The Sports-India Community

Ramkumar is the 3rd seed in singles, and Jeevan/Austin are the top seeds in doubles at the Winnetka Challenger. There will be lots of Indian participation in the US Challengers in the runup to the US Open, and I think we can also follow any of this month's European Challengers here (such as the Bastad clay challenger that Sumit is playing in this week).

Maybe , can change the title from Pre - US Open Challengers to Pre - US Open Tournaments or something similar , as lot of our guys will not only be engaged in the Challengers but also ATP like Altlanta, Washington , , so it is going to be a combination of Challengers + ATP

Yes, more would be playing in ATP tournaments than challengers in next 3 weeks. So, we can probably use the same thread to discuss both. Based on next 3 weeks entry lists, these are the places where our players have entered.

July 9 - RamK at Winnetka Challenger
July 16- Both RamK and Prajnesh at Newport ATP 250 qualies on grass, RamK is now 4 out from main draw.
July 23 - Yuki in main draw at Atlanta ATP 250, both RamK and Prajnesh in qualies, Saketh in $75K Binghampton Challenger
July 30 - Yuki in main draw at Washington ATP 500, RamK in qualies there, Prajnesh in qualies at Los Cabos ATP 250, Saketh at $75K Lexington challenger


Sumit is the only continuing on clay in Europe. So, we can discuss his progress in that thread.

I think we should have separate threads for ATP tournaments and for Challengers. They are different categories and levels of tournament action, and both are likely to feature some Indian players. Having them both in the same thread will make the thread rather over-crowded.
So let this be the thread for Challengers, and we can have another one for North American ATP tournaments in July and August (pre-US Open, known officially as the "US Open series").

It seems RamK failed to adjust to the hard courts after the grass court season ... Still, this was a bad loss for RamK.

Jeevan-Austin r the top-seed and facing Americans Lawson-Krueger.

At $75K Winnetka Challenger 2018, Illinois, USA

[R1] (3) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,140) l Evgeny Karlovskiy (RUS,355) 06 46

Doubles
[R1] (1) Austin Krajicek (USA)/ Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND) vs Mitchell Krueger (USA)/ Alex Lawson (USA)

Damn, that is a bad loss for RamK. Not seen him lose by such scoreline in recent times especially against player ranked below 300.

RamK will now drop down close to 160 in the rankings as he was defending final points from last year. Now, he is 1 out from Newport ATP main draw next week.

Suddenly all our singles players are in a terrible slump

Ramk serve will not be as effective as on grass on any surface, so he is bound to struggle.

At $75K Winnetka Challenger 2018, Illinois, USA

Doubles
[R1] (1) Austin Krajicek (USA)/ Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND) d. Mitchell Krueger (USA)/ Alex Lawson (USA) : 6-3, 6-3

Up Next
[QF] (1) Austin Krajicek (USA)/ Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND) vs. Hunter Johnson / Yates Johnson (USA)

In the quarters, they defeated Johnson twins with an ease ... In the semis, the r facing another American pair, Hiltzik-Kopinski.

At $75K Winnetka Challenger 2018, Illinois, USA

[QF] (1) Austin Krajicek (USA)/ Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND) bt Hunter Johnson (USA)/ Yates Johnson (USA) 64 62

[SF] (1) Austin Krajicek (USA)/ Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND) vs (WC) Jared Hiltzik (USA)/ Toim Kopinski (USA)

Jeevan rises to 96 in the live rankings.

At $75K Winnetka Challenger 2018, Illinois, USA

In the Semi Finals, they beat the US Wild card pair easily in straight sets. In the Finals, they are slated to meet the second seeds.

[SF] (1) Austin Krajicek (USA)/ Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND) d. (WC) Jared Hiltzik (USA)/ Toim Kopinski (USA) : 7-6, 6-4

[F] (1) Austin Krajicek (USA)/ Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND) vs (2) Roberto Maytin (VEN) / Christpher Rungkat (INA)

At $75K Winnetka Challenger 2018, Illinois, USA


[F] (1) Austin Krajicek (USA)/ Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND) d (2) Roberto Maytin (VEN) / Christpher Rungkat (INA) 6-7(4), 6-4, 10-5

Jeevan's partnership with Austin Krajicek is looking really good. Just 4 tournaments together and they won 2 challenger titles, 1 challenger runner up and qualified for Wimbledon main draw. Hope they stay together for some time.

Saketh/VSP up 76(2) 54 in R1 at Binghamton.

Opponents serving to stay in the match.