Alicante Challenger (Hard), Oct 11-17, 2021.

[Rajiv]

At this Challenger being held  at the Juan Carlos Academy and the training stable for Carlos Alcaraz , Ram opens up against a former Top 100 Thomas Fabbiano, and should he overcome a probable more stiffer 3rd seed Oscar Otte awaits him in R2.

For the Dbls Ram & Bala face Kacper Zuk/Borna Gojo, while Purav/Jeevan with a tough opener against the top seeds.

To make up the numbers for the Single's Quali's , Bala & Purav also figure in the draw.

[Rajiv]

Bala ranked 1323 scores an impressive straight sets win 76 76 over his 339 ranked opponent to move in R2 of the qualifying.

Have been noticing Bala since the past month has been comming for all his matches wearing a strange combination of one black color and one red color shoe.
Is it some kind of superstition or fashion, don't really know.

[Omkara]

Typically doubles players do participate in singles whenever they can. I felt, its more to keep them match fit. At times in weaker draws they make it to main draw and earn some money.

[Omkara]

Btw Bala earned €225 for his win and Purav won €115. Doesn't cover for anything.

[Dinesh]

Divij is also in the doubles draw partnering Austrian Lucas Meidler.

[Rajiv]

Black & Red Shoes Bala , shows he still has the wares for singles and moves in to the MD draw with a straight sets wins 3 & 3.
With 2 quali win's jumps up 200 places in the singles ranking from 1323 to 1100's and a win in the MD draw will get him into the 900's.

[Omkara]

Bala was decent singles player. From what I remember, Bala has probably a better singles track record when compared to Divij and Jeevan. Purav never cracked top 500 in singles.

[Rajiv]

And as hoped for, Bala draws the 20 yr Spanish 441 ranked WC.
Can he(Bala) continue his fairy tale run.

[PKBasu]

Bala was decent singles player. From what I remember, Bala has probably a better singles track record when compared to Divij and Jeevan. Purav never cracked top 500 in singles.

Yes, Bala has a career-high ranking of 287 (so he qualifies for our list of singles pros who have made it to the top-300 in the world, as does Jeevan with a career-high of 293). Nandan Bal, for instance, doesn't!

[Dinesh]

Balaji upsets the WC in 3 sets

[jayakris]

Balaji is on a roll. Truly. Hey, maybe there is some singles left in him STILL!!

[jayakris]

Scores so far:

At the €44,820 Alicante Ferrero Challenger, Villena Spain (Hard)

Singles:
[Q1] (Alt) Purav Raja (IND,NR) l. Denis Yevseyev (KAZ,406), 06 36
[Q1] (Alt) N.Sriram Balaji (IND,1323) d. (1) Nicolas Moreno De Alboran (USA,339), 76(5) 76(4)
[Q2] (Alt) N.Sriram Balaji (IND,1323) d. (Alt) Alex Lawson (USA,NR), 63 60
[R1] Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,191) l. Thomas Fabbiano (IT,225), 46 63 36
[R1] (Q) N.Sriram Balaji (IND,1323) d. (WC) Nicolas Alvarez Varona (ESP,441), 57 64 64
[R2] (Q) N.Sriram Balaji (IND,1323) vs (8) Joao Sousa (POR,182)
Doubles:
[R1] N.Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) l. Borna Gojo (CRO)/ Kacper Zuk (POL), 46 36
[R1] Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) vs (1) Andre Goransson (SWE)/ Szymon Walkow (POL)
[R1] Lucas Miedler (AUT)/ Divij Sharan vs (WC) Diego Augusto Barreto Sanchez (ESP)/ Daniel Rincon (ESP)

RamK needs to find some double specialist to play with... No point in losing matches with guys like Balaji who focus on singles ... And Balaji has made a 410 spot move in the live rankings, up to 913

[jayakris]

Today's results:

[R1] Lucas Miedler (AUT)/ Divij Sharan l. (WC) Diego Augusto Barreto Sanchez (ESP)/ Daniel Rincon (ESP), 67(2) 46
[R1] Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) d. (1) Andre Goransson (SWE)/ Szymon Walkow (POL), 64 62

Very good upset for Jeevan/Purav.

[suresh]

I just saw the final point of the Jeevan/Purav match. Jeevan finished off with an acute angle poach at the net. Jeevan is one of the best poachers (after Leander, of course) that I have seen among Indian players.

[PKBasu]

Sad to see Divij in free fall at the moment. He needs to find a regular partner and put an end to his misery.