East Asian Challengers, 2019

[PKBasu]

Thanks for the match commentary, Jay . That last game must have been delectable!

Nice and easy win takes Prajnesh to a semifinal against 4th seeded Yasutaka Uchiyama (JPN, 197).

[jaydeep]

Yes, clinical performance from Prajnesh.
In the doubles semi-final, Divij and Saki lost in a close match tie-break against an Aussie pair ... Vishnu and Bala lost in the quarter-final against Uchiyama and Oliveira in straight sets.

At $81.5K+H Shanghai Challenger 2019, China

[SF] (1) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,85) vs (4) Yasutaka Uchiyama (JPN,165)

Doubles
[QF] N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) l Goncalo Oliveira (POR)/ Yasutaka Uchiyama (JPN) 67(1) 36

[SF] (2) Saketh Myneni (IND)/ Divij Sharan (IND) l Marc Polmans (AUS)/ Scott Puodziunas (AUS) 26 63 11-13

[PKBasu]

Prajnesh is 82 in the live rankings now. One more win will take him to 80, and the title to 78 -- still shy of his recently achieved career-high of 75.

[Omkara]

At $81.5K+H Shanghai Challenger 2019, China

[SF] (1) Prajnesh Gunneswaran(IND,85) l (4) Yasutaka Uchiyama (JPN,165) 6-7(7),4-6

[jaydeep]

Uchiyama out-served him ... Prajnesh served 9 aces and committed 2 double faults, Uchiyama served 11 aces ... Uchiyama's 1st serve percentage was high, 74%, and he comfortably won points on his 2nd serve, 79% ... Uchiyama converted 1 breakpoint from 3 and Prajnesh failed to convert any from 4 breakpoint chances.

[Sin Hombre]

The biggest beneficiaries of these Chinese challengers have been the Japanese, 7 of them in the top 150 now.

[RohitG]

Disappointing. His opponent's career high is 162 (back in 2017) and is 27 years of age. This was a great opportunity to maximise those points especially against this level of opposition. Now he collects just 33 points and back to the grind

[PKBasu]

Prajnesh isn't playing at the same level as he was around Indian Wells. But at least (unlike Yuki) he is still playing.

[jaydeep]

Prajnesh is the 2nd seed ... Mukund is facing Oliveira in the first round and Saki is facing an Aussie Max Purcell.
In the doubles, Bala and Vishu r facing a local wild-card pair ... Saki is playing with Jeevan and they r facing VSP and Tomic.

At $162.5K+H Kaohsiung Challenger 2019, Taiwan

[R1] Sasikumar Mukund (IND,241) vs Goncalo Oliveira (POR,254)
[R1] Saketh Myneni (IND,258) vs Max Purcell (AUS,235)
[R1] (2) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,85) bye

Doubles
[R1] N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) vs (WC) Chun-hsin Tseng (TPE)/ Tung-Lin Wu (TPE)
[R1] Saketh Myneni (IND)/ Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND) vs N Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND)/ Bernard Tomic (AUS)

[Rajiv]

At Kaoshiung ,Saki loses the R1 to similar ranked Australian Mel Purcell 6-3,1-6,3-6, seems to be having trouble lately to close out the matches after winning the first set.

[PKBasu]

Saketh ran out of steam after the first set at Kaohsiung (Taiwan):

[R1] Saketh Myneni (IND,258) l. Max Purcell (AUS,235) 63 16 36

[jaydeep]

In the second round, Prajnesh is facing Shuichi Sekiguchi.

At $162.5K+H Kaohsiung Challenger 2019, Taiwan

[R2] (2) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,82) vs Shuichi Sekiguchi (JPN,286)

[jaydeep]

A hard-fought win for Mukund in almost 2 hours and 45 minutes against Oliveira, where he won 2 tight tie-breaks for 3 sets win ... Next, he is having a tough match against a top-160 ranked Aussie, Marc Polmans.

Prajnesh started with an expected comfortable win ... Next, he is facing a Spaniard Enrique Lopez Perez.

At $162.5K+H Kaohsiung Challenger 2019, Taiwan

[R1] Sasikumar Mukund (IND,239) bt Goncalo Oliveira (POR,253) 76(8) 36 76(6)

[R2] Sasikumar Mukund (IND,239) vs (10) Marc Polmans (AUS,158)

[R2] (2) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,82) bt Shuichi Sekiguchi (JPN,286) 63 62

[R3] (2) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,82) vs (14) Enrique Lopez Perez (ESP,205)

[PKBasu]

Nice to see Mukund pull off a tight win over a player ranked only marginally below him currently, albeit with a career-high of 194 in December 2017 (i.e., someone who has always -- until August 2019 -- been ranked higher than Mukund). This is the way to consolidate your career-high and then move on to new peaks. Very pleasing!

And of course nice to see Prajnesh remaining consistently strong in the early rounds of each Challenger.

[RohitG]

It was almost over for Mukund in the third set, Goncalo was serving for the match, Mukund managed to break him from Deuce and then took it to the tiebreak. It went back and forth in the tiebreak, till 6-6, then Mukund held his serve followed by a brilliant cross court backhand return on his opponent's serve to seal the match.