Tennis Asian Games 2018, Indonesia - Jakarta Palembang 2018

[jaydeep]

Starting this new thread for Asian games as the team selection process has began.

Paes set for Asian Games return, Yuki may miss it for US Open

Paes will have the opportunity to add to his Asiad medal tally as he is set to be included in the Indian team.

While Yuki has told AITA that if he gets direct entry into the US Open, he won't be available.

[sameerph]

The teams are selected -

Men - Ramkumar Ramanathan, Prajnesh Gunneswaran, Sumit Nagal ,Leander Paes, Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharan

Women - Ankita Raina, Karman Kaur Thandi, Rutuja Bhosale, Pranjala Yadlapalli, Riya Bhatia and Prarthana Thombare

Yuki has been exempted for preparing and playing US open. But, unfortunately the dates clash with US open qualifying. So, RamK, Prajnesh, Sumit and Ankita will all miss US open qualifying this time.

This is a detailed article on selection -

Leander returns, Yuki exempted for Asian Games

A bit strange that Sumit is selected only as a reserve singles player. A doubles specialist like Purav or Jeevan/Vishnu/Bala would have serve better and would have also allowed Sumit to play US open qualies.

[PKBasu]

It is too much to expect RamK (in particular), Prajnesh and Sumit to sacrifice the US Open qualifiers in order to play the Asiad (and the same applies to Ankita if she is ranked top-200 at the time). I presume at least one of them will eventually skip the individual events at the Asiad (while making themselves available for the team event). It makes no sense for any of them to skip the US Open qualifiers in order to play the Asian Games.
So it is wise to have picked 3 singles players at this early stage.

[S_K_S]

Missing the US Open for the Asian games? Is it the 1st of April?

[PKBasu]

Good question! The next tier of players should be asked to play. It will give them good exposure.
I remember Chiradeep Mukerjea and Shyam Minotra winning a doubles bronze in 1978. Perfect way for a couple of guys who chose not to become pros (although Chiradeep was good enough to become one) to earn some glory.
We could easily send the India #5-7 (Arjun Kadhe, Sasi Mukund, Saketh Myneni) instead of burdening the pros who need to be at the US Open qualifiers!

[prasen9]

Missing the US Open for the Asian games? Is it the 1st of April?

I would rather prefer a medal in the Asian Games than become a first or second round loser at the qualies of the U.S. Open. If I am a direct entry, then money comes into the picture. I would still take an Asian Games medal to a USO first round loss. But, $20k or $30k for a struggling player may be significant. In that case, I would only go if the Indian government or AITA made up my money.

[Prashant]

I would still take an Asian Games medal to a USO first round loss.

Wow, I strongly disagree. I would chose the US Open qualies over the Asian games in an instant. And with a main draw spot available, I'd be really disappointed if he chose the Asian games instead.

[sameerph]

Yes, US open main draw always over Asian games and that is why Yuki has been exempted from playing Asian games which is a good decision by AITA.

Choosing between US open qualifiers and Asian games is a bit tricky. As we discussed earlier,all of these players are getting TOPS funding and that is specifically meant for preparing for Asian games and Olympics. So, it would have been difficult for AITA to select a complete second string team and still claim support from the government.

Some of the newspaper articles did mention that Yuki has chosen not to take the TOPS funding this year. So, it looks like he had made the decision some time back to skip Asiad over US open.

For others like RamK, Prajnesh,Sumit and Ankita, perhaps funding ( Rs. 50000 per month) is not such a big thing but they do not want to go into bad books of AITA and government.

[prasen9]

Prashant, I understand. I was just saying that some (maybe only me) believe differently. To me, just playing a grand slam tournament once is no big deal unless as I said it is for the money. People have different priorities and likes and dislikes. Just pure tennis prestige wise a grand slam is of course better and bigger than the Asian Games. But, if I have a chance to win a medal versus just playing the qualies or maybe anything short of top-16, it is not that impressive to me in the long run. Also, if you are indeed that good, then you will qualify for a grand slam in another tournament anyway. An Asian Games comes once in four years. It may be that being more of an athletics fan than a tennis fan, I prioritize Asian Games wrongly but that is what I prefer at this point.

