Grass tournaments (Challengers & ATP/WTA tour) 2019

[jaydeep]

Lee and Marcus r in the final with a straight-sets win over Jeevan and Purav ... In the final, they r facing the top-seeds.

At €137K+H Ilkley Challenger 2019, Great Britain

[SF] (2) Marcus Daniell (NZL)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt (4) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) 63 76(4)

[F] (2) Marcus Daniell (NZL)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs (1) Santiago Gonzalez (MEX)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK)

[sameerph]

Mukund is playing qualies in Antalya ATP on grass. Prajnesh will be in the main draw there.

At $446K Antalya Open,Turkey

[Q1] (8) Sasi Kumar Mukund (IND,281) vs. Roberto Ortega-Olmedo (ESP,283)

[sameerph]

One sided loss for Mukund.

At $446K Antalya Open,Turkey

[Q1] (8) Sasi Kumar Mukund (IND,281) l. Roberto Ortega-Olmedo (ESP,283) 26 16

I think Mukund will have to look at doing well consistently at challenger level first before moving to these ATP qualies.

[PKBasu]

This was a bad loss against a lower-ranked player. Definitely worth trying these occasionally. The transition to grass was perhaps too abrupt here.

[jaydeep]

Rohan is playing with Cuevas and they r facing a pairing of Cecchinato and Lajovic.

At € 745K Nature Valley International 2019, Eastbourne, Great Britain

[R1] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Pablo Cuevas (URU) vs Marco Cecchinato (ITA)/ Dusan Lajovic (SRB)

[jaydeep]

Prajnesh is playing in Turkey and facing the former top-10 Tipsarevic ... In the doubles, Divij and Marcelo r the 2nd seed and facing a local pair ... Lee is playing with Benoit and they r facing a Dutch pair.

At € 507K Turkish Airlines Open 2019, Antalya, Turkey

[R1] Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,95) vs (PR) Janko Tipsarevic (SRB,289)

Doubles
[R1] Leander Paes (IND)/ Benoit Paire (FRA) vs Sander Arends (NED)/ Matwe Middelkoop (NED)
[R1] (2) Marcelo Demoliner (BRA)/ Divij Sharan (IND) vs (WC) Tuna Altuna (TUR)/ Cem Ilkel (TUR)

[jayakris]

At the Ilkley challenger final, Leander and Marcus dropped the first set 3-6 to Gonzalez/Qureshi...

They got broken, off Marcus' serve in the first game of the second set and could not recover. The final game was fun, especially a point where Leander moved up on a dead-run fro the baseline calling "I got it" when Marcus also ran up and let Lee take it. LP did well there but the return came pretty fast and Marcus had to run right back with Lee calling "you" this time. He made the shot and it was all laugh all around. Good to see this man having fun, even after turning 46 as of last month. Pretty amazing that he can sprint even at this age. Anyway, they lost to the top seeds.

[F] (2) Marcus Daniell (NZL)/ Leander Paes (IND) l. (1) Santiago Gonzalez (MEX)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK), 36 46

[PKBasu]

Prajnesh has a good, but not easy, opportunity to gain his first ATP points of the season on grass. 34 year old Janko Tipsarevic is still capable of good tennis: he made the QF of ATP Houston in April (beating Sandgren and Norris before losing to Querrey in 2 tiebreaks). He took Dimitrov to 5 sets at the French Open. But he also lost early in a couple of Challengers in Mexico, didn’t make QF of a Challenger he played in Thailand. So if Prajnesh is fit, this is an opportunity to pick up a memorable scalp!

[PKBasu]

Tipsarevic has twice played the ATP tour finals, in 2011 as an alternate (when he was ranked #9) and beat Djokovic to end the latter’s season. And in 2012 when he qualified in as the 8th man, but lost all his 3 round robin matches. I hope our Gunner isn’t overawed, and manages to overwhelm him the way he did Shapovalov at Stuttgart last year.

[PKBasu]

Leander’s partner, Benoit Paire, is the top seed in singles at Antalya. Hope that doesn’t detract from his focus on he doubles.

[RohitG]

Somdev had taken out Tipsarevic in Serbia on day 1 of our Davis Cup R1 tie in 2011

[PKBasu]

That was an amazing achievement at the peak of Tipsarevic's career. A reminder that Somdev carried on our tradition of punching above our rankings in the Davis Cup (and in India colours generally).

[Tolamu]

At € 507K Turkish Airlines Open 2019, Antalya, Turkey

[R1] Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,95) bt. (PR) Janko Tipsarevic (SRB,289) 6-0 7-6(8-6)

[PKBasu]

Terrific victory for Prajnesh Gunneswaran over the former world #8. That he bagelled him in the first set was especially impressive!

[PKBasu]

Lots of green for us at the start of this week:

[R1] Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,95) d. PR-Janko Tipsarevic (SRB,289) 60 76(6)

Next up, [R2] Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND, 95) vs. Lorenzo Sonego (ITA, 75)


Doubles:

[R1] 2-Divij Sharan/Marcelo Demoliner (IND/BRA) d. WC-Tuna Altuna / Cem Ilkel (TUR/TUR) 75 62


Prajnesh moves up to 90 in the live singles rankings. Divij is still India #1 at 42 in doubles.