$54K Da Nang Challenger, Vietnam- Jan 7-13, 2019

[sameerph]

Lots of Indians getting into entry list of this first challenger in Asia of 2019, a week after the Pune open and in the same week of Australian open.

Challengers are having 48 player draw from next year and therefore, there is a longer entry list which includes 4 placed reserved from ITF ranking-

Entry list -

096 Granollers, Marcel (ESP)
137 Bhambri, Yuki (IND)
260 Myneni, Saketh (IND)
292 Viola, Matteo (ITA)
296 Mukund, Sasi Kumar (IND)
297 Kwiatkowski, Thai-Son (USA)
299 Yang, Tsung-Hua (TPE)
302 Sarkissian, Alexander (USA)
312 Valkusz, Mate (HUN)
321 Song, Evan (USA)
324 Fanselow, Sebastian (GER)
327 Takahashi, Yusuke (JPN)
333 Safiullin, Roman (RUS)
338 Tokuda, Renta (JPN)
339 Piros, Zsombor (HUN)
340 Nagal, Sumit (IND)
343 Muller, Alexandre (FRA)
354 Boluda-Purkiss, Carlos (ESP)
356 Escoffier, Antoine (FRA)
359 Ochi, Makoto (JPN)
360 Yevseyev, Denis (KAZ)
366 Wu, Tung-Lin (TPE)
367 Nam, Ji Sung (KOR)
369 Gabashvili, Teymuraz (RUS)
371 Altmaier, Daniel (GER)
376 Hassan, Benjamin (GER)
378 Sakamoto, Pedro (BRA)
380 Jahn, Jeremy (GER)
383 Bega, Alessandro (ITA)
385 Durasovic, Viktor (NOR)
391 Bai, Yan (CHN)
393 Kadhe, Arjun (IND)
396 Lenz, Julian (GER)
397 Sekiguchi, Shuichi (JPN)
402 Balaji, N. Sriram (IND)
408 Hossam, Youssef (EGY)
ITF16 Bonadio, Riccardo (ITA)
ITF26 Tiurnev, Evgenii (RUS)
ITF33 Samper-Montana, Jordi (ESP)
ITF38 Kim, Cheong-Eui (KOR)

So, 6 Indians are in the main draw here. However, perplexed to see Yuki in this entry list while him being in the Australian open qualifying entry list too. Technically, he can still play a round here and lose and play in AO qualies but that would be crazy. He will mostly withdraw from here. But,Yuki's scheduling continues to be baffling.

[bujilover]

Yuki is out, as expected. The MD cut-off is now down to 420 on the ATP rankings and 39 on the ITF rankings.

[jaydeep]

Saki skips this challenger, may be due to injury which kept him away from the main-draw match at Pune ... Mukund in the 3rd seed and Sumit is the 11th seed, so having a bye as seeded players ... Arjun is facing similar ranked Italian Bega ... Bala is facing the top-375 Korean Kim ... Sid is facing ITF player, Cheong-Eui Kim.

Manish is playing in the qualifying and facing the Thai opponent, Pruchya Isarow.

At $54K+H Vietnam Tennis Open 2018, Da Nang City, Vietnam

[Q1] Manish Sureshkumar (IND,581T) vs (2) Pruchya Isarow (THA,545)

[R1] (3) Sasi Kumar Mukund (IND,295) bye
[R1] Arjun Kadhe (IND,392) vs Alessandro Bega (ITA,382)
[R1] N. Sriram Balaji (IND,401) vs Ji Sung Nam (KOR,366)
[R1] (11) Sumit Nagal (IND,340) bye
[R1] Sidharth Rawat (IND,432) vs (ITF) Cheong-Eui Kim (KOR,69)

[bujilover]

Saki skips this challenger, may be due to injury which kept him away from the main-draw match at Pune

Or is he in Australia hoping to get a spot into the qualifying draw? Currently, the cut off is down to 249. He must need 10 more withdrawals within the next 2 days.

[Sin Hombre]

Saki skips this challenger, may be due to injury which kept him away from the main-draw match at Pune

Or is he in Australia hoping to get a spot into the qualifying draw? Currently, the cut off is down to 249. He must need 10 more withdrawals within the next 2 days.

Yuki will be one withdrawal if he hasn't already.

[sameerph]

In the qualifying round, Manish won 7 straight games from 0-5 down to win the first set 7-5 against higher ranked Thai davis cup player. Live stream available here-

ATP challenger live stream

It seems all the challenger matches are going to be live streamed now from this year.

[sameerph]

Manish completed a good win straight sets.

[Q1] Manish Sureshkumar (IND,581T) d. (2) Pruchya Isarow (THA,545) 75 63

So, now we have 6 Indians in the main draw of 48 here.

Arjun,Balaji and Sid Rawat play their first round matches later today.

[Sin Hombre]

Very comfortable for Manish.

No points for qualifying anymore so needs another win to make this week count.

[Sin Hombre]

Arjun wins in 3 sets, Balaji wins first set tiebreak.

[sameerph]

Only Sid Rawat lost his match today and we had 3 wins.

[R1] Arjun Kadhe (IND,392) d. Alessandro Bega (ITA,382) 64 46 64
[R1] N. Sriram Balaji (IND,401) d. Ji Sung Nam (KOR,366) 76(1) 76(3)
[R1] Sidharth Rawat (IND,432) l. (ITF) Cheong-Eui Kim (KOR,69) 36 16

So, one first round match still left for us.

[R1] (Q) Manish Sureshkumar (IND,581T) vs. Gerard Granollers (ESP,414)

And in second round,

[R2] (3) Sasi Kumar Mukund (IND,295) vs. (WC) Shinzi Hazava (JPN,545)
[R2] Arjun Kadhe (IND,392) vs. (16) Denis Yevseyev (KAZ,359)
[R2] (11) Sumit Nagal (IND,340) vs. N. Sriram Balaji (IND,401)

Manish's R1 match and Mukund and Arjun's second round matches are on Monday.

[PKBasu]

Great win in R1 for Arjun, and a pretty good straight sets (2 TBs) win for Balaji as well.

Arjun plays 16th seed Denis Yevseyev (KAZ, 359) in R2. Balaji plays 11th seeded Sumit (who had a R1 bye) in R2.

(Sameer's post was only updated on my feed after I had posted the above )

[PKBasu]

Leander/Miguel are the top seeds in doubles, and play Balaji/Arjun in R1

[jaydeep]

Yes, good wins by Arjun, Bala, and Manish ... But a bad draw for Indians In the doubles.

[PKBasu]

Manish lost in R1 to Gerard Granollers 26 46, and Arjun lost 16 26 to Yevyesev in R2.

[PKBasu]

Mukund is up 61 42 against 19-year-old Shinzi Hazawa (JPN, 548).