Asian Challengers - April 2018

[jayakris]

And Yuki breaks Ito on the second BP he had in the 2nd gme of the 2nd set, after a coupe of deuces. 3-6 2-0 and YB serving. And he suddenly serves a couple of nice aces and holds at love. 3-6 3-0... After Ito holds, Yuki falls back into the habit of putting balls into the net unnecessarily (or due to injury; not sure). Gets broken at Ad out, and it is back on serve 3-2 and Ito serving. He holds, helped by two more netteed ball from Yuki. And YB finally serves a game at love without any net mistakes. 4-3 and Ito to serve. Ito double faults, Yuki wins a nice 14 shot rally and a scorching return winner, followed by another return winner - and Yuki breaks again. 3-6 5-3 and YB serving. And he serves it off at love too, just like that!

Whoa, he just won 12 points and 3 games in a row to take the set and even the match! Ataboy, Yuki!!! 3-6 6-3 0-0 !!!!!

[jayakris]

Third set: Ito certainly playing well again. He held at 15 and then took Yuki to two BPs in the next games, helped by a couple of excellent FHCCs. But Yuki is up to the challenge as he holds after 3 deuces. 1-1 ... Ito was frustrated at one point at the end there, and hit the court with his racket. That frustration showed up in the next game, as YB played error-free and then hit a return winner at 0-40 to break Ito who again became error-prone. YB is up a break and serving at 2-1. And Ito takes a medical timeout. Not sure what is bothering him.

That timeout must have taken YB out of his rhythm, as he hit two BHs into the net and another BH too long, and got broken. Even at 2-2. But Yuki breaks him at 30-40, as his BH again started holding up in 18 shot and 12 shot rallies. 3-2 and serving, up a break again. He holds at love helped by Ace #7 and a couple of errant wide shots by Ito... 4-2. Ito does well to hold after YB had him at 0-30... 4-3. Ito tried everything but YB held tough in a 19-shot exchange, and held at 40-15... Ito serves to stay in the match. He holds at love with a couple of aces. Yuki to serve for the match. fter two big serves for 30-0, two FHs that went inches lon made it 30-30, but another good serve gave him a match point. Once again a shot went 2 inches too long, and it was deuce. Two Ito shots that barely missed the chalk on the left line gave the match to Yuki. What a comeback! 3-6 6-3 6-4 !!!

[jayakris]

[SF] (6) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,133) d. (7) Go Soeda (JPN,153), 76(9) 64
[SF] (4) Yuki Bhambri (IND,105) d. (8) Tatsuma Ito (JPN,155), 36 63 64

So we went to China and beat them, and went over to Taiwan and beat up some Taiwanese, and then some Japanese too. Anybody in East Asia want to take us on? Right, I didn't think so.

[sameerph]

Watched from middle of third set after watching few games each in first 2 sets. Looks like Ito's level may have dropped a little after first set but Yuki too seemed to be playing better. Did not seem any signs of injury in last few games.

So, an all Indian final in $150K(+H) challenger outside India !!! Great to see.

[Prem]

What a day for Indians beating both the Japanese to make it an all Indian final.
First time that has happened??
Well done to Yuki and RR for their great wins.
May the best player win tomorrow.
Yuki seals main draw in both French and Wimbledon!!

[sanjay5goel]

[QF] (6) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,133) d. (7) Go Soeda (JPN,153), 76(9) 64
[QF] (4) Yuki Bhambri (IND,105) d. (8) Tatsuma Ito (JPN,155), 36 63 64

So we went to China and beat them, and went over to Taiwan and beat up some Taiwanese, and then some Japanese too. Anybody in East Asia want to take us on? Right, I didn't think so.

Were these QF's?

[jayakris]

So, an all Indian final in $150K(+H) challenger outside India !!! Great to see.

Barely a few months after seeing that in a big challenger in India... Man, what kind of dream these kinds of things were for us, ever since Ramesh Krishnan retired, for almost a quarter century! To see two top-125 players from India, and to see them face each other abroad in a big challenger final. Say 15 or 20 years ago, we couldn't even have imagined it.

[jayakris]

Were these QF's?

SF's... I fixed it above. Sorry....

[nitin28]

What a day!!
Live ranking has already given title to Yuki and placed him on 84
As Yuki is already confirtably inside top 100 I hope Ram gets the title to reach near 100

[jayakris]

I need to sleep... 2.30 am for me. Hope somebody can put in some details of the doubles SF - Saki/Prajnesh against Yu Hsiou Hsu/ Jimmy Wang. Can an Indian pair get to the doubles final too?

[jayakris]

Live ranking has already given title to Yuki and placed him on 84

Haha. Did they? ... They have corrected it now, and brought him down to #94.

[meyyis]

Attempting to join Ram & Prajnesh next week in the MD for the Nanchang Challenger will be , Sasi, Balaji, Vishnu and following are their Qualifying match ups

4 IND MUKUND, Sasi Kumar
JPN MATSUI, Toshihide

CHN WANG, Ruikai
7 IND BALAJI, N.Sriram

CHN LI, Yuanfeng
8 IND VARDHAN, Vishnu

At Nanchang, PR China (ICL) $50´000+H, In the first round of qualifiers today

[QR1] (4) Sasi Kumar Mukund (IND, 519) d. Toshihide Matsui (JPN, 1682) : 6-0, 6-0
[QR1] (7) Sriram Balaji (IND, 630) d. Ruikai Wang (CHN, 1394) : 6-3, 7-6
[QR1] (8) Vishnu Vardhan (IND, 674) l. Yuanfeng Li (CHN, 1412) : 2-6, 4-6

[QR2] (4) Sasi Kumar Mukund (IND, 519) vs. (5) Yunseong Chung (KOR, 523)
[QR2] (7) Sriram Balaji (IND, 630) vs. (2) Hugo Grenier (FRA, 388)

[meyyis]

At Nanchang, PR China (ICL) $50´000+H

In Singles Main Draw

RamK gets an opportunity to level scores with Yibing Wu and avenge his defeat to him in the DC tie.

[R1] (4) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,133) vs (WC) Yibing Wu (CHN,333)
[R1] Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,264) vs Cem Ilkel (TUR,241)

[RohitG]

Yuki did himself a big favor by not giving up in the second set, because Ito has had no break since Wednesday, playing all three sets everyday since then. He barely hung on in the last match against Jung and had won 3-6, 7-6 (11), 7-6. So I guess that explains the medical timeout. Maybe Yuki thought why not hang in there and seal the qualification.
In addition of tomorrow being an all Indian final, we should not forget that we have both our guys winning when one of them is not fit and the other is not in form. That makes it sweeter to know that our guys were smart enough to still pull through.

Yuki has the opportunity to reach a career high tomorrow if he wins while RamK also has an opportunity to get one step closer to breaking the top-100. He can get to 107 if he wins tomorrow. However he does have 57 points dropping off at the end of April. No points dropping off in May, so if he does win tomorrow and manages to win another 100 points in May, then we might see him making a direct appearance at Wimbledon

[knarayen]

Wow great to wake up to see Yuki win his match.

Like Jay says we have been waiting for a long time (too long!).

RamK vs Yuki...may the best man on that day win ! For once I will be cheering both of them on their winning points.

Prof