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2018 Fergana Challenger
QF: (Q)Saketh Myneni (IND) d. Cem Ilkel (TUR) 61 67(5) 64
SF: (1)Nikola Milojevic (SRB) vs (Q)Saketh Myneni (IND) [0-2]

Doubles

SF: Myneni / Sundar Prashanth (IND) d. Cid / Statham (DOM/NZL) 76(5) 76(1)

Saketh should be picked ahead of Sumit for the Serbia DC tie if he wins the title here this week.

He's going to be playing his 10th and 11th matches this week tomorrow. That's insane especially for someone on a comeback trial

bujilover wrote: ↑Fri Jun 22, 2018 3:02 pm Saketh should be picked ahead of Sumit for the Serbia DC tie if he wins the title here this week.

Neither of them will be picked if Yuki/RamK/Prajnesh are all fit.

Saki's match has begun. He's down a break early. 2-3 with Milojevic to serve, who is serving rather well.

Saki's making too many unforced errors. Milojevic is also playing some good tennis. He loses the first set 4-6. C'mon Saki. Time to step up!

4-3 in the second, on serve. Saki has upped his game. Milojevic is continuing to play well.

But Saki breaks Milojevic at 6-5 and wins the second set 7-5. His third 3 setter in a weak. I hope his body holds up.

He gets broken the first game and is down 0-1 in the third. Went for an I'll advised serve and volley and missed a lovely. Clearly seems tired. He gets broken again and is down 0-3. Will stop watching now. Seems too tired to stage a comeback at this stage.

Saki played too many matches in last 8 days and that was visible in the third set as he received bagel ... This singles semi-final was his 10th match in eight days ... Still, a terrific effort from him ... Now, interesting to see how he performs in the doubles final.

At $75K+H Fergana Challenger 2018, Uzbekistan

[SF] (Q) Saketh Myneni (IND,447) l (1) Nikola Milojevic (SRB,184) 46 75 06

Somewhat expected loss, as this was Saki's 11th match in eight days ... Saki-VSP lost in the doubles final against Russian pair in straight sets.

At $75K+H Fergana Challenger 2018, Uzbekistan

Doubles Final
Saketh Myneni (IND)/ N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND) l Ivan Gakhov (RUS)/ Alexander Pavlioutchenkov (RUS) 46 46

A very good week for Saki notwithstanding his losses today. He managed to play several matches without any recurrence of his injury. He was not at his sharpest but managed to win. One can hope that he gets his ranking high enough to play the qualifying at the US Open.

Unfortunate loss, undoubtedly a result of extreme fatigue. It is brutal to expect a player returning from injury to play qualifiers (3 rounds!) and then the main draw of both singles and doubles in a Challenger.
Saketh had a 2-0 career record against Milojevic, having defeated him at Batman (Turkey) and Bangalore in 2015 -- at a time when Milojevic was 20 years old and Saketh was on his way up (during the run that culminated in him qualifying into the US Open in 2016 and beating #49 Jiri Vesely in the main draw, only to have the final winning point overturned by the umpire).
Milojevic has a career-high ranking of 143 (October 2017), quite similar to Saketh's 138, so Saketh had to be at his sharpest to beat the top seed. Clearly he wasn't anywhere near his sharpest today, and especially in the final set.
I hope he wins the doubles title, but then takes a break from doubles until he is no longer having to play Challenger qualifiers in singles.

Hope Saketh picks a good schedule now to optimise results in singles and doubles. His doubles ranking will be inside 230 now. So, he can get into main draw of challengers in doubles. But, in singles he will still need to play qualies except some of the weaker ones in Asia. So, he needs to pick up some easier challengers in Asia where he can be a high seed in qualies ( if not in main draw) and also play doubles. It looks a tall order to be able to raise his singles ranking inside top 250 by US open cut off. But, hope he can certainly do that for next year's Australian open.

Saketh and Arjun will be playing their final qualifying round matches at the Astana Challenger on Sunday.

Saketh plays Konstantin Kravchuk (RUS, 496), a player who made R2 of the FO last year and R1 of the AO (and a career high rank of 78 in November 2016). Very tricky match although Kravchuk is 33 (the same age as Isner!).

Arjun Kadhe plays 19 year old Khumoyun Sultanov (UZB, 583).

Arjun Khade lost in the Final Qualifying Round against Khumoyun Sultanov (UZB, 583) in three sets - 1-6, 6-3, 2-6.
Saketh has lost he first set 6-4. It is tied at 2-2 in the second set.

Saketh takes the second set 6-3. He wins the third set 6-4 and moves into the Main Draw.

Saketh qualified into the Main Draw last year as well, where he went on to lose to Duckhee Lee in the QF.