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

[sameerph]

In classification matches, we finally won a match yesterday against Argentina and today won a tie against Mexico.

9-16 place playoff-

India l. Argentina 1-2'

Kriish Ajay TYAGI l. Valentin GARAY 2-6 2-6
Rushil KHOSLA l. Maximo ZEITUNE 4-6 6-4 4-10
Rushil KHOSLA /Vansh NANDAL d. Valentin GARAY /Lucca GUERCIO 1-4 5-3 10-7

13-16 Playoff-

India d. Mexico 3-0

Kriish Ajay TYAGI d. Santiago PORTUGAL APONTE 6-1 6-3
Rushil KHOSLA d. Ignacio RUIZ MARQUINEZ 6-1 6-1
Rushil KHOSLA /Vansh NANDAL d. Santiago PORTUGAL APONTE /Ignacio RUIZ MARQUINEZ 6-3 6-3

At least we will not end up with a wooden spoon and will play Turkey for 13-14 position tomorrow.

[jayakris]

Phew! If we were to play Turkey, we would probably lose to them purely because it is their home court and they would be fired up to force the wooden spoon down our throat.

[sameerph]

Yes, but even if we lose today we will at least not finish last due to win yesterday. Egypt and Mexico will play to avoid last spot.

[jayakris]

^^^ I meant if we had Turkey first in the knockout draw, we would be playing for 15/16 spots...

And we lost to Turkey and finished #14

Kerem YıLMAZ d. Kriish Ajay TYAGI, 6-4 6-7(0) 10-4
Atakan KARAHAN d. Rushil KHOSLA, 6-0 3-2 Ret.
Emirhan BULUT/ Atakan KARAHAN d. Vansh NANDAL/ Kriish Ajay TYAGI, 6-2 6-4

So, Rushil's period of funk continues with a injury retirement. Get well fast, kid! ... Vansh got to play one doubles match, at least.

[PKBasu]

Vansh also partnered Rushil in winning the doubles rubber against Mexico.
But, yes, this was a forgettable venture by our junior DC squad. Where, pray, are the days of Sunil Yajaman's able stewardship of our junior programs ?

[jayakris]

^^^ Thanks for bringing up the name. I don't think Indian players ever gave any credit to Sunil Yajaman, which was probably because he was in AITA and they all universally detest AITA as an organization. But he was a key to a lot of kids' early success. He left AITA and we have almost not produced anything since then.

[sameerph]

First of the qualifying tournaments for this year takes places this week with under 14 girls competition in Kutching, Malaysia.

And our girls are seeded as high as second in this year's competition.

We are in group D and have won our first 2 matches by 3-0 scoreline against Singapore and Lebanon. We play Hongkong tomorrow in the match which will decide the group toppers. Hongkong have also won 3-0 against both Singapore and Lebanon.

This is an earlier article on this week by Kamesh in Sportsstar-

Team India inspires confidence ahead of World Junior tennis

[jayakris]

It is a good team made up of the top 3 in Indian rankings, and all are from TN. Maaya and Harithasree are very good and the best (#1 and #3 in the AITA 14s rankings at age 13; Harithasree just turned 14). Diya, the youngest among the three, has not played ITF events but is #2 in the rankings from AITA events, and she has some wins over the top players including Harithasree too. So, coach Namita Bal (Nandan Bal's daughter; I think she is a good young coach) is right in what she said that they have three strong players, for a change.

I think Prisha Nikhil Shinde is as good as these players, but missed out as her AITA ranking is too low. In fact I think Maaya, Prisha and Harithasree are the top 3 in ITF rankings among this age group of Indians.

[sameerph]

We beat Hongkong 2-0 to win the tie and top the group with 3 out of 3 wins. Harithasree won 63 60 and Maaya won 75 63. Doubles was not played.

We play Kazakhstan in QF in a must win match.

Not quite sure if 4 teams qualify for world stage from here or 3. I guess it would be 3 as last year our own under 14 girls team finished 16th and last in world group. So, Asia Oceania would have mostly lost a spot from there.

So, we may need to win tomorrow and then 1 more match in next 2 days against mostly one of Japan, Australia and Korea.

