$50K(+H) Chennai Challenger, 12-18 Feb. 2018

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Re: $50K(+H) Chennai Challenger, 12-18 Feb. 2018

Post by Prem »

Breaks again to make it 3-3... :D
Broken again after deuce 3-4 :damn:
Breaks back at 30 for 4-4 :notworthy:
Needs to hold here!!
Holds at LOVE for 5-4 lead - first time Yuki is ahead in the decider set. :clap:

C’mon Yuki - one more break for the title.
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Re: $50K(+H) Chennai Challenger, 12-18 Feb. 2018

Post by PKBasu »

5-all in the final set.
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Re: $50K(+H) Chennai Challenger, 12-18 Feb. 2018

Post by arjun2761 »

Yuki misses a match point at 4-5 on opponents serve. Then loses serve in a tired looking game. Now, down 5-6 on opponents serve...

Loses final set 5-7.

Definitely lost a match he should have won!
Last edited by arjun2761 on Sat Feb 17, 2018 12:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: $50K(+H) Chennai Challenger, 12-18 Feb. 2018

Post by Prem »

Yuki had match point at 5-4 on opponent serve but missed it. Got broken next game at 30 after being 30-0 and Thompson held at 15. :mad: Loses the match after having a match point :damn:
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Re: $50K(+H) Chennai Challenger, 12-18 Feb. 2018

Post by sameerph »

Damn, Yuki won 1 more point in the match than Thompson but lost the key points.

And this loss is going to hurt him as it would have taken him back to top 100 . Now he will have to wait for that for some more time.
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Re: $50K(+H) Chennai Challenger, 12-18 Feb. 2018

Post by nitin28 »

It's good that he lost this match, as Yuki was not playing to his potential. This will remind him that he needs to work more on his game rather than be complacent to compete with top 100 players. So go back and work on your flaws if you want to pose some competition in atp 500 and 1000 tournaments..
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Re: $50K(+H) Chennai Challenger, 12-18 Feb. 2018

Post by VReddy »

nitin28 wrote: Sat Feb 17, 2018 12:34 pm It's good that he lost this match, as Yuki was not playing to his potential. This will remind him that he needs to work more on his game rather than be complacent to compete with top 100 players. So go back and work on your flaws if you want to pose some competition in atp 500 and 1000 tournaments..
To be fair to Yuki though - first he has not even graduated to the ATP 250 level to think about posing competition to 500/100 level. He has spent a week working on his game at the Impact Tennis Academy before this tournament - ofcourse even without that, there is no data point to prove that he is complacent. He looked like he was out of steam after he lost the match point (a point which he played pretty well btw) but not sure if that means he was being complacent.

I have only really started playing Tennis in the last 3-4 yrs after following tennis for like 12-14 yrs on this forum, so not as knowledgeable but I feel he is one of the sharper tennis brains around. Lot of times he may not give that impression but I think thats due to multiple factors involved which I feel we have hardly any insight into. As multiple players say, life on the tour is very lonely, even more so when you have a bit of right to be let-down by the system/community - I personally have nothing but respect for this kid for having done this week-in / week-out for >7 yrs alone. I have seen him play 2 French Open qualifiers, being alone/no crowd support while his opponents would have their support staff + davis cup members being there. I still stick feel this is the year where he will stabilize himself around the 80-100 rank mark and hopefully he will be a regular at the ATP 250 events (with occasional attempt at higher grade qualifiers). If he can do this for 2-4 yrs, then his career would be moderately successful I feel.
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Re: $50K(+H) Chennai Challenger, 12-18 Feb. 2018

Post by sameerph »

I could only watch first few games of third set when Yuki made a fantastic comeback from 0-3 down to 3-3. He looked much the better player in those games. Sad that he just missed in continuing that momentum towards a win. Someone posted on twitter that he was clutching his shoulder in the end. Hope that was not the issue for him in not being able to close out this match.
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Re: $50K(+H) Chennai Challenger, 12-18 Feb. 2018

Post by Varma »

Yuki lost an extremely close match to another player who is pretty much as good as Yuki himself. It could have gone either way. To his credit, Yookster fought back from being 2 breaks down in the decider and made his opponent work hard in earning this win. He did everything he could but came up a bit short in the end. I only pray that he remains injury free. Once that happens, Yuki will let his Tennis do the talking and reach his full potential. Like Vishnu, I too have a hunch that this year might be the best one yet for Yuki.

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Re: $50K(+H) Chennai Challenger, 12-18 Feb. 2018

Post by VReddy »

He has a bunch of points to defend in March from the last year Asian Challengers (2 SFs, 1 QF). He is I guess skipping them and instead taking the ATP Qualifiers path (Dubai, Indian Wells and so on) - which makes sense instead of sticking to the same level. Hope he can keep his ranking within the top-105 ranking before the French Open cutoffs.

Ram seems to be taking the same approach too based on entry lists. I personally feel its a tad too early of a transition for Ram especially when he was just about solidifying his ground at the challenger level last year. However Ram is a great fighter and appears to still have a good support system behind him inspite of TNTA backing out (?), hope he has a great run too :)
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Re: $50K(+H) Chennai Challenger, 12-18 Feb. 2018

Post by arjun2761 »

nitin28 wrote: Sat Feb 17, 2018 12:34 pm It's good that he lost this match, as Yuki was not playing to his potential. This will remind him that he needs to work more on his game rather than be complacent to compete with top 100 players. So go back and work on your flaws if you want to pose some competition in atp 500 and 1000 tournaments..
I don't think he's complacent as he is working on aspects of his game and some parts have improved over the course of his last year. He had very close matches against Sugita, Pella, and Dzumhur last year and they are all in the 30-60 range now. Yuki's shot making is actually as good or better than all three and none of these players have good serves although Yuki's is likely the weakest of the them. They are the template he is likely copying.

He probably needs to improve his fitness and focus to win longer rallies when the top 100 level grinders will just get more of his balls back than the typical challenger players. I think his work with the Impact academy is focused on this area and he did show some grit in his match against Thompson and was occasionally winning the longer rallies (where he has to hit more than 4-5 shots) and nor did he make as many unforced errors. At this point, he likely has little chance against the top-25 type players who have big serves and whom he cannot dictate from the back court.

Of course, the elephant in the room is his first serve which is at the WTA level in terms of speed. I suspect his shoulder and elbow are the reasons that he isn't working this aspect. His ball placement is already pretty good and there isn't much he can improve there as he is quite effective with his second serves. In the match against Thompson, he actually won a higher percentage on his second serve than his first which must be quite rare at the ATP level in a long match between evenly matched players.
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Re: $50K(+H) Chennai Challenger, 12-18 Feb. 2018

Post by PKBasu »

Sad that Yuki narrowly failed to win this match against a similarly (but marginally higher) ranked player — just as he lost to Herbert at the ATP Maharashtra Open. These are matches he simply has to win in order to move up. He is slowly getting there, but ever so slowly. The first serve will have to be worked on at some point, but for this year he has to live with it.

The strategy of playing ATP qualifiers makes sense for now, but he needs to ensure that he is fit when the really big Asian Challengers come around, so he can play them all (as he couldn’t last year). That way he can move smoothly toward about 80 in the rankings. Luck (and a few good wins in the ATP qualifiers) will be needed to rise any higher. Of course, being in the Slam main draws will open up the chance of causing a few upsets (and Wimbledon is one place he could well cause them). Stay fit and play a careful schedule!
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