Asian Challengers July-October 2017

[jaydeep]

In main-draw, Saki is facing local wild card player.

In the doubles, Saki is playing with Kudryavtsev ... Vishnu is also playing and he is top-seed with Japanese Matsui.

At $125K+H Astana Challenger 2017, Kazakhstan

[Q1] (2) Saketh Myneni (IND,432) bye
[Q2] (2) Saketh Myneni (IND,432) bt Beibit Zukayev (KAZ,NR) 64 62
[Q3] (2) Saketh Myneni (IND,432) bt (5) Altug Celikbileg (TUR,448) 64 75

[R1] (Q) Saketh Myneni (IND,432) vs (WC) Grigoriy Lomakin (KAZ,1878)

Doubles
[R1] (1) Toshihide Matsui (JPN)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) vs (WC) Timur Maulenov (KAZ)/ Denis Yevseyev (KAZ)
[R1] (3) Alexander Kudryavtsev (RUS)/ Saketh Myneni (IND) vs Sadio Doumbia (FRA)/ Michal Konecny (CZE)

[bujilover]

Looks like Vishnu couldn't sign up for singles qualifying and ended up playing doubles. Good to see him seeded first with the Japanese veteran.

[Sin Hombre]

Good draw for Saketh. The seed in his quarter is Duckhee, a player he should beat normally but at least should be competitive against as he makes his return from injury.

(4)Duckhee Lee v Miomir Kecmanovic
(wc)Grigoriy Lomakin v (Q)Saketh Myneni

[Rajiv]

Saki on court now and the match available on LiveStream.
2 all on serve First Set.

So wonderful to see him back on the courts after a long long time.

It is raining now and match suspended with Saki leading 5-2 , Its going to be a nice workout to get in shape for tougher matches ahead.

[bujilover]

Kecmanovic is the current junior #1. It would be an interesting match between him and Lee.
Saketh wins 6-3 7-6. Surprised to see that second set stretch from his opponent ranked that low.

[jaydeep]

Yeah, surprisingly close score but good to see Saki wins.

Vishnu-Matsui started with straight sets win over wild card pair ... Next, they r facing pairing of Milojevic and Setkic.

At $125K+H Astana Challenger 2017, Kazakhstan

[R1] (Q) Saketh Myneni (IND,432) bt (WC) Grigoriy Lomakin (KAZ,1878) 63 76(4)

Doubles
[R1] (1) Toshihide Matsui (JPN)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) bt (WC) Timur Maulenov (KAZ)/ Denis Yevseyev (KAZ) 75 61

[QF] (1) Toshihide Matsui (JPN)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) vs Nikola Milojevic (SRB)/ Aldin Setkic (BIH)

[sameerph]

Kecmanovic is the current junior #1. It would be an interesting match between him and Lee.
Saketh wins 6-3 7-6. Surprised to see that second set stretch from his opponent ranked that low.

It is not so easy to get back on tour after 6 months. He would take some time to get to his old level. He would count himself luck that he has got a few easy points at challenger level and some good match practice against lower level players. Saki has got 14 points from this week so far. So, he will temporarily move back inside top 400 next week. But, he has 16 points falling off next week. So, he will back to where he is after 2 weeks unless of course if he goes further here.

Duck Hee Lee and Kecmanovic were tied at 1 set all when the match was interrupted and will resume tomorrow. The winner to play Saki on Thursday.

[sameerph]

Saketh lost in first round of doubles in a close match.

At $125K+H Astana Challenger 2017, Kazakhstan

[R1] (3) Alexander Kudryavtsev (RUS)/ Saketh Myneni (IND) l. Sadio Doumbia (FRA)/ Michal Konecny (CZE) 63 46 3-10

He will meet Duck Hee Lee tomorrow in singles second round.

[R2] (Q) Saketh Myneni (IND,432) vs (4) Duckhee Lee (KOR,153)

Saketh has won both the matches that has played so far against Duckhee last year. However, Saketh is coming back from injury and seems far from his best based on first round match scoreline. So, Duckhee would be favoured in this match.

[jaydeep]

Saki is steadily getting back and finding his rhythm after three wins, so I can smell an upset in this match ... Go Saki.

[Rajiv]

Saki's match has started and not looking good

Love 5 down and his game so far is strewn with DF's , dumping the shots in the net , getting passed , mishitting and missing the lines by wide margin all this indicating he is finding it difficult to adjust to the pace of challenger level play .

Duck He Lee is the first higher ranked and challenger level player he has played after his comeback as all the earlier Qualifying and R1 matches were against lower ranked players and some juniors.

Hope he can recover and reverse this trend.

[jaydeep]

The decent scoreline in the second after getting a bagel in the first.

At $125K+H Astana Challenger 2017, Kazakhstan

[R2] (Q) Saketh Myneni (IND,432) l (4) Duckhee Lee (KOR,153) 06 46

[PKBasu]

Clearly Saketh is still a long way from finding his best form. The quality of opposition in his first few matches here was clearly not good enough to prepare him for Duckhee.

[sameerph]

Yes. Saki looks some way away from matching up to challenger level players. He could have done with starting with a few futures.

Vishnu is thru to doubles SF.

At $125K+H Astana Challenger 2017, Kazakhstan

[QF] (1) Toshihide Matsui (JPN)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) d. Nikola Milojevic (SRB)/ Aldin Setkic (BIH) 67(3) 64 10-8

[SF] (1) Toshihide Matsui (JPN)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) vs Sadio Doumbia (FRA)/ Michal Konecny (CZE)

[sameerph]

Vishnu is thru to the doubles final.

At $125K+H Astana Challenger 2017, Kazakhstan

[SF] (1) Toshihide Matsui (JPN)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) d. Sadio Doumbia (FRA)/ Michal Konecny (CZE) 76(5) 76(1)

Next,

[F] (1) Toshihide Matsui (JPN)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) vs. Evgeny Karovsky (RUS) / Evgeny Tynruev (RUS)

[sameerph]

Vishnu and Matsui win the doubles title.

At $125K+H Astana Challenger 2017, Kazakhstan

[F] (1) Toshihide Matsui (JPN)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) d. Evgeny Karovsky (RUS) / Evgeny Tynruev (RUS) 76(3) 67(5) 10-7

Third challenger doubles title for Vishnu and second this year. With this big challenger title, Vishnu should move close to top 150 in the doubles ranking.