Indian Wells/Miami ATP 1000, March 2019

[Dinesh]

Easy draw for Prajnesh to qualify for the main draw. Quite surprised that Mac McDonald did not get a MD wildcard.

[PKBasu]

Let’s hope Court 9 proves a lucky one for us today, as both our top men play their Q1 matches there tonight.

What a pleasant surprise that Karman is in the qualifiers too, with a wild card.

[Sin Hombre]

So no one here reads sameer's posts on the KKT thread then

[sameerph]

Yes, I posted the news about Karman's wild card in her thread 4 days back. It seems not too many read it.

[S_K_S]

Apologies. Didn't click on that thread.

[sameerph]

Karman gets bagled in the first set.

RamK is just about holding on 3-3 in the first set. Saved 2 breakpoints while taking only 1 point on his opponent's serve so far.

[Dinesh]

Karman got blanked 6-0 3-0 and retired. I wonder how/why the tournament organizers gave her the wildcard.

[knarayen]

RamK got clobbered 6-4,6-1. I couldn't get to see any of it so I assume, from looking at the stats, that RamK was simply outmatched in all departments, which puzzles me because it implies that RamK is simply not playing anywhere near his capability these days.

Looks like an extended slump for him - hope he gets out of it. Does anyone know if there is an injury or something else going on with him?

Prof

[Dinesh]

Yep, Ramkumar is on a 6-match losing streak with that loss.

[jaydeep]

Yes, bad losses for Karman and Ram.

[knarayen]

Set 1
Gunner up 5-2 after breaking serve twice. Holds after several deuces and two break points to win 6-2.
My guess is from looking at stats that he is not serving that great, but has a 78% on first serve points won at this stage.

Set 2
Gunner breaks Maceiras in game 1 and holds to 2-0. Looking good so far.
Maceiras holds - gunner leads 2-1
Gunner holds to 3-1. One ace here, but 1st serve stats are still low only 53%. Still, he is winning in spite of it.
Maceiras holds to 2-3. One double fault here but gunner didn’t capitalize.
Gunner holds to 4-2 but he needed 3 ad points to do it. He has been hanging tough thus far, now he needs to stay tough for a few more games.
Gunner breaks again to serve at 5-2. Now we’re talking!!
Gunner goes down 0-40 real fast. Saves one, gets broken for the first time. Didn’t expect strong rearguard action but you never know with Spaniards.
Maceiras serving at 3-5. Holds real quickly to 4-5. C’mon gunner, need to press strongly here and close it out.
Gunner serving 5-4. Starts with an ace #6 for the match. Holds at 40-15.

Gunner wins 6-2,6-4.

[PKBasu]

Good job by Prajnesh, winning that match with a minimum of fuss. 2 breaks in each set, for one break back in the second set. (Thanks, Prof, for the detailed commentary! Invaluable). He salvaged a miserable day for us!

And Prajnesh moves to a new career high of 82 in the live rankings. He will play either Jay Clarke (GBR, 196) or Josef Kovalik (SVK, 116) in the final qualifying round. Clarke currently leads 5-2 in the first set.

[knarayen]

For some reason the reporting on Jay Clarke's match has not shown up on the atptour page. Wonder what happened?

Jay Clarke is a bit of a dangerous floater in these draws - he has beaten RamK twice, once in Bangalore in 2017 and again in the French Open Qualifiers in 2018. But his ranking continues to be so low (194) - he could be one of those flashy, inspirational players who can pull off great matches when he is inspired for whatever reason.

Prof

[Varma]

Clarke just took down the 20th seed 6-2, 6-3. I think Prajnesh is mentally strong enough to thwart any heroics from the Brit.

- Varma

[knarayen]

Is there a live stream for these matches - couldn't find any that work.

Prof