Wimbledon 2018

[PKBasu]

I have a very early start (BBC interview at 6am), so am turning in for the night. I will leave it to Rajiv to propel Ramkumar, Vishnu/Balaji and Jeevan/Austin to victory tonight...

[jaydeep]

Bad start for us ... Let's hope for some good performance by RamK and our doubles pair.

[Saniapower]

There is no place for short people in modern tennis (or most other sports except chess game).

Chess is not a sport. Just a game. And shorter/speedier guys are often better at two spots in top sports - point guard in basketball and libero in volleyball.

True. But European's average height has increased in last few decades and average height of tennis players is ever increasing.

[Rajiv]

It's only the first game and the Italian holds after 9 to 10 deuces ,is this any indication of a long tight match.
Gets broken after having a game point and is love 2 down
Italian off to a flyer holds easily at love , up 3 nil
Ram after getting on the scoreboard ,The Italian quickly holds at 15 to lead 4-1
Both the players seem to holding their serves easily , but the Italian has the vital break in hand
Another good hold, now can he get the all important break back

[Sin Hombre]

Straight set losses for all 3 in QR1 itself; that should calm down expectations for a while. What a terrible performance.

[VReddy]

Straight set losses for all 3 in QR1 itself; that should calm down expectations for a while. What a terrible performance.

Up and downs are part of the fan experience ! . On the other hand, Ankita will have her big win tomorrow! I think our guys will do fine when we move onto the hard/clay courts again, though for Ram - he should taste some more success on grass.

[meyyis]

RamK loses the first set 6-3, with that single break in the second game. To add more misery, he was broken in the first game of the second set and eventually lost the second set 6-4.

That caps a bad day in office for all our singles players. To rub more salt, Purav and Divij lost their doubles first round matches in Antalya and Eastbourne as well.

The doubles pairs are bringing in some joy, to otherwise awful day. They comfortably win their QR1 matches in straight sets.

Jeevan and Austin do not have much trouble and win their first round qualifying match in straight sets 7-6, 6-3.
Balaji and Vishnu also follow suit and win their first round qualifying match in straight sets 6-3, 6-4.

[Ravishankar Krishnan]

Straight set losses for all 3 in QR1 itself; that should calm down expectations for a while. What a terrible performance.

I agree. A few of us tend to become a bit like Sr Lankan cricket commentators sometimes.

While the current set of players are among the best we've had in a long time, I think we ought to realistic about our player's chances. It is nice to have upsets like Monfils, Thiem, Shapovolov etc., but these wins do not mean we start off as a favourites everytime. The draw for all our players were really difficult. We should have recognized the same (which a few did).

[S_K_S]

Grass is for cows? Have to say the overall sentiment with some is you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail. Didn't think we were going to be relying on doubles after the 1st day.

[meyyis]

Ankita faces 20 year old Maia Lumsden of GBR (currently ranked 408) in her Singles First round qualifying match.

[arjun2761]

Probably the only bad loss here was by RamK as he has the game for grass although isn't necessarily in the best form.

Sumit and Yuki don't have the serves to be effective on grass, so we should expect too much from them on grass especially with Yuki also clearly struggling with fitness/injury. Prajnesh has a nice serve so could be a useful player on grass but has no experience on it. Perhaps, he wasn't playing at his peak fitness having retired from his previous match.

[S_K_S]

12 seeds fell in the 1st round which just goes to show that the normal ranking doesn't count for much on grass.

We've lost the 1, 3, 4, 7, 9, 13, 15, 23, 24, 28, 29 and 31st seeds. 7 from the top half and 5 from the bottom half.

[PKBasu]

What an absolutely miserable day for us. Ramkumar and Prajnesh succumbed to experience, while I had thought that age would be an advantage for us against players with great pasts. The straight set losses are galling indeed. Doubles wins are scant consolation!

[PKBasu]

[Q1] 4-Jeevan Nedunchezhian/Austin Krajicek (IND/USA) d. Aidan McHugh/Marcus Willis 76(3) 63

[Q1] 6-Vishnu Vardhan/N. Sriram Balaji (IND/IND) d. Sergio Galdos/Gerald Melzer (PER/AUT) 63 64

[PKBasu]

Prajnesh reveals now that the withdrawal from the match against Moriya was because he had torn a muscle. He thought it was precautionary, but there actually was a torn muscle which made it impossible to serve. Very unfortunate timing, but that’s the way it is with our players. Sad!