Kazakh/Uzbek Challengers, June 2018

[PKBasu]

Saketh definitely playing like a top-250 player at least. He should look to win this tournament!

[Omkara]

Saketh's current challenge is fitness. Injuries aside, how fit is he to play back to back matches is also a question. This tournament will be a good test for the same.

[PKBasu]

Return from injury is always a long, arduous trek, as we know -- especially at the age of 30. But Saketh has been quite systematic. He tried Challengers with his protected ranking, which worked only intermittently (because the injury wasn't completely healed). But then he has slowly worked his way back, winning a high-level Futures and now qualifying in and advancing to R2 in a mid-level Challenger. The quality of his play suggests that his injury woes are behind him.
Interestingly, Saketh beat Prajnesh at Taipei just before Prajnesh's terrific run of victories. He has lost a couple of times to Arjun Kadhe earlier this year, but is now clearly playing better than him.
In this tournament, the only worry is his workload. He is still alive in both singles and doubles here. I wish he would just concentrate on singles for awhile -- until he gets his form and ranking back. Once he is back in the top-200 in singles, he can return to playing doubles too.

[PKBasu]

Saketh has risen to 405 in the live singles rankings. Winning the next match takes him to 386, winning the tournament to 292.

I think Saketh has the highest career-high ranking among all those playing here, so winning shouldn't be impossible.

[suresh]

Potentially, he will face the top seed in the QF. That might be his toughest challenge to winning the tournament.

[sameerph]

In the womens 25K, only Rutuja moved to the second round.

At $25K ITF Women, Fergana,Uzbekistan

[R1] (Q) Natasha PALHA (IND,929) l. Anastasia FROLOVA (RUS,512) 16 36
[R1] (7) Rutuja BHOSALE (IND,428) d. Valeriya ZELEVA (RUS,539) 62 61
[R1] Riya BHATIA (IND,628) l. (Q) Guzal YUSUPOVA (UZB,NR) 67(1) 46
[R1] (Q) Sai Samhitha CHAMARTHI (IND,853) l. Gozal AINITDINOVA (KAZ,421) 57 57

Bad loss for Riya. Others were expected results .

[R2] (7) Rutuja BHOSALE (IND,428) vs. Anastasia FROLOVA (RUS,512)

[PKBasu]

Kadhe/Lawson lost their QF to Gakhov/Pavliouchenkov 57 46

Saketh's singles R2 is at 11:30am tomorrow, and the doubles QF will be later in the day.

[PKBasu]

Saketh races to a 5-0 lead in the first set against Roberto Cid Subervi (DOM, 236).

And he breaks again at 15 to take the first set 6-0 !

[PKBasu]

[R2] Q-Saketh Myneni (IND, 447) d. 7-Roberto Cid Subervi (DOM, 236) 60 64

second set: Saketh seems to be tiring. He is having a bit more trouble holding his serve in the second set. Saved a BP to hold at 1-all, and it's 30-40 in the fifth game too. Saves that (his third BP saved), but can't convert two game points. Fourth deuce. Saketh has also not generated any BPs against his opponent in the second set. Ad-in, game. 3-2
Saketh broke for 4-2, but Roberto broke back, and then held his own serve. 4-4
Saketh holds after one Deuce. 5-4
Saketh breaks to win the set and the match. 6-4

[Ravishankar Krishnan]

Amazing win by Saki there. Hopefully the second set is not an indicator that he isn't a 100%

[VReddy]

I think PKB's point is the biggest worry for me - he might be playing too many matches too fast on his return. If he is fit for 6 months, he will be back in 200 I think - hope he can strike a delicate balance between Singles/Doubles.

In this tournament, the only worry is his workload. He is still alive in both singles and doubles here. I wish he would just concentrate on singles for awhile -- until he gets his form and ranking back. Once he is back in the top-200 in singles, he can return to playing doubles too.

[PKBasu]

Saketh was playing his fifth match of the week, so it shouldn't be surprising that he began to run out of steam in the second set. Also, his opponent probably began to get a better measure of his game. This has nonetheless been a good week for Saketh so far, starting with a win over #300 in Q1, and now a straight-sets thrashing of #236 in R2. Ironically, his toughest match was in Q3. It's difficult to predict who one will run into in these Challengers.

His likely next opponent, 3rd seeded Goncalo Oliveira (POR, 232), beat Teimuraz Gabashvili (the 33 year old who was ranked as high as #43 in February 2016) in R1 here. Oliveira must first overcome Cem Ilkel (TUR, 246).

[PKBasu]

If Saketh can stay fit, we should have 5 Indians playing in the US Open qualifiers this year (4 men, 1 woman; plus one man in the main draw; possibly 2 in the main draw and 3 in the qualifiers). But it is an uphill climb. Now at 387 in the live rankings, Saketh could rise to 292 if he wins 3 more matches here (but that would mean a total of 8 singles matches this week, plus doubles). Too much workload for a guy returning from injury, with a body that is still fragile.

[VReddy]

If Saketh can stay fit, we should have 5 Indians playing in the US Open qualifiers this year (4 men, 1 woman; plus one man in the main draw; possibly 2 in the main draw and 3 in the qualifiers). But it is an uphill climb. Now at 387 in the live rankings, Saketh could rise to 292 if he wins 3 more matches here (but that would mean a total of 8 singles matches this week, plus doubles). Too much workload for a guy returning from injury, with a body that is still fragile.

US Open is out of the picture anyway, thanks to the Asian Games. Hope your prediction comes true for the Australian Open.

I still feel Ram needs a year or two more to figure out his right approach to be a proper top-100 player. His serve n volley game I think made sense when his backhand was weak. Now it has improved but his game is still serve n volley. I think an year of grinding out in the high-end challengers, will let him figure out his approach better for the ATP league (with new tools like good backhand in his arsenal).

[suresh]

Saki/VSP win with ease. The score was 6-1 6-3. VSP was sharp with superb angles on his volleys. Saki's volleying was not great. VSP was clearly the best player on court today making things happen. Saki did not have to expend a lot of energy in this match. So he will be fine for his next singles match.