North American ATP tournaments Feb-March 2018

This is a forum where users can follow various tournaments that have Indian participation or are held in India. GrandSlams and Davis Cup should also be discussed here.

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Ravishankar Krishnan
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Re: North American ATP tournaments Feb-March 2018

Post by Ravishankar Krishnan »

Yuki played beautiful and if he shows this kinda consistency, he should be in the top 75 very soon. He has the belief to beat the top 15, which is the best aspect.

But today I think UFEs contributed to his loss more than anything else. If he can cut that down it'll be beautiful
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Re: North American ATP tournaments Feb-March 2018

Post by sameerph »

Just watched the replay of the recorded match on Sony ESPN.

It does seem that Querry was making a lot more errors in the first set and also not serving that well. From second set onwards, Querry cut down on his errors and served much better. I think that was the key as Yuki seemed to have more or less maintained his level. Querry just seemed a little better than Yuki in those 2 sets - in serve and in ground strokes. That is no shame considering that Querry is ranked 21 and was ranked close to top 10 just last month. It was admirable that Yuki stayed close to Querry even those sets where he was playing at a high level. It did look like Yuki getting tired a bit towards the end but it great to see that he looked determined to put up a fight till the end. This looks a great change in his attitude as previously his body language did not look good in most of the matches, particularly those where he was losing. He seems to have got self belief from those quality wins over last 6 months or so. With this self belief he can go a long way this year. If only he can add something to his serve but that is not easy to do in a short term, I guess.
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Re: North American ATP tournaments Feb-March 2018

Post by jai_in_canada »

Sam was the query ... Yuki came close to being "The Answer" (as the great Allen Iverson was known)!

It was critical for Yuki to win the first set, which i despaired he won't after being broken while serving for it at 5-4 after several deuces, set points and break points. But he hung tough in the tiebreak. That set us up for a battle . Sam had to raise his level, which he did. It was a great quality match. Looks like the courts are playing very slow and high, which blunts the advantage of the power hitters. Cilic lost today to Kohlschrieber cuz he couldn't figure out a way around the court speed. So credit to Querry to figure out a way against Yuki, who was playing well. I would have been disappointed if the loss had been closer (like a third set tiebreak) or if it was a blow out. As losses go this one is easier to take, and i imagine Yuki and his team will be able to take a lot of positives from the past few weeks.
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Re: North American ATP tournaments Feb-March 2018

Post by atula »

Yuki put in about 65-70% of effort in the 1St Set..to break Querry..& then take the Tiebreaker..just didn't have the reserves to match serves of Querry..& overall Game in the 2nd & 3Rd Set...
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Re: North American ATP tournaments Feb-March 2018

Post by kishash »

Are Yuki and Ramk in the qualifying field of Miami?
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Re: North American ATP tournaments Feb-March 2018

Post by RohitG »

I followed the game from the third set and as mentioned earlier in this thread, you can notice the difference in his overall attitude. Last time I followed his live game was last year. He went for the shots early, wasn't afraid to paint the lines (of course it did contribute to his UE tally) His serves were better. He went for the classic 1-2 with the serve and a great forehand to dictate his winning rallies. He certainly has a weapon in that combination. He wasn't afraid to experiment either. This was good quality. He needs to have such good runs every month or two.

I had read about how Indian players would need around 2-3 crore INR to handle their coaching, travel expenses. One of the players (I don't have the link to that article right now) had mentioned that even reaching the 1st round of all slams makes it much easier to handle the expenses. I believe if such runs happen and with a better sponsorship deal, Yuki should get a big-name coach. Someone who can add weapons to his arsenal and bring in more tactical perspective to his game. There were rumors of Rashid a couple of years back, now he's making it happen with Koon.
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Re: North American ATP tournaments Feb-March 2018

Post by PKBasu »

We have a 25 year old who is capable of playing regularly on the ATP tour! What a relief and a joy. (Every time I tweet about Yuki I get about 150 likes, so he’s being noticed). And another 23 year old who is very close behind. These are exciting times.

Yuki needs to play and win couple of big Challengers, and then can move to a full-time focus on ATP tournaments.
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Re: North American ATP tournaments Feb-March 2018

Post by rajitghosh »

Rajiv wrote: Wed Mar 14, 2018 2:18 am Close disappointing loss and in the end Querry's experience was the difference.
But pure unadulterated merit in reaching this far through the qualifiers and if he displays the same form he easily should be Top 50 after the grass court season.

Only Vijay when playing the parallel WCT circuit run by the Texan oilman Lamar Hunt has earned more in tournament play when he twice made the WCT Finals eventually losing to Borg and Scanlon and earned 50k + for his runner up spots slightly more than what Yuki has earned in this tournament.