For example, I remember Somdev's Asiad golds. I don't really remember anything he has done at the grand slams. Okay, I may be able to dig up something or the other from my memory. But, I don't think he did anything worthwhile. A win here and a win there and so on. Pretty bland, imho.

[jayakris]

For example, I remember Somdev's Asiad golds. I don't really remember anything he has done at the grand slams. Okay, I may be able to dig up something or the other from my memory. But, I don't think he did anything worthwhile. A win here and a win there and so on. Pretty bland, imho.

I am totally, HUNDRED percent with prasen, and this is precisely the reason. You ask me what I remember Somdev for, and I will pretty much tell you the Asiad golds (singles and doubles), the Davis Cup wins (like the rare one in Korea, and the one against Brazil), his Commonwealth gold, and the fact that he reached the third best ATP ranking in the modern era among Indians. Maybe I remember Washington ATP, Chennai ATP, a win over Baghdatis, etc, but I don't take any of that as too substantial a thing to remember. I can also probably jog my memory like prasen to find out what he did at grand slams, but I remember so many other things about Somdev more than that. He came through for India very often when he played, and that sticks in my mind.

Frankly, the only grand slam shows by Indians in singles that come to mind in the last 3 decades for me is the third round at USO 1997 by Leander and Nirupama Sanjeev playing at the Australian Open.

If any Indian in the top-100 thinks that they can reach the 3rd round of a grand slam, skip Asiad. If any Indian in the top-250 thinks they are at their peak year and shouldn't lose a chance to play qualies and make the only grand slam they may ever play, sure I will respect you. Otherwise, I don't give a damn with them getting their big money and playing a round or two in a grand slam. Nothing memorable for me.

If Yuki plays the USO first or second round, whoop dee doo. I will recall Prajnesh's win in China even 10 or 15 years later, and a whole host of other things before I even try to remember what Yuki did at USO 2018.

[prasen9]

True. I did say that I can understand why a struggling player will not want to forgo the 20-30k USD they will get in the USO. If it is Rohan who has the chance to make big money out of an USO going deep, ok. Fine. I will not hold any grudge against them. After all, it is their paycheck. But when the difference is small as with the qualifying players, and the government has given you $10-12k in a year, I will possibly consider that a tad selfish. I am not saying tennis-difficulty-wise Asian Games is more difficult than a first round grand slam win though. Just to clarify.

I looked up Somdev's GS record. 2nd round in five grand slam tournaments. If you remember and cherish his five wins, you are really a big tennis fan. Kudos to you.

[jaydeep]

And we should not forget that there is another BIG perk,
The ITF announced introduction of 6 continental qualification places, which approved by the IOC Executive Board, as part of the Tokyo Qualification ... So the Gold medalist of the men' and women's singles tennis at Asian games will earn direct entry into the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

ITF introduces continental qualification for 2020 Olympics

[Prashant]

Fair point in terms of memories. But you are comparing GS with GOLD at the Asiad. Who is giving any of our guys a gold for showing up?

Given Yuki's penchant for playing to the level of his opponent, I think you want to contrast a R3 GS vs a bronze. Is that still a no-brainer? I will take the R3.

[prasen9]

Absolutely, getting any medal is not a guarantee. I would personally take the bronze. Actually, more accurately, the opportunity to get a medal at the Asian Games versus an opportunity to play for entering the third round of a GS. BTW, a third round is about a #32 type performance. Par for the course would be R2 for Yuki with some inspired play in the R1. But, again, as I said, I would say that it is not a no-brainer when we are saying R1 USO vs. Asian Games (my reason being the money). I am saying for those other than Yuki and Rohan, who have the option to be in the qualifying vs a seed at the Asian Games. Anyway, I think we understand each other's point by now.

[PKBasu]

The perk of an Olympic slot should be a big attraction -- even for Yuki, although the latter can hope that his ranking will be good enough by the time the Olympics come around (especially if he does well at Wimbledon and the US Open this year).