October / November 2018 Challengers

[sameerph]

Match restarted. No streaming it seems. Not sure but they might have moved it indoors where there is no streaming facility.

Prajnesh saved 2 break points and leads 3-2 on serve.

And he misses 2 breakpoints from 40-15 up and it is 3-3. He is 0 out of 6 on break points, Fabbiano 0 out of 2.

Prajnesh holds at 15 and now has 2 more break points at 40-15. Fabbiano saved both and takes it to deuce. and holds for 4-4. 0 out of 8 for breakpoints conversion for Prajnesh.

Prajnesh holds at love for 5-4.

Prajnesh was 30-0 up again on Fabbiano serve but lost the next 4 points. 5-5.

Both players held easily and it went to a tie break.

Damn, Prajnesh loses the first set 67(4). Did not take the opportunities which came his way. Won more points ( 51 to 48) but lost crucial ones in the tiebreak. Now needs a big comeback,

[sameerph]

And in the second set, Prajnesh finally converts his first break point of the match after missing 10. Leading 4-3 now.

Prajnesh holds at 15 for 5-3.

Fabbiano holds. Now Prajnesh has a chance to serve for the set at 5-4.

And he holds at love to take the second set 6-4.

[sameerph]

Oh, damn,Prajnesh missed 2 breakpoints in the first service game of the third set and now gets broken in the 4th game. 1-3 down now in the third set.

Fabbiano serving for the match at 5-3. Prajnesh has 2 breakpoints at 40-15, saved both, then Prajnesh saved 5 matchpoints at ad-out, then had another breakpoint but finally fell on the 6th match point.

Prajnesh wins same number of points as Fabbiano - 120 each but it is the break point opportunities missed which proved critical . Only 1 out of 16 breakpoints converted by Prajnesh as against 1 out of 7 by Fabbiano.


At $150K Ningbo Challenger 2018, China

[F] (7) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,170) l. (3) Thomas Fabbiano (ITA,122) 67(4) 64 36

[jayakris]

Yikes. But a great run nonetheless. Keep on going up, Prajnesh.

[jaydeep]

A tough loss for Prajnesh, but a good week.

[Varma]

we may soon have 2 Top-100 singles players in him and RamK

You have given up on Yuki .... Oh well, I can't disagree with you. I don't know if Yuki has yet another comeback in him....

Unfortunately so, Jay. Over the years I have realized it is better to keep zero expectations of Yuki. That way, whatever sparks he generates every once in a while feels like a huge bonus. I would be glad to be proven wrong because I still want him to stay healthy for years and have continued success.

- Varma

[sameerph]

Sumit beats Arjun and qualifies for the main draw.

At $50K(+H) Liuzhou Challenger 2018, China

[Q3] (4) Sumit Nagal (IND,312) d. (7) Arjun Kadhe (IND,356) 64 64

All the spots for qualifiers in the main draw are against seeded players (one against RamK). So, It will be tough for Sumit.

[jaydeep]

Sumit is facing Ito in the first round and RamK is facing Davidovich Fokina.

[R1] (Q) Sumit Nagal (IND,312) vs (8) Tatsuma Ito (JPN,165)
[R1] (2) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,124) vs (Q) Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (ESP,268)

[jaydeep]

Bala and Saki started with a win in the match tie-break.

[R1] (4) N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Saketh Myneni (IND) bt Miomir Kecmanovic (SRB)/ Zhe Li (CHN) 61 36 10-8

[jaydeep]

Prajnesh in the second round with a straight-sets win over the French youngster Tatlot ... Next, he is facing the challenge of Safwat ... Sumit failed to challenge Ito in his loss.

At $50K+H Liuzhou Challenger 2018, China

[R1] (Q) Sumit Nagal (IND,312) l (8) Tatsuma Ito (JPN,165) 26 36
[R1] (7) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,146) bt Johan Tatlot (FRA,236) 64 75

[R2] (7) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,146) vs Mohamed Safwat (EGY,205)

[jaydeep]

Arjun and Shyla started with a straight-sets win over Duckhee Lee and Broady ... In the quarters, they r facing the 4th seeds Indian pair.

At $50K+H Liuzhou Challenger 2018, China

[R1] Arjun Kadhe (IND)/ Yaraslav Shyla (BLR) bt Liam Broady (GBR)/ Duckhee Lee (KOR) 64 63

[QF] (4) N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Saketh Myneni (IND) vs Arjun Kadhe (IND)/ Yaraslav Shyla (BLR)

[PKBasu]

RamK lost to a qualifier 67 36 in R1

Prajnesh has beaten Safwat all 3 times they’ve played. Hopefully he makes it 4-0 tomorrow.

[sameerph]

[R1] (2) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,124) L. (Q) Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (ESP,268) 67(3) 36

RamK is having an underwhelming 13-15 record at challenger level this year and most of those 13 wins have come in the first half. It has been even worse in later part of the year. Not calculated but I think his record at ATP qualies and main draw level this year is better. Either he is losing the motivation to play at challenger level or lacks the consistency to beat lower ranked grinders on challenger tour.

[jaydeep]

Another bad loss for RamK.

[jaydeep]

Lee and Miguel scored a comeback win over Granollers and Lopez Perez after losing the first set ... Next, they r facing the local wild-card pair.

At $125K+H Brest Challenger 2018, France

[R1] (1) Leander Paes (IND)/ Miguel Angel Reyes-Varela (MEX) bt Gerard Granollers (ESP)/ Enrique Lopez Perez (ESP) 46 64 10-7

[QF] (1) Leander Paes (IND)/ Miguel Angel Reyes-Varela (MEX) vs (WC) Elliot Benchetrit (FRA)/ Geoffrey Blancaneaux (FRA)