Also good to see Yuki having a proper ASICS contract including the footwear unlike the AO where we saw a bizarre ASICS+ADIDAS combination. and this contract would go a long way in covering his travelling expenses.
A 50k earned in the 70s in a big tennis tournament would be equivalent to 500k today the way tennis prize money has gone up.
In more recent years Som made 3rd/ 4th rounds of similar tournaments
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Re: North American ATP tournaments Feb-March 2018

Post by RohitG »

Yuki set to hire travelling coach in 2016

This is the article I was referring to in my previous post. Yuki mentions of coaching costs upto USD 70,000 excluding the travelling expenses for the coach. Back then he had saved for a travelling trainer. Considering he's gonna turn 26 this July, our number 1 deserves to have a full time travelling coach and trainer as he breaks to the top-100 one more time. A first round appearance in 4 slams gets him to do that. This is why he needs to stay fit and have such runs in ATP tournaments. Grinding at the challenger level is way tougher financially as he'll probably need to win 5 of those to earn what he did at Indian Wells.
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Re: North American ATP tournaments Feb-March 2018

Post by VReddy »

RohitG wrote: Wed Mar 14, 2018 9:57 am Yuki set to hire travelling coach in 2016

This is the article I was referring to in my previous post. Yuki mentions of coaching costs upto USD 70,000 excluding the travelling expenses for the coach. Back then he had saved for a travelling trainer. Considering he's gonna turn 26 this July, our number 1 deserves to have a full time travelling coach and trainer as he breaks to the top-100 one more time. A first round appearance in 4 slams gets him to do that. This is why he needs to stay fit and have such runs in ATP tournaments. Grinding at the challenger level is way tougher financially as he'll probably need to win 5 of those to earn what he did at Indian Wells.
Yes and in the articles in the past 2-3 days, Yuki has mentioned that he has made a conscious decision to stick to the ATP WorldTour events instead of the Challenger events. Yuki himself mentioned that his goal for this year is to be ranked high enough to be directly in the main draw of the Grand Slams starting from the Roland Garros - hopefully he is on target for that.

I think as he plays at this level, we'll continue to see lot of feedback about his serve - I really hope that by overworking on trying to improve that servie, he doesn't break down the arm/shoulder again. He needs to capitalize on this progress financially first for 1-2 years - atleast thats my opinion. Nobody will come to his aid if he has a big injury again. He is sharp, he knows what is best. Hoping for the best :goodluck:
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Re: North American ATP tournaments Feb-March 2018

Post by jayakris »

Yuki still need to get over the hump and win 6 matches in a row in a week's time, which he has almost never done. On the other hand, unlike in the past when some physical issue or plain stamina problems would cause him to be sub-par after 3 or 4 matches, he seems to have been still playing near the top of his game and able to go the distance yesterday. So, that is a big positive and it would help his confidence a lot from here on out. Yuki!!!!
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Re: North American ATP tournaments Feb-March 2018

Post by sameerph »

RohitG wrote: Wed Mar 14, 2018 9:57 am Yuki set to hire travelling coach in 2016

This is the article I was referring to in my previous post. Yuki mentions of coaching costs upto USD 70,000 excluding the travelling expenses for the coach. Back then he had saved for a travelling trainer. Considering he's gonna turn 26 this July, our number 1 deserves to have a full time travelling coach and trainer as he breaks to the top-100 one more time. A first round appearance in 4 slams gets him to do that. This is why he needs to stay fit and have such runs in ATP tournaments. Grinding at the challenger level is way tougher financially as he'll probably need to win 5 of those to earn what he did at Indian Wells.
Even winning 5 matches at the highest level of challenger tour, the earnings are not even close to what Yuki earned at Indian Wells.( US$ 47K). Winning a $100K/#125K challenger earns you only about $ 15K. But, point wise it is different. Winning a $125K or a $100K challenger earns you a lot more points than he got at Indian Wells.

So, from points perspective, Yuki still needs to mix challengers ( bigger ones) and ATP tournaments till he gets inside top 75 where it would make sense to play only ATP tournaments.
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Re: North American ATP tournaments Feb-March 2018

Post by PKBasu »

When he’s playing in front of a full house rather than empty Challenger stands, a different Yuki shows up, personality-wise. No longer phlegmatic (even seemingly lackadaisical), Yuki instead becomes animated — which is very good to see. The crowd definitely seems to energise him, although many more were cheering for Querrey than for Yuki.
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Re: North American ATP tournaments Feb-March 2018

Post by S_K_S »

The feeling the afternoon after is that I am still gutted to have lost that. Would have been good to get that 1 more win to make some big strides. Still got to be happy that he has arrived back on the scene and has got tennis people talking about him again.

His ground strokes are so good that they will allow him to live with the best. Just needs to work a bit more on when to play the percentage shot and not go for the winner. His returning his top notch and his ability to pin the opponent into the back hand corner is note worthy.

Getting a bit tired in the third was a bit worrying as was the use of the ice pack. Looked precautionary more than anything but perhaps these twinges have a negative mental and physical impact. Let's hope he rests up and goes big again next time.

As for the travelling coach, I doubt he will find anyone mid season. Usually the best guys sign up for the season so the best hope is to rack up the cash and the points and spend big on someone for next season. The frustrating but is that you can see how a top coach could propel him to the next level with just a bit of fine tuning.

<edit> Oh and by the way, let's all adopt the "bahut badhiya" remark for when we are watching our players live. Much better than the Come On and Lets Go shouts which really grate after a while. :p
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Re: North American ATP tournaments Feb-March 2018

Post by jai_in_canada »

There was a bio break after the second set. I am guessing it was taken by Yuki. He seems to have a habit of doing that. Not sure if he needs to go, or if it is a way to recover, or if it's to break the opponent's rhythm. Or some combination of all three. It's tough, though, to play at this level with the top guys when he's not used to it cuz the pace is faster, the rallies longer, and free points are fewer. Hopefully he gets to play more at this level and improve his match toughness. But the downside is that the more he plays at this level the more these guys will figure out his game and it will be more difficult for him - which will require him to keep adding new dimensions to his game. It's such a tough way to make a living.
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