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

[jayakris]

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

He found a regular partner in life, no? Typically it is all downhill after that ... All married men know, right? Haha.

[PKBasu]

Balaji is one-set all against the former world #28 Joao Sousa!! 2-6, 6-3

[PKBasu]

[R2] Q-N.Sriram Balaji (IND,1323; CH 287) vs 8-Joao Sousa (POR,182; CH 28) 26 63 46
Final set:
Sousa using some nasty gamesmanship tactics, breaks Balaji on the 4th break point of the 2nd game. 0-2
Sousa 0-30 (great backcourt backhand play from Balaji) 15-30, 30-all, 30-40, Deuce (horrible UFE from Bala), 2 bad UFEs, game Sousa. 0-3
Bala 30-0 (beautiful volley), DF, 30-30 (UFE), 40-30 (volley followed by overhead smash), Ace. 1-3
Sousa 30-0, 30-15 (Bala goes to net, draws error), 30-all (UFE), 30-40 (Bala wins long rally) BP, Deuce (service winner), Ad-in, Deuce, Ad-in (volley into net), Game (Sousa finishes it at the net!). 1-4
Bala 0-15, Ace 15-all, 30-15 (2nd serve winner), 40-15, super volley drop shot (game). 2-4
Sousa 15-all, 30-15 (nice rally but poor drop shot at the end), 30-all, terrible net UFE, 40-30, forehand long, 2-5
Bala: Ace 15-0, brilliant 2nd serve ace, 30-0, service winner 40-0, Game 3-5.
Sousa 15-0, 15-all, 15-30 (volley winner), 15-40 (2BPs), Bala goes to net & draws error, Game 4-5
Bala 15-30, 30-all (net brilliance), 40-30, Deuce, Ad-in (crosscourt winner), Deuce (unhelpful cord), Ad-in, Deuce, Ad-out (brilliant reflex backhand return; MP), Ace Deuce, BH UFE Ad-out MP2, crosscourt FH winner Deuce, easy volley into net Ad-out, Ace Deuce, bad net play again Ad-out, FH UFE, 4-6

[PKBasu]

Balaji clearly should be playing singles whenever he can. He could have won this, especially after breaking back (to get back on serve) in the final set. But he caved into pressure in the next service game -- getting just a single first serve in (which happened to be an ace on match-point) and making a series of UFEs. Sousa didn't need to do too much in that final game.

I like Balaji's serve-volleying. His groundstrokes are excellent as well. There is no reason for him not to play singles (except for his lack of a decent ranking at the moment!). Sousa took a set off Nishikori last week at Indian Wells (after qualifying in), so he isn't out of form. He was shouting at the umpire and doing everything to distract his opponent, but Balaji was able to handle all that quite well, apart from the tennis.

[jayakris]

In doubles,

[QF] Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) d. (WC) David Marrero (ESP)/ Dhruva Mulye (USA), 62 63
[SF] Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) vs (3) Denys Molchanov (UKR)/ David Vega Hernandez (ESP)

[arjun2761]

Good performance by Balaji! Seemingly played better than his career peak. Prajnesh reached a new career high when he was 29, so why not Balaji who is just a little older at 31.

[Omkara]

If he gets a chance, then he should singles qualies in every tournament he is participating. Might get lucky because he still got the skill.

[PKBasu]

In doubles,

[QF] Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) d. (WC) David Marrero (ESP)/ Dhruva Mulye (USA), 62 63
[SF] Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) vs (3) Denys Molchanov (UKR)/ David Vega Hernandez (ESP)

This fellow Dhruva Mulye seems a rich kid who buys a lot of wildcards -- like Arindam Datta used to do in India in 2006 and thereabouts. He had lost 10-12 consecutive R1 matches after getting wildcards, but has just had a breakthrough tournament with his coach/partner, David Marrero, who used to be a top-10 doubles player (and won the year-end ATP doubles title one year). Good run by JeePu.

[PKBasu]

Good performance by Balaji! Seemingly played better than his career peak. Prajnesh reached a new career high when he was 29, so why not Balaji who is just a little older at 31.

I should mention that the one shot that Balaji should cut out when playing singles is the drop shot from the back court (not the drop volley, which he does execute well). He lost several rallies that he had set up well, only to squander everything with a drop shot that either went into the net or sat up for his opponent to smash. You need underspin to make a drop shot useful, which Balaji doesn't use.

[VReddy]

Good performance by Balaji! Seemingly played better than his career peak. Prajnesh reached a new career high when he was 29, so why not Balaji who is just a little older at 31.

Bala is 31.5 yrs old. He had already quit singles 4-5 yrs ago - so almost has no rank. Even if he has to focus on singles, it would take him to 33.5 yrs age to get him to his real ranking of top-300. Then at age 34, he would have to mount the climb.

If we Google for his interviews, he use to run top-100 players like Thiago Monteiro and all very close - he made the following remarks back in 2017

I have always believed that I have a very big game. On my day, when everything works, I surely think I am able to beat top 100-150 level players. Even during Pune Challenger even I had a match point against former top100 player (i.e. , Aleksandr Nedovyesov, KAZ). It was more of a mental thing. But now since my focus is on doubles, I’ll have my partner to help me in times like that.

So he always had this level and he was aware. Given the financial, resource constraints - he had to focus on doubles. So my point - this performance is not a revelation.

[prasen9]

He should focus on doubles but play singles on the side as much as he can and as much as his body will allow. If he starts getting injured too often due to singles load, he should not play singles or choose to play singles with some intervals.

[Omkara]

[SF] Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) l (3) Denys Molchanov (UKR)/ David Vega Hernandez (ESP) 4-6, 4-6

[jayakris]

Bala's singles abilities is a big reason why I always thought he and RamK will become a serious (top-20 quality, if not better) doubles team. Hopefully they will start really hitting it big soon.

[arjun2761]

I didn't realize that he had focus issues. Ideally, it is something he needs to find a way to fix. Making the top 20 in doubles also requires focus -- simply having the talent to do so isn't enough. There are probably a couple hundred players who have top 20 doubles potential but only a small percentage get there and mental focus and fitness is probably one of the key differentiators which convert the potential into achievement.

[PKBasu]

So, I suppose, he had "focus issues" after drawing level (i.e., getting back on serve) in the final set. Lack of focus (or perhaps undue nerves) led him to lose his next service game (during which he made just a single first serve) and the match. This is definitely going to be a problem, whether in singles or doubles (although the partner can dampen the impact somewhat).