$15,000 Manama Women's ITF, Bahrain

[bujilover]

There is a one-off $15K ITF tournament in Bahrain next week and we have few Indian participation.

Zeel, Kanika, Sowjanya are in the MD entry list. Zeel (627) could be seeded in the top-8.

[bujilover]

Draws are out. And Kanika is off to a winning start!

Singles Main Draw
Round 1

Kanika VAIDYA (IND,741) [8] 6-4 4-6 6-4 Valeria BHUNU (ZIM,872)
Sowjanya BAVISETTI - Teertha ISKA
Viktoria MORVAYOVA - Zeel DESAI [6]
Ashmitha EASWARAMURTHI - Emily WEBLEY-SMITH [7]

Doubles Main Draw
1st Round

Ashmitha EASWARAMURTHI (IND) / Tea FABER (CRO) 7-5 6-4 Hanna Grace ESPINOSA (PHI) / Stanzi STUIJT (NED)
Zeel DESAI (IND) / Kanika VAIDYA (IND) [2] BYE

[bujilover]

Pathetic loss for Zeel. Doesn't look like she is concentrating on Pro tennis since she lost early in the home tournaments as well.

Round 1 results

Kanika VAIDYA (IND,743) [8] 6-4 4-6 6-4 Valeria BHUNU (ZIM,855)
Sowjanya BAVISETTI (IND,1088) 6-2 6-0 Teertha ISKA (IND,NR)
Emily WEBLEY-SMITH (GBR,578) [7] 6-1 6-0 Ashmitha EASWARAMURTHI (IND,NR)
Viktoria MORVAYOVA (SVK,951) 3-6 6-2 6-4 Zeel DESAI (IND,624) [6]

Kanika plays Sowjanya for a place in the QF.

[jayakris]

Pathetic loss for Zeel. Doesn't look like she is concentrating on Pro tennis since she lost early in the home tournaments as well.

Harsh words, but tough to disagree. I had hoped for much better results from Zeel by now.

[sameerph]

True for all of those young ones who came up in last couple of years on girls side. We had 5 players who showed good promise in 15-18 age group in last couple of years - Karman, Pranjala,Zeel,Mahak and Mihika.

Karman is the only one who seems to be at least trying hard and moving ahead even though perhaps at a slower pace than we would have liked. She is at least playing a lot of tournaments all over. Pranjala ,Zeel and Mihika's game seems to have gone down instead of up this year. Mahak is not playing either juniors or pros this year.

None from AITA or anyone seems to be supporting these girls in better transition to womens games except perhaps Mahesh who is supporting Karman.

[meyyis]

Round 2 results

Kanika VAIDYA (IND,743) [8] d. Sowjanya BAVISETTI (IND,1088) : 6-0, 4-6, 6-2

Up next in QF, Kanika could potentially meet the second seed Ana Veselinovic (MNE), who is scheduled to play her second round match later today.

[PKBasu]

Kanika leads second seeded Veselinovic 64 54, and will be serving for the match now.
She put Veselinovic (MNE, 388) under pressure in the ninth game of the second set, during which Kanika had three match points. But her opponent managed to cling on. Now Kanika needs to finish it off.

[PKBasu]

[QF] 8-Kanika Vaidya (IND, 743) d. 2-Ana Veselinovic (MNE, 388) 64 64

Veselinovic won her R1 match 60 60, and R2 61 61, so she was in form. A 30-year-old with a career high of 329, she should have been the favourite going into this match, but Kanika seems to have outplayed her. Another match-point was saved there (40-30, Deuce), but Kanika finished it on her fifth match-point.

[PKBasu]

Also, in the doubles:

[QF] 2-Kanika Vaidya / Zeel Desai (IND/IND) d. K Novotna (CZE)/ C Williams (AUS) 63 61

They play al-Nabhani/Capadocia next.

[sameerph]

Excellent win for Kanika. She had beaten Veselinovic a couple of weeks back in India too. Glad that she repeated that result here. Just checked the stats and she was not broken at all in the match and faced only 1 break point in the entire match. That is so unlike usual WTA matches. Kanika seems to have added something to his serve.

Next.

[SF] (8) Kanika Vaidya (IND, 700) vs. (4) Tereza Mihailikova (SVK,404)

Former AO juniors runner up Mihailikova has been in great form in last few weeks. She won the title in Bhopal 15K and lost in the SF at Gwalior 25K in the last week. So, it will be a tough match for Kanika.

She and Zeel will play their doubles SF shortly.

[PKBasu]

Kanika/Zeel lost the doubles SF 63 57 (4-10)

[sameerph]

Kanika lost in the SF.

[SF] (8) Kanika Vaidya (IND, 700) l. (4) Tereza Mihailikova (SVK,404) 57 57

Still a good week for Kanika.

[jayakris]

Karman is the only one who seems to be at least trying hard and moving ahead even though perhaps at a slower pace than we would have liked. She is at least playing a lot of tournaments all over. Pranjala ,Zeel and Mihika's game seems to have gone down instead of up this year. Mahak is not playing either juniors or pros this year.

In December, when we saw that Mahak wasn't trying to go to Australian Open juniors but was possibly going to concentrate on the pro tour, we sensed trouble. The trouble remains there. The one I am most hopeful of, based on results, is Mahak. We can even raise some funds (even if it is minimal) if she needs it urgently, as we said in Mahak's thread, but what else can we do? 4 months lost at crucial time in her junior career. This is the nonsense that goes on in Indian tennis, all the time. I guess I will give Mahak the benefit of doubt that she is taking some school exams or something and needed a few months to take care of that. Otherwise, it all makes no sense.

[PKBasu]

Absolute insanity, as usual. What is the AITA there for? Nothing of course!

[jayakris]

Absolute insanity, as usual. What is the AITA there for? Nothing of course!

Typically this kind of stuff is not AITA's fault but the players'. Actually even more often it is the fault of players' advisors who talk big and say stuff like, "it is not a sprint but a marathon", "to be the best, you need to focus on getting ready to play the best in WTA, so come to my club and we will work on your core strength", and all that blah blah.

Just get the hell out there on court and PLAY. That would be my advice. The kids should just check what was done by the only Indian player to ever make WTA top-30, if they need some reference.