ITF Junior Circuit - 2021- India

[sameerph]

Higher level ( Grade 2 and Grade 3) tournaments which are usually held in India at this time of the year are postponed due to Covid but lot of lower level ( grade 4/ grade 5) are held in first quarter of the year. So, opening a thread to discuss this year.

This week in grade 4 event in New Delhi some encouraging results.

In girls singles, 14 year old Shruti Ahlawat played in her first ITF tournament, she came thru 3 rounds of qualifying and 5 rounds of main draw to win the title without dropping a set. Shruti has represented India in lot of under 14 level tournaments and from the results this week she does appear to be very talented. She beat 16 year old Rutuja Chaphalkar in the final who herself had started doing well in ITF junior a couple of years ago at 14.

In boys singles, 17 year old Chirag Duhan won the title beating fellow 17 year old top seed Nishant Dabbas in the final. But, real encouraging performance came from our 13 year old talent, Manas Dhamne. He too played in his first ITF tournament, came thru 3 rounds of qualifying and 2 rounds of main draw before losing to top seed Dabbas in the quarter final. He also reached the doubles final. A 13 year old competing and doing well against 16-17 year olds is an indication that we have a real good talent in the making.

Next week is a grade 3 in Gurugram.

[gbelday]

Congrats to the winners! Great show by Manas! That kid is the one to watch for.

Sameer, Gurugram is a Grade 4 (not Grade 3) according to the ITF tournament calendar. Has it been upgraded?

[sameerph]

No, Gautam. It is a grade 4. It was a typo.

Manas qualified thru 3 rounds this weekend too. Q3 was tough and he won in third set super tie break. I do not know why he has not been given wild cards here and been made to go thru qualies. Might be getting tiring for a 13 year old to go thru these 3 rounds, so he may be getting tired when one gets to later rounds of main draw. He plays 6th seed Denim Yadav in first round.

[gbelday]

Manas beat Rushil in the final qualifying. These two are the most promising juniors on the boys side.

Manas lost in the quarters of the previous leg. If he had made semis, he would have got one of those special exempt spots this week. Doubles finals doesn’t count unfortunately. Also the points from the previous leg don’t count for another couple of weeks.

[sameerph]

Oh, I did not know much about Rushil.

Yes, he may not be eligible for special exempt but they have given out 4 wild cards and they should have given 1 of them to Manas considering the promise he has shown at early age.

[gbelday]

Yeah Rushil is a talented lefty. I got to watch him and Manas at the orange bowl in 2019. Rushil’s parents are super nice and we are all in the same boat..exchanging ideas and resources, discussing challenges, injury prevention etc..basically learning from each other as we go along the journey

Some articles on Rushil. Feel free to move these posts out of this thread.

https://www.hindustantimes.com/noida/no ... ikHaN.html

https://www.telegraphindia.com/sports/r ... id/1743560

[sameerph]

Ok, thanks. Good to see such telent coming out. Let these articles remain here.

[jayakris]

Yeah Rushil is a talented lefty. I got to watch him and Manas at the orange bowl in 2019. Rushil’s parents are super nice and we are all in the same boat..exchanging ideas and resources, discussing challenges, injury prevention etc..basically learning from each other as we go along the journey

As always, after the Covid problems clear up, if any of the kids need to be in Southern California for anything and need to be taken care of, my wife and I are always here, Gautam. Nice to see that you are all staying in touch.

[gbelday]

Thank you, Jay!

[suresh]

Chandni Srinivasan from Hyderabad is ranked no. 1 in the 2020 year end India's U14 AITA list. Her father (@Srinitennis) tweeted to Anand Mahindra asking for support. Vishnu Vardhan saw this and responded via this tweet offering her full equipment support.

[sameerph]

Very nice of Vishnu to do that. With players like him and Rohan Bopanna ( maybe a few more) into coaching etc. we should expect better help for young players.

There is a nice article on the first week winner Chirag Duhan by Kamesh ( got in on his FB page but not finding anywhere in the online edition of Hindu). It appears that Chirag is 6ft 4 inch tall at 17. If he can get right coaching, this will be a big advantage in pro tennis.

[jaydeep]

Here is the link to Kamesh's article from FB.

Kamesh Srinivasan's FB post

[sameerph]

Thanks, Jaydeep. Let's see Chirag's progress in next few months to see if he has real talent to make it big on ori tour.

In the meantime this week Manas knocked out sixth seed Denim Yadav in 3 sets in first round.

[sameerph]

13 year old Manas Dhamne is now thru to the semi finals of this week's event beating third seed American Nikhil Niranjan in the QF in straight sets. He meets top seed Nishant Dabas in the SF. Last week's winner Chirag Duhan is in the other SF against 4th seed Aman Dahiya.

Last week's winner 14 year old Shruti Ahlawat is thru to the SF again. Will meet second seed Reshma Maruri in the SF.

[sameerph]

Manas lost in the SF against top seed Nishant Dabas.

Shruti Ahlawat is thru her second consecutive final. She has not dropped a set in her 12 matches and these are her first 2 tournaments at this level. Looks quite a talent.