$125K WTA Mumbai Open, Nov. 20-26, 2017

[jaydeep]

Pranjala doubles bagelled by Bogdan ... Our all players lost in the one-sided matches.

[Q1] Pranjala Yadlapalli (IND,497) l (1) Ana Bogdan (ROU,110) 06 06
[Q1] (WC) Natasha Palha (IND,767) l (2) Deniz Khazaniuk (ISR,270) 16 06
[Q1] Nidhi Chilumula (IND,871) l (7) Anna Morgina (RUS,330) 16 36
[Q1] Riya Bhatia (IND,544) l (5) Alize Lim (FRA,305) 36 06

[jayakris]

Depressing scores....

[jayakris]

To brighten the depressing day, here is a picture of Ankita and Rutuja at Mumbai, from sports star.



Ankita has one of the prettiest smiles on the tour!

[jaydeep]

In the main draw, we can hope upsets from Karman and Ankita ... Zeel and Rutuja having lot tougher matches considering their current level of play.

In the doubles, Prarthana and her Japanese partner r facing 4th seed pair ... Rutuja and Ankita can be a good pair, let's see how they perform ... Another interesting pairing is of Karman and Pranjala, they r facing Bains-Stollar.

[R1] (WC) Rutuja Bhosale (IND,604) vs (Q) Deniz Khazaniuk (ISR,270)
[R1] (WC) Ankita Raina (IND,281) vs Veronika Kudermetova (RUS,255)
[R1] (WC) Zeel Desai (IND,790) vs (7) Carol Zhao (CAN,150)
[R1] (WC) Karman Kaur Thandi (IND,312) vs Dalila Jakupovic (SLO,242)

Doubles
[R1] (WC) Riya Bhatia (IND)/ Natasha Palha (IND) vs (1) Oksana Kalashnikova (GEO)/ Veronika Kudermetova (RUS)
[R1] Rutuja Bhosale (IND)/ Ankita Raina (IND) vs Victoria Rodriguez (MEX)/ Bibiane Schoofs (NED)
[R1] Hiroko Kuwata (JPN)/ Prarthana Thombare (IND) vs (4) Julia Glushko (ISR)/ Priscilla Hon (AUS)
[R1] Karman Kaur Thandi (IND)\ Pranjala Yadlapalli (IND) vs Naiktha Bains (AUS)/ Fanny Stollar (HUN)

[bujilover]

Definitely winnable matches for both Ankita and Karman. Go team

[Daniel]

I think you guys are underestimating Veronika Kudermetova... she may be unseeded, but she's a good player and (much as I hate to) I predict that she will win in straight sets.

[Daniel]

Karman just lost in straight sets to Dalila Jakupovic - who wasn't even in good form.

Jakupovic is no stranger to the Indian circuit. She used to have a rivalry with the once-promising Poojashree Venkatesh.

Of course, I did not see the match, but I get the sense that Karman struggles against tenacious retrievers who don't give her much pace. Perhaps she itches to go for her shots and isn't the most patient? Unfortunately, the ITF is saturated with precisely this kind of player (the so-called 'pushers'), and Karman will have to figure out how to control such rallies and get the better of them before she can move on to the WTA tour proper.

[sameerph]

I watched few games of this match live at CCI. By the time I reached, Karman was already a set down and a break down 2-3 in the second set. She won the next 2 games to go up 4-3 and a fight looked on cards. But, disappointingly Jakupovic won the next 3 games to seal the match.

Karman did not look as good today as I saw on the stream in a China ITF few months back. It does look like the courts are a lot slower than usual hard courts and that seems to have affected our players who like playing on faster courts. Karman's big forehands simply did not work here. Her backhand is relatively weak and she need to improve on that front to succeed at this level. She did serve an ace at 4-4 game to go up 30-0. But, that point on it was all down hill for her losing 8 straight points. It was probably an off day for Karman and Jakupovic was playing really well and returning everything that Karman was putting on her side.

[R1] (WC) Karman Kaur Thandi (IND,312) l. Dalila Jakupovic (SLO,242) 26 46

Also earlier,

[R1] (WC) Zeel Desai (IND,790) l. (7) Carol Zhao (CAN,150) 36 16

[Daniel]

Jakupovic was playing really well and returning everything that Karman was putting on her side.

That's just her normal style of play. It's exactly what I was referring to in my previous comment.

Since I did not see the match, can you tell me if Karman seemed impatient or reluctant to engage in rallies?

On a different note, where can I get tickets to the event? Thanks for your report, by the way

[sameerph]

Since I did not see the match, can you tell me if Karman seemed impatient or reluctant to engage in rallies?

On a different note, where can I get tickets to the event? Thanks for your report, by the way

There are no tickets, there were free passed distributed at the venue at least today. Probably going forward for weekends they may keep tickets, I guess.

Karman was not impatient as such in the games I saw. In the last service game by Jakupovic she did engage in a couple of long rallies which were quite close but Jakupovic prevailed in those. It looked like a day where Karman's big forehand deserted her. She was not getting the power in those forehands ( probably due to slower nature of the courts). Also Jakupovic was time and again hitting deep to her backhand which did not allow Karman to wind up on that forehand. She did try to run around a couple of time but made errors hitting those. Of course, I watched only 5 games. So, hard to conclude based on that for entire match but the scoreline was worse in first set. All in all not Karman's day.

[Daniel]

Thanks for the detailed comments, sameerph! What a pity to have such a big event after five years and then use courts that put our own players at a disadvantage!

If the courts are slower, they ought to have granted a wildcard to Mahak whose game would flourish in these conditions.

I really want to try and attend on Saturday. If you hear anything about the tickets, do let me know.

[jayakris]

So sad that this event is going down the tubes like a damp squib. Actually I don't know if squibs can fit in tubes to go down, damp or not.

[knarayen]

So sad that this event is going down the tubes like a damp squib. Actually I don't know if squibs can fit in tubes to go down, damp or not.

Jay tripping over words...that's a first.

However, if the courts are way too slow it is because of poor maintenance. If our women are unwilling to use the slow courts to advantage that is a separate problem. It comes down to "do I need these points...how hungry am I to win".

Prof

[Saniapower]

Only hope is Ankita.

[Daniel]

Only hope is Ankita.

This is the first time that I am less optimistic than you!