and it was maddening!). I guess they need to do this to force kids to play the domestic circuit, and a lot of them do play a lot. That is really needed, and has helped over time.

I checked the AITA u16 rankings, and they have gone by ranking in picking Vansh. The latest (Oct 10) rankings are 1. Manas, 2. Kriish, 3. Rushil, 4. Rethin, 5. Vansh... The earlier team members Debasis Sahoo and Bhushan Haobam have fallen to #9 and #12, as they haven't won much domestically and nothing in the ITF rankings either. I assume that Manas and Rethin didn't make themselves available. Manas may be in Spain; but I doubt if Rethin would've said no. There could also be some visa issues or something too though. Rethin was away in Thailand last week and might not have been able to get a visa on time etc. We don't know such details....

I think Vansh must be pretty good, to have done that well with only domestic points. He hasn't played a whole lot of ITF events. And he does have quite a bit of doubles points as well. So, all in all a good pick, though Rethin's having a bit more international experience would have helped if he were available. No big deal. Let us roll with the three good ones out there in Turkiye.

It all starts tomorrow!

[jayakris]

We are in Group B with Italy [4], Great Britain, and Czech Republic. We lost 0-3 to Czech republic in the pool ties on the first day. Not good.

BRUNCLIK Petr d. TYAGI Kriish Ajay, 61 64
MRVA Maxim d. KHOSLA Rushil, 64 64
MRVA Maxim/ HANZELIN Filip d. KHOSLA Rushil/ TYAGI Kriish Ajay, 76 64

[jayakris]

We lost to 4th seed Italy 0-3 too.

CARBONI Lorenzo d. TYAGI Kriish Ajay, 63 64
CINA Federico d. KHOSLA Rushil, 62 62
ANGELINI Lorenzo/ CARBONI Lorenzo d. KHOSLA Rushil/ TYAGI Kriish Ajay, 76(5) 26 10-8

[sameerph]

Vansh Nandal has not even been picked for dead rubber doubles matches. Shows that captain has no confidence in him.

Rushil also appears to have gone off form in last few months. Missing Manas here. We may have still lost some of these matches against European strong teams on clay but it would have been a lot more competitive.

[jayakris]

^^^ I expected to lose the ties but it was sad to see us losing 11 sets in a row there on clay before we even took a set. Rushil has not looked too good lately, yes.

[sameerph]

We lost against Great Britain 0-3 too.

TYAGI KRIISH AJAY l. BONDING OLIVER 67(1) 26
KHOSLA RUSHIL l. SEARLE HENRY 06 26
TYAGI KRIISH AJAY / KHOSLA RUSHIL l. BONDING OLIVER / SEARLE HENRY 06 36

We have not even come close to winning any set which is sad to see.

[jayakris]

^^ Very disappointing. Only one tiebreaker doubles set won in 18 sets, and only 2 of the 17 lost sets even went to a tiebreaker. Eight of those sets were 2-6 or worse. Utterly pathetic display, really. I guess these kids have no experience on clay at all.

[sameerph]

Rushil has played 5-6 tournaments on clay in Europe and Egypt early this year and has win a few matches but he seems to have totally gone off form in last few months. Does not look like Krish Tyagi has not played on clay.

[PKBasu]

Total failure of the coaching staff (if there is any). They had enough time to prepare, and all the players seem to have regressed instead of getting better.

[jayakris]

Total failure of the coaching staff (if there is any).

The captain is a guy who has won only ONE junior level ITF match and ONE pro level ITF match in his career some 20 years ago. Has never played on clay abroad as far as I can find out.

Who the heck is Sajid Lodi? He may even be a good coach for all I know, but there needs to be at least some player-experience specs for somebody to be the captain of a national team. AITA does whatever the heck they want. Again, it is not Sajid Lodi's fault, and he may not be the reason why we did so poorly. But the way AITA selects people to run our Davis Cup and Junior Davis Cup teams is almost criminal and unpardonable.