Asian Challengers July-October 2017

[PKBasu]

Congrats to Vishnu for another Challenger doubles title. With that he has risen to a career high doubles (live) ranking of 150.

[jaydeep]

Congrats Vishnu for his huge title win and first-time with non-Indian partner ...

[sameerph]

For next week's $125K Chengdu challenger, as expected Sumit withdrew from main draw. Saketh and Balaji are in the mail draw, Sasi is 2 out from main draw and Vishnu 4 out. There are no special exempts here. So, both Sasi and Vishnu may have to play in qualifying.

[sameerph]

Sasi is second seed, Vishnu third seed and Siddharth Rawat sixth seed in the qualifying of Chengdu challenger. All of them have first round byes and play their Q2 matches tomorrow.

[Rajiv]

For next week's $125K Chengdu challenger, as expected Sumit withdrew from main draw. Saketh and Balaji are in the mail draw,

Saki seems to have withdrawn , his name is missing from the line up.

[sameerph]

Yes, Saki has withdrawn. I hope no recurrence of injury.

In the meantime , all 3 Indians easily moved thru to the final qualifying round.

At $125K Chengdu Challenger, China

[Q2] (2) Sasi Kumar Mukund (IND,419) d. Changwei Peng (CHN,1864) 63 61
[Q2] (3) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,424) d. Mousheg Hovhannisyan (USA,1240) 63 62
[Q2] (6) Siddharth Rawat (IND,574) d. Zao Cai (CHN,1864) 63 63

Next,

[Q3] (2) Sasi Kumar Mukund (IND,419) vs. (5) Kento Takeuchi (JPN,472)
[Q3] (3) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,424) vs. (6) Yunseong Chung (KOR,613)
[Q3] (6) Siddharth Rawat (IND,574) vs. Hsien-Yin Peng (TPE,NR)

[Omkara]

All winnable matches

[Sin Hombre]

Straight sets loss for Vishnu and Sasi heading towards one as well.

[jaydeep]

Disappointing losses of Vishnu and Sasi ... Sid qualified for the main-draw and facing Irishman Sam Barry ... In the doubles, Bala-Vishnu r 2nd seed and facing Japanese pair in the first round.

At $125K Chengdu Challenger 2017, China

[Q3] (6) Sidharth Rawat (IND,574) bt Hsien-Yin Peng (TPE,UNR) 64 63
[Q3] (2) Sasi Kumar Mukund (IND,419) l (5) Kento Takeuchi (JPN,472) 26 46
[Q3] (3) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,424) l (7) Yunseong Chung (KOR,613) 46 36

[R1] (Q) Sidharth Rawat (IND,574) vs Sam Barry (IRL,393)
[R1] N.Sriram Balaji (IND,295) vs Ti Chen (TPE,267)

Doubles
[R1] (2) N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) vs Yusuke Takahashi (JPN)/ Kento Takeuchi (JPN)

[jaydeep]

Sid is in the second round as Sam retired from the match in the third set citing leg injury ... Next, he is facing a tough challenge of former top 100 player James Ward, who is on comeback trail.

Bala started well against Ti Chen as he won the first set ... He failed to keep momentum as Ti Chen won next two sets ... But Bala with Vishnu had a comfortable winning start in the doubles against the Japanese pair.

At $125K Chengdu Challenger 2017, China

[R1] (Q) Sidharth Rawat (IND,574) bt Sam Barry (IRL,393) 46 75 3-2 retd.
[R1] N.Sriram Balaji (IND,295) l Ti Chen (TPE,267) 63 36 46

[R2] (Q) Sidharth Rawat (IND,574) vs (PR) James Ward (GBR,1081)

Doubles
[R1] (2) N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) bt Yusuke Takahashi (JPN)/ Kento Takeuchi (JPN) 62 63

[bujilover]

These are matches that Balaji MUST win.

[PKBasu]

Fine set of wins for Siddharth Rawat this week. He has steadily been improving over the past year.

[jaydeep]

James Ward proved too strong for Sid.

Bala and Vishnu in the semis with two tight sets win over Japanese pair ... In the semis, they r facing Korean pair.

At $125K Chengdu Challenger 2017, China

[R2] (Q) Sidharth Rawat (IND,574) l (PR) James Ward (GBR,1081) 36 16

Doubles
[QF] (2) N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) bt Yuya Kibi (JPN)/ Shuichi Sekiguchi (JPN) 75 76(1)

[SF] (2) N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) vs Cheong-Eui Kim (KOR)/ Soon Woo Kwon (KOR)

[jaydeep]

Bala-Vishnu r in the another challenger final ... They defeated Korean pair in the straight sets and facing top-seed Taiwani pair in the final.

At $125K Chengdu Challenger 2017, China

[SF] (2) N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) bt Cheong-Eui Kim (KOR)/ Soon Woo Kwon (KOR) 76(2) 62

[F] (2) N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) vs (1) Cheng-Peng Hsieh (TPE)/ Hsien-Yin Peng (TPE)

[sameerph]

Another good run by Vishnu and Balaji in doubles. They are ramping up their performances at challenger level.

Next week their will be bigger Indian contingent in singles main draw with Balaji, Saketh, Vishnu and Sasi all making it to main draw. VSP and Sid Rawat are third and fourth seeds in qualies with only 1 match to win to make it to the main draw.