Asian Challengers - April 2018

[meyyis]

At $50K+H Nanchang Challenger 2018, China

Doubles

[R1] Roberto Ortega-Olmedo (ESP)/ Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) l. Mao-Xin Gong (CHN)/ Ze Zhang (CHN) : 3-6, 7-5, 11-13
[R2] (1) N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) vs Kamil Majchrzak (POL)/ Toshihide Matsui (JPN)

[sameerph]

Only RamK and Prajnesh's first round matches are not done yet in Nanchang . They seem to have been given a Wednesday start due to still playing on finals on Sunday which is good. Tomorrow, Prajnesh starts at 11 am on court 1 and RamK will have match against talented Chinese Wu Yibing around 1 pm on centre court.

Then,Sasi plays his second round match at around 2.30/3 pm local time. Also Bala-Vishnu play their doubles QF in the afternoon.

At $50K+H Nanchang Challenger 2018, China

[R2] (LL) Sasi Kumar Mukund (IND,514) vs. Roberto Oltega-Ormedo (ESP,319)

[Sin Hombre]

Prajnesh wins the first set 6-4.

[Rajiv]

He really is looking good and playing with great deal of authority
Normally you don't expect Prajnesh to follow up after a the good result.

But the Davis Cup win has truly made him a different player and infused a lot of confidence in him.

And he caps it up with a brilliant win in straight sets 4 & 4

[meyyis]

At $50K+H Nanchang Challenger 2018, China

Ramkumar lost the first set 4-6 against Yibing Wu and bounced back to bag the second set 6-2. On to the decider now. Ramk has Broken Yu in the first game to inch ahead 1-0.
Sasi has lost the first set against his Spanish opponent 4-6. Sasi is broken in the first game of the second set and is trailing 0-1.

[R1] Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,263) d. Cem Ilkel (TUR,241) : 6-4, 6-4
[R1] (4) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,132) vs (WC) Yibing Wu (CHN,333)
[R2] (LL) Sasi Kumar Mukund (IND,514) vs. Roberto Oltega-Ormedo (ESP,319)

Up Next:

[R2] Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,263) vs. (8) Alex Bolt (AUS,177)

In Doubles

Bala and Vishnu were tied one set each with their opponents 7-5, 4-6 but went on to lost the STB 5-10. They are struggling to get back to their pre-break rhythm.
[R2] (1) N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) l. Kamil Majchrzak (POL)/ Toshihide Matsui (JPN) : 7-5, 4-6, 5-10

[jayakris]

RamK is in a barnburner, at 46 62 22... He was up a break and just got broken back. But RamK breaks him again at 30-40. Now 3-2 up a break and serving in the 3rd set. And he is up 4-2. They both hold and it is 5-3. Yibing is hardly able to win any points on RamK's serve. Now he can't take a point on his own serve either, when it counted. 0-40 triple BP and RamK converts the first one itself for Game, set, match. 46 62 63. In the final set that I saw, RamK was playing very well with a lot of variations. Yibing just can't seem to win a point at the net, so RR drew him to the net a few times (a couple of times with nice drop shots) and made him commit mistakes. In the final game RamK had a beautiful lob too. RamK also made one very timely charge on a second serve to hit a return winner. Just to show that there is no point in YB trying to win a point by pinning RamK to the back, he stayed back a couple of times - once for a 25 shot rally where all Yibing could do was to get impatient in the end and whack the ball into the net. All in all, pretty cool and pleasing tennis to watch, from RamK. Actually this was no barnburner. He completely took YW out, after some initial trouble.

[R1] (4) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,132) d. (WC) Yibing Wu (CHN,333), 46 62 63
so,
[R2] (4) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,132) vs. Vacalv Safranek (CZE,257)

[jayakris]

Meanwhile, I coulnd't see Sasi's match, which he lost.

[R2] (LL) Sasi Kumar Mukund (IND,514) l. Roberto Oltega-Ormedo (ESP,319), 46 26

It seems Sasi could convert only 1 of the 10 break points he had. You just can't win a match if you do that. The other guy won only 52% on his first serves but won 69% of his second serves. The kind of stuff that indicates to me that Sasi may be making tactical errors in his return games. There is no real reason for anybody to win some many more points on their second serves. I assume that these are growing pains for a talented guy like him.

[suresh]

Thanks Jay for the detailed update on the matches. Please go to sleep!

[PKBasu]

Sad that Sasi couldn't follow-up his great upset victory of Ze Zhang, but what a terrific set of results from Ramkumar and Prajnesh! Indian men's tennis is on a roll!

For India's #2 and #8 to have beaten China's #1 and #2 Davis Cup players -- at an ATP Challenger in CHINA -- is a HUUUGE big deal. What a delectable pleasure to see this!!

[knarayen]

RamK is in a barnburner, at 46 62 22... He was up a break and just got broken back. But RamK breaks him again at 30-40. Now 3-2 up a break and serving in the 3rd set. And he is up 4-2. They both hold and it is 5-3. Yibing is hardly able to win any points on RamK's serve. Now he can't take a point on his own serve either, when it counted. 0-40 triple BP and RamK converts the first one itself for Game, set, match. 46 62 63. In the final set that I saw, RamK was playing very well with a lot of variations. Yibing just can't seem to win a point at the net, so RR drew him to the net a few times (a couple of times with nice drop shots) and made him commit mistakes. In the final game RamK had a beautiful lob too. RamK also made one very timely charge on a second serve to hit a return winner. Just to show that there is no point in YB trying to win a point by pinning RamK to the back, he stayed back a couple of times - once for a 25 shot rally where all Yibing could do was to get impatient in the end and whack the ball into the net. All in all, pretty cool and pleasing tennis to watch, from RamK. Actually this was no barnburner. He completely took YW out, after some initial trouble.

[R1] (4) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,132) d. (WC) Yibing Wu (CHN,333), 46 62 63
so,
[R2] (4) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,132) vs. Vacalv Safranek (CZE,257)

So he can do that "timely charge" on the second serve return if he needs to do it. Glad to see the variation developing in RamK's game!

Prof

[sameerph]

Great to see RamK getting revenge for his davis cup loss against Yibing Wu. It does looks like after the initial hiccup, RamK had the measure of the Wu's game. Also good win for Prajnesh over slightly higher ranked European player.

RamK's next opponent Safranek's game has been on and off in last few months. He has done very well in slams and qualified thru to main draw ( but lost in first round of main draw) at both Australian open and last year's US open. But, other than he has been losing in first and second round of challenger.

Prajnesh has a much tougher opponent who has won a challenger title last month and has quite a few challenger SF/F in last 6 months.

[arjun2761]

Good win by Prajnesh and a good revenge win by Ramk! Saw parts of the second set and it was good to see RamK play all all court game using his backhand effectively although he still runs around his backhand quite a bit. He also went to the net thoughtfully, so his game seems to be ready for the next step (i.e., top 100)!

Sasi continues to be somewhat inconsistent but it is encouraging that he is back to mixing some good performances (his first round win) with the more mediocre efforts after his better performances were getting rarer in recent times...

[Sin Hombre]

Looks like Ze Zhang is a bit of a sore loser and walked away without shaking Sasi's hand at the end

https://livestream.com/accounts/5057055 ... /173383530

[Omkara]

China vs India problem

[Sin Hombre]

Both matches have started and are available on livestream.

Prajnesh struggling to return Bolt's serve early on.

Shockingly though, Ram is the one who gets broken at 2-3 in a game where he won the first couple of points.