$150K(+H) Bangalore/$50K(+H) Pune Challenger, Nov.12-25, 2018

[sameerph]

Yes,my mistake.

These are the QF lineups-

[QF] (4) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,110) vs. Alexander Nedovyesov (KAZ,186)

[QF] (WC) Sasi Kumar Mukund (IND,355) vs. (1) Radu Albot (MDA,102)

In doubles, top seeded pair of Purav and Sancic and pair of Arjun and Saketh both lost in QF. RamK-VSP is the only Indian pair thru to the SF.

[arjun2761]

Bendre and Banthia are also through to the doubles QF but will likely lose at that stage

[PKBasu]

Two Indians in the singles QF this week, and one pair in the doubles SF (RamK/VSP). About half as good as last week: luckily last week was much the bigger tournament.

[knarayen]

Does anyone know if the Pune Challenger matches are being broadcast locally in India, and if so which channel?

Prof

[suresh]

Does anyone know if the Pune Challenger matches are being broadcast locally in India, and if so which channel?

I use the live feed available here: https://www.atpworldtour.com/en/atp-challenger-tour

Prof, I hope you get to watch Mukund play and would like you to comment on his anticipation of his opponent's next stroke.

[sameerph]

No live telecast on TV of either of these challengers. There were days when even futures semi finals and finals were being telecast live on DD sports. Now, even big challengers such as Bangalore not telecast. With so many sports channels around, it should be easily possible to tie up with one of them for the organisers.

[RohitG]

You can check out livestream.com/atp

[sanjay5goel]

Any update on today's matches yet?

Hare Krishna!

[sameerph]

Our players's matches not yet started. Prajnesh's match next up, probably in about an hour which will be followed by Mukund's match against top seed.

[sameerph]

Prajnesh thru to the SF with another straight sets win.

[QF] (4) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,110) d. Alexander Nedovyesov (KAZ,186) 64 64

Mukund just lost the first set 3-6 against top seed Radu Albot.

[sameerph]

In the second set, Mukund broke Albot in very first game and kept that advantage to take the second set 6-4.

Some, great ground strokes by Mukund in that set matching Albot and better. Can he pull off a big upset here ?

[sameerph]

Albot raised his game in the third set and Mukund could not match up to that.

[QF] (WC) Sasi Kumar Mukund (IND,355) l. (1) Radu Albot (MDA,102) 36 64 16

Nonetheless, another very good performance by Mulund. He looks a solid top 200 level player looking at his game in last 2 weeks. If he can play that well consistently, his ranking will go upto that level pretty soon.

Next,

[SF] (4) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,110) vs. (1) Radu Albot (MDA,102)

This is a key match for Prajnesh. He lost to Albot in the SF of Lizou Challenger last month in straight sets. Albot is a solid player with quite a few top 100 wins this year.

[Sin Hombre]

Looks like Prajnesh will have to win this to have a chance for MD entry at the AO.

[PKBasu]

With that solid straight-sets win over Nedovyesov (a player who has a career-high of 72 from 2014, and has usually been among the most dominant Challenger-level players), Prajnesh reaches another career-high ranking of 107 (one slot below Jack Sock!).
If he wins this tournament, of course, Prajnesh will be quite close to an assured spot in the AO main draw (his ranking will rise to 100). But winning a couple of rounds at the Maharashtra Open could assure him a spot in most of the Slams in 2019, if he can sustain that form and (especially) win a round at the AO too. I don't see why he can't do these things after his steady rise in 2018.

[Rajiv]

What a complete transformation from Prajnesh , just before the DC he was dabbling in Futures and the odd challenger's and only Yuki's withdrawal got him in the team that too primarily to make up the numbers , He wasn't even deemed suitable to play the opening singles and only Sumit's bad performance got him into contention , And how well has he grabbed that opportunity ,and after Tianjin has evolved into player playing at different high level and still rising .