[jayakris]

^^^ Looks like if we beat the Kazakhs, it will be Thailand or Japan in the semis - as per the draw on this ITF page (https://itfjuniors.tournamentsoftware.c ... E7A&draw=5) ... But the way, every damn organization's web page is so difficult to navigate these days. Even finding the ITF team competition page makes you go all over the place at the ITF site. These things were all so easy at one time on the internet

[jayakris]

But we lost to Kazakhistan 0-2... Harithasree lost very cheaply, 16 16 to Eva Korysheva first. Maaya put up a fight but lost 46 76(3) 26 in a two hour 40 minutes match.

[sameerph]

Damn, so looks like from this lot only Maaya appears to real talented one. Rest are not that good compared to best talent in Asia in this age group at least as of now it seems.

[jayakris]

^^^ I wonder if Prisha Shinde should have been in the team. It is difficult to say at this age though. She has looked good in the ITF events she has played. Has reached the semifinal today at the Bhilai J30 (where she is the 4th seed) with dominating straight sets wins.

[sameerph]

Yes, probably Prisha should have been selected in the team ahead of Harithasree or Diya. But, I have seen that AITA selectors go blindly based on AITA rankings while selecting teams for these age group tournaments. Then, what are the selectors there for ?

We already have a controversy over the selection of the team for next week's boys under 14 tournament. This was an article by Kamesh on his FB page-

Simplistic selection denies best talent, depletes national team

Talent and better achievements can at times be a handicap, if the system fails to recognise. One of the brightest tennis talent in the country, 13-year-old Tavish Pahwa realises it the hard way, as he has been ignored for the Indian under-14 team for the Asia-Oceania World junior tennis tournament to be held in Kuching, Malaysia, from March 27.
The national junior selection committee, with Suman Kapur as Chairman, has solely relied on the rank list and chose the top three, Tavish, in the sixth place has been left high and dry.
Tavish could have easily been No.1 in the country, had he wished, as he has a better record against all the three players who have been chosen. What was his fault ?!
Instead of competing at home, and boost his rank in November-December last year when the big tournaments were held at home, Tavish competed in the prestigious Eddie-Herr and Orange Bowl tournaments in Florida, USA.
He reached the under-12 quarterfinals in Eddie-Herr event and was the semifinalist of Orange Bowl in a global field of 128 players.
Tavish’s parents, who blew up a fortune to get him compete in the USA, were hopeful that there would be trials like last year, for the top six players, and that Tavish could find his way into the national team. However, with the All India Tennis Association (AITA) not having a proper procedure and sticking to the simplistic approach of national rank, the Indian team has been weakened by the absence of the fierce competitor Tavish.
Interestingly, Tavish is ranked higher in the Asian under-14 list, ahead of two players selected in the team.
It is in the interest of the national team that the best juniors are called for a camp, put through trials, and the best combination of singles and doubles players are chosen to enhance the team’s chances of progress in the international arena.
Last year, even after the teams were selected and announced, the best players were put through trials as the competition was in Delhi itself. A revised team had gone on to win the competition in the Junior Davis Cup under-16 Asia-Oceania event.
The plea of the parents to consider Tavish for selection by providing all details of his merit, have only fallen on deaf ears, owing to the rigid attitude of the officialdom.

[jayakris]

^^^ It is the same old AITA with their "do nothing" plan for self-preservation. The country's performance is not their interest. It has never been. Just do enough and have some simple (or simplistic) rules and explanations for what they do, so that they cannot be attacked on the basis of rules. That is typically the plan that they have been executing so well for decades. They will simply say that they followed their rankings, and say that it is the players' fault for not playing enough domestic events. Those who object can basically not get too far. But if the top kid with a low AITA ranking has enough backing from somebody important to AITA's self-preservation politics, they will change rules too - because they have a justification that the kid was good. I suppose that was not the case with Tavish. But they will always have a justification and will avoid any trouble that blows up, and they always have selectors and coaches in charge who will sing to the "family" tune from scripted pages that implement the "do-the-minimum" plan. AITA will never let anything blow up. They know how to keep quiet and let things die.

The players and parents are on their own. AITA is absolutely useless for anything. Tavish Pahwa should just focus on what he needs to do, and forget about a Federation that plays any part in his tennis career. Most of our top players have learned that early enough and moved on. The kid and his parents should not let it affect him.