North American ATP tournaments Feb-March 2018

[prasen9]

Finally. Finally. Finally. It seems YB is arriving! Go Yuki!

[sameerph]

Yuki's form on HC since the breakthrough run in DC has been impressive - just looking at his results, it seems that he plays at a top 50 level against both big servers and baselines but struggles against ballbashers who probably throw him off his game.



Washington DC
Reaches last 32 beating Broady and Kozlov
Monfils - #22, big serve + ballbasher - win
Pella - #100, baseliner - win
KAndy - #45, big server - loss in 3 sets

....

Pune CH
Wins

Bangalore CH
Gets to the semis, bad loss to ballbashing Sumit

Pune
Beats Kadhe in R1
Herbert - #81, ballbasher - 3 set loss

AO
Qualifies beating Schnur, Taberner and Polansky
Baghdatis - #127, ballbasher - bad loss

Chennai CH
Gets to the final, loses to Jordan Thompson #107 in 3 sets, playing style??

Dubai
Wins against Dodig, shocking loss against Maden #138

IW

Wins against Novikov and RamK
Mahut - #101, baseliner - win
Pouille - #12, big server - win
Querrey - #21, big server - 3 set loss

Miami

Wins against Olivo and Ymer
Basic - #75, grinder - win
Sock - #11, big server -

After Washington Yuki had a bad couple of months from late August to mid October where he had a couple of losses to players ranked outside top 300 till Moscow ATP where he came to close to beating 38th ranked Dzmhur.

This year so far has been at a pretty high level. I would say that he had only 1 really bad match - 16 16 loss against 138th ranked Maden in Dubai qualies, not sure where that came from. But, all his other losses have been to players ranked close to top 100- Herbert (81), Baghdatis (82), Thompson (99) and Query (14).

One can safely say that he has been playing at top 100 level since start of the year, at top 50 level in IW/Miami so far.

[Y2K]

Yuki post match interview
https://tennisaccent.com

[knarayen]

Lets not get carried away, guys. The Yukster has made it to this point after a lifetime of struggle. We need to give him some space to go for the best that he can be without heaping a ton of unneeded pressure on him. Encourage, empower, support, pray, but don't forecast results please. And always encourage, appreciate and thank him for what he represents..the best of our spirit on those courts!

Prof

[sameerph]

It's quite interesting that the current rankings have few relatively players with between 500-600 points, so Yuki (who now as 556 points in live rankings) does not move up much with each win right now. For example, point range for ranks #100 to #110 range from 600 points to 500 points. However, between 600 points and 700 points, the rankings go from #100 to #76. So, once he breaks the top 100, it will be relatively easy for him to move up to the top 80 if he continues to play well.

The points needed for top 100 keep on varying. After Chennai challenger on 19th February, Yuki was ranked 101 with 546 points. Now, with 571 points ( in live rankings), he is only 104. With same points, he would been #97 on 19th February.

I guess the cut for top 100 is high at this time of the year with 2 week IW and Miami. Last year around same time the cut off for #100 ranking was 587 points which is same as of now. I checked in May and July last year, where the cut off for #100 spot was 536 and 544.

So, whatever happens in the next match against Sock, with not too many points to defend in April-June period, he can climb up the rankings into top 100 and better in those months.

[RohitG]

So he's on the edge to qualify directly for the French Open right? And Wimbledon as well? Roland Garros just announced an increase in the prize money which should be a motivation for our players to try and get in to the main draw. IIRC he has some points falling off in May and he is in the entry list for the Taiwan Challenger in April.

[jaydeep]

Lets not get carried away, guys. The Yukster has made it to this point after a lifetime of struggle. We need to give him some space to go for the best that he can be without heaping a ton of unneeded pressure on him. Encourage, empower, support, pray, but don't forecast results please. And always encourage, appreciate and thank him for what he represents..the best of our spirit on those courts!

Well said, Professor. Agree.

[sameerph]

So he's on the edge to qualify directly for the French Open right? And Wimbledon as well? Roland Garros just announced an increase in the prize money which should be a motivation for our players to try and get in to the main draw. IIRC he has some points falling off in May and he is in the entry list for the Taiwan Challenger in April.

Yes, grand slam main draw entry list closes somewhere between 100 and 104 and as I have mentioned before the points required for #100 keep varying. So, he may even make it on his current points tally. But, another 20-30 points will make it safe for it. So, a win in next match against Sock will do it. If not, if he reaches QF/SF at Taiwan challenger ( starting April 9) will also do. That is for French open main draw.

For Wimbledon, he has 33 more points falling off in May. So, will need to get those too in May to make it for Wimbledon.

As we have put elsewhere there are lot of big challengers in Asia in April. If he just makes deep in a couple of them, he can get well inside top 100 and make it to the main draw of all the remaining slams for the year.

[prasen9]

Will he get direct entry into any ATP tournaments in the near future? Or will it be challengers (if he is looking not to play qualies that is)?

[S_K_S]

I can see why the optimism is there but it is still Jack Sock in front of his home crowd so even though his recent results are not great it will be a battle. I am expecting a similar match to the one against Querrey but hopefully with a different result.

[sameerph]

Will he get direct entry into any ATP tournaments in the near future? Or will it be challengers (if he is looking not to play qualies that is)?

ATP entry list close 6 weeks in advance. The entry lists til end April came out and Yuki did not make it in any of them. In the first 2 weeks of May, there are 2 big masters on clay in Madrid and Rome. So, no chance for him to make it in there. I do not see him making any ATP main draws till French open.

If he is not so confident about doing that well on red clay, he might as well just go to Europe a week before French open ( provided he has made the main draw there) and play a week of challenger or ATP qualies there.

There are 6 challengers in Asia from 9th April till 20th May- starting with $150K(+H) Taiwan challenger (where Yuki has already entered) and then 2 in China and 3 in Korea. 2 in China are on clay courts. Apart from Taiwan, he can pick and chose 2-3 weeks of more challengers out of those 5.He can pick the bigger ones in $150(+H) in Anning, $100K(+H) in Seoul and $150K(+H) in Busan. Try to rack up points so that he can get comfortable to get directly into ATP tournaments and grand slams from June.

That can be the plan. Else, just win 2-3 more matches here in Miami. Then, he will get comfortable on ranking front and can try his hand at ATP qualies in Europe.

[Varma]

Yuki's good show at Indian Wells and Miami caught the attention of ATP website. They mentioned his name in the sub-heading as well as in a small write-up within the article.

Indian Wells standouts Mayer and Bhambri continue success in Miami with opening wins

Indian Yuki Bhambri, who won his first two Masters 1000 matches in California, earned his third victory at this level by defeating Sofia champion Mirza Basic 7-5, 6-3. That earns the qualifier a second-round battle against eighth seed Jack Sock.

- Varma

[kishash]

Bopanna and roger vasselin win 14-12 in the supertiebreak against medvedev and mannarino. Congrats and all the best for the next round

[S_K_S]

Nobody noticed the doubles? Oh how spoilt we are getting

Rohan pulled out a 14-12 win in the STB.

[R1] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Edouard Roger-Vasselin (FRA) bt Adrian Mannarino (FRA)/ Daniil Medvedev RUS) 46 62 14-12

[R2] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Edouard Roger-Vasselin (FRA) vs Steve Johnson (USA)/ Sam Querrey (USA)

[Varma]

Oh, yeah! I remember following all those doubles players week-in, week-out for many years. Good old days!

- Varma

PS: Sorry, Rohan...we still love you! That was an awesome win, by the way!