Tennis at Asian Indoor Games, Ashagabat, Turkmenistan, Sept. 17

[sameerph]

Following Indian players are playing in Asian Indoor games this week ( and part of next week).

Mens Singles - Sumit Nagal (second seed), Vijay Sunder Prashanth (third seed) - top seed is Sanjar Faziyev from Uzbekistan

Mens doubles - Vishnu Vardhan and Vijay Sunder Prashanth ( top seeds)

Womens Singles - Ankita Raina ( top seed ) , Riya Bhatia ( fourth seed)

Womens doubles - Ankita Raina with Prarthana Thombre ( top seeds)

Mixed doubles - Vishnu Vardhan with Prarthana Thombre ( top seeds)

It is labelled as Asian indoor games but there do not seem to be anyone from China, Japan, Korea in the draw which has depleted the field. Our guys should win a lot of medals for whatever it is worth.

[PKBasu]

Looks like a joke of a tournament! I hope there is a lot of prize money involved -- otherwise a complete waste for the likes of Ankita and Sumit.

[sameerph]

There are a couple of nice team photos of the teams which Kamesh has posted on his fb page -

Mens team -



From L to R - VSP, Coach Ashutosh Singh, Sumit. Vishnu and Siddharth Rawat

[sameerph]

Womens team -



L to R - Coach Ankita Bhambri, Ankita Raina, Prarthana Thombre, Dhruti Venugopal and Riya Bhatia

[PKBasu]

Nice photographs, particularly of the women in their elegant saris. Riya Bhatia looks a lot like Karman!!
Interesting to see Ankita Bhambri taking on the coaching mantle.

[sameerph]

Looks like a joke of a tournament! I hope there is a lot of prize money involved -- otherwise a complete waste for the likes of Ankita and Sumit.

Agreed. It is a multi sports event on the line of Asiad with Athletics,Tennis, Weightlifting, Wrestling, Chess, Billiards etc. I heard few years back that they started this so that sports like Chess, Biliards etc. which were earlier part of the Asiad can be accommodated here and Asiad can be more compact.
But, now they seem to have included sports which are also part of Asiad too such as Athletics, Tennis, Wrestling etc. which is strange.

Anyway, this is a nice website of the games -

Asian Indoor games

This thread is for tennis results. If something interesting happens in other sports, we can also have a general thread for that.

[sameerph]

Bad results for our players in womens singles with both Ankita and Riya losing in the quarter finals. In mens singles both Sumit and VSP have made it to the semi finals as are our pairs in men, womens and mixed doubles.

These are the quarter final results -

[QF] (2) Sumit Nagal (IND,270) d. Wong Chun Hung (HKG,1090) 76(4) 76(4)
[QF] (3) Vijay Sunder Prashanth (IND,486) d. Timir Khabibulin (KAZ,877) 46 63 76(3)

[QF] (1) Ankita Raina (IND,258) l. Beatrice Gumulya (INA,771) 36 46
[QF] (3) Riya Bhatia (IND,514) l. Patcharin CHEAPCHANDEJ (THA,526) 46 46

Sumit play Uzbek veteran Farookh Dustov tomorrow.

[sameerph]

Sumit is thru to the final

[SF] (2) Sumit Nagal (IND,270) d. Farrukh Dustov (UZB,NR) 64 75

Dustov was ranked in top 100 in 2015 but injuries have set him back and he is not ranked currently.

Sumit will fight for the gold medal against the winner of the SF between top seed Uzbek Sanjar Faziyev. That semi final is only to be played tomorrow and the final will be on Wednesday. They seems to be going leisurely in completing the matches.

Today mens doubles QF Vishnu-VSP against a Taiwanese pair will take place.

[jayakris]

Good job Sumit!

[sameerph]

VSP comes up with a very good upset of top seed in the SF.

[SF] (3) Vijay Sunder Prashanth (IND,504) d. Sanjar Fayziev (UZB,260) 64 62

So, final will be between Sumit and VSP. Gold and silver assured for us in the mens singles. This somewhat makes up for disappointing show in womens singles.

[sameerph]

Our pairs have reached all 3 doubles finals here.

In mens doubles final, Vishnu and VSP will meet the Kazakh pair of Khabibulin and Yevsev .
In womens doubles final, Ankita and Prarthana will meet the Thai pair of Wongteanchai and Momkoonthod.
In mixed doubles final, Vishnu and Prarthana will meet the Thai pair of Kadchapanan and Lerptitaksinchai/

Mixed doubles final will be played later tonight.

[PKBasu]

Very good win for VSP. If only this brought him some ATP points! But still it does demonstrate his potential, beating a seed on his home courts.

[sameerph]

Vishnu and Prarthana lost in the mixed doubles final against Thai pair 75 46 26. They get the silver medal.

Mens and womens doubles finals to be played tomorrow and mens singles final in Wednesday.

[sameerph]

Vishnu and VSP won the mens doubles gold winning the final 63 64.

But, in the womens doubles final, Ankita and Prarthana missed 3-4 match points while receiving at 5-2, 40-15 and went on to lose the match 67(5). Just watched the third set live and they really choked and the Thai girls were really stronger in the end .

So, 1 gold and 2 silver medals for us so far. All Indian mens singles final between Sumit and VSP will be played tomorrow where 1 gold and 1 silver is guaranteed to get added tomorrow.

[bujilover]

Pathetic display from us being seeded higher to lose to Thailand teams.