Australian Open 2022

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Rajiv
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Re: Australian Open 2022

Post by Rajiv »

Good to see Yuki win in straight sets , after a brief hiccup in the the first set when got broken while serving for the set at 5-2 , quickly recovered to take the set and emphatically close out the second set and the match.
Yuki is showing good court speed and no sign of any ill effects after the long layoff.
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Re: Australian Open 2022

Post by Rajiv »

Ram loses the opening set @3 , incessant S/v at crucial times , and them dumping them into the net or spraying wide.
Hope he recovers .
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Re: Australian Open 2022

Post by Dinesh »

Ankita lost with a breadstick and a bagel. Painful loss but it seemed obvious that she wanted to grab the big grand slam QR1 paycheck since covid clearly spoiled her pre-AO warm up schedule. I wonder if she will remain in Australia to sneak into the doubles main draw (w/ Davis) or leave soon.
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Re: Australian Open 2022

Post by Dinesh »

Ramkumar is now creating a spat with one of the audiences, who seemed to have cheered for Moroni. He also once went closer to the chair umpire to argue about something. All in one game (4th game of the 2nd set). While it’s normal for players to get annoyed by fans, there really isn’t anything to prove to them while you’re in playing in a grand slam trying to qualify for the first time. You’re already a set down and the Italian seems to have been super pumped. Ignore the noise and focus on holding your serves, man!

Ramkumar fails to hold his service game at 5-all and it’s now Moroni who has the advantage to lock in this first round encounter, serving at 6-5. Game, Set, and Match Moroni 6-3 7-5. Can’t tell how many points Ramkumar lost by coming to the net :damn:
Last edited by Dinesh on Tue Jan 11, 2022 9:04 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Australian Open 2022

Post by PKBasu »

Ramkumar leads 5-4 in the second set, having lost the first 3-6 to Gian Marco Moroni (ITA, 197).

Update: Moroni holds and then breaks Ramkumar at the most inopportune time. 3-6, 5-6 now. Unfortunate end for Ramkumar, as he goes down 5-7.

[Q1] Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND, 182) l. Gian Marco Moroni (ITA, 197) 36 57
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Re: Australian Open 2022

Post by Rajiv »

This was the match Ram was supposed to win on hard faster courts , against an opponent , who played 90% of his matches only on clay last year , and the few he played on hard courts won only 10% of them , Ram in fact even beat him in Antalya on clay last year , and the SofaScore guys out of 1200 , 1000 put Ram favourite to win, but as I said last week going to wait for few more matches to see if the turnaround has happened , but sadly my fears came true.
In sharp contrast to a calmer Ram , the Italian really looked all charged up and in fact arrived on the courts with his T shirt wet indicating he must have just walked into the match minutes after a grinding hit on the practice courts .
Sigh.. 25th attempt to qualify for the Slams , and the MD spot still eludes him
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Re: Australian Open 2022

Post by Rajiv »

Yuki is looking good so far , but has a mountain to climb in R2 considering his lack of tournament play and against a man in form.
Prajnesh looks the best bet , considering how he demolished the 3rd seed and the likely opponents he is likely to face.
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Re: Australian Open 2022

Post by PKBasu »

Tougher match-ups in Q2, as one would expect:

[Q2] Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND, 221; CH 75) vs. Maximilian Marterer (GER, 228; CH 45)

[Q2] PR-Yuki Bhambri (IND, 1049; CH 83) vs. Tomas Machac (CZE, 130: CH)
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Re: Australian Open 2022

Post by jaydeep »

Superb winning start for Yuki after a long break, but get disappointed with Ram's loss in straight sets against a clay-courter ... Expected loss of Ankita as she came here without any preparation due to Cvd+19.
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Re: Australian Open 2022

Post by sameerph »

Great to see winning starts by both Prajnesh and Yuki bit disappointed with RamK loss. RamK was the one whom I expected to have the best chance among Indians to qualify based on recent form. But, he continues to disappoint at grand slam qualies.

Thomas Machach is on a 6 match winning streak since last week in Australia. So, Yuki will have to be at his best if he wants to beat him.

Prajnesh also has a tough match against fellow left hander Marterer.
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Re: Australian Open 2022

Post by prasen9 »

RamRam needs to work on his mental toughness and related aspects of keeping calm, nervousness, choking, etc. over and above his game, of course.
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Re: Australian Open 2022

Post by sameerph »

RamK also needs to figure out which matches he can go to the net on every point and which matches he needs to be selective. There are certain conditions and certain players against whom going into net on every serve may work but does not work all the time. I really did not watch today's match to comment how he played today but this is a general comment. This is really dampening loss after it looked like he has turned the corner with his first challenger title after so many finals.
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Re: Australian Open 2022

Post by Rajiv »

sameerph wrote: Tue Jan 11, 2022 4:15 pm This is really dampening loss after it looked like he has turned the corner with his first challenger title after so many finals.
This is the misconception everyone is carrying that he has turned the corner after the Challenger title. Those who have followed his game should know in the past half a year , his game and the results have been very inconsistent, However it is always good to have a Title in whatever form , but objectively one has to realise the field at that tournament was of a very low standard , and even a Ram in bad form was expected to beat them, and in his quarters even almost got knocked out of the tournament , when the 300 ranked Portuguese in the deciding set broke him and at 5-4 when serving for the match , the Azan prayers started on the loudspeakers next to the stadium and the entire city, throughout that period the prayers were blaring on the loudspeakers ,on the stream one could hear the loud prayers echoing rather than the ball being struck , this just disturbed the players concentration and when serving for the match got broken and immediately lost 3 games in a row all at love to lose the match 5-7 , So if not for the Azan , the challenger title would not have happened
But then this is Karma at work , Ram has missed out on so many previous occasion , and this time it was his turn to fully deserve the cup. This I clearly mentioned to him after the title , fine it’s great to have the cup , but realistically lot of work needs to be done to overhaul and not to get carried away.
Indian leg of 250 & Challengers is very crucial important for him to recover and hoping he turn things around then and as I know he is fully capable of bouncing back.
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Re: Australian Open 2022

Post by knarayen »

Rajiv wrote: Tue Jan 11, 2022 9:33 am This was the match Ram was supposed to win on hard faster courts , against an opponent , who played 90% of his matches only on clay last year , and the few he played on hard courts won only 10% of them , Ram in fact even beat him in Antalya on clay last year , and the SofaScore guys out of 1200 , 1000 put Ram favourite to win, but as I said last week going to wait for few more matches to see if the turnaround has happened , but sadly my fears came true.
In sharp contrast to a calmer Ram , the Italian really looked all charged up and in fact arrived on the courts with his T shirt wet indicating he must have just walked into the match minutes after a grinding hit on the practice courts .
Sigh.. 25th attempt to qualify for the Slams , and the MD spot still eludes him
This confirms what I have known for some time: RamK needs the help of a sports psychologist who can prepare him mentally for his career moving forward. He needs the tools to be mentally pumped up and on the physical side, really focus on building confidence in his groundstrokes. He already has good confidence on serve and volley, but that is simply not enough in today's game. His ground game needs work, and he needs to be coachable in that regard. He will keep losing his temper the way he does because he simply does not have confidence, period.

McEnroe was not coachable for a long time, but he started growing only after he realized his shortcomings and started to exercise greater control over his temper, with the help of his coach, and also improved his ground game to handle Borg and Connors. RamK has to be willing to listen about his shortcomings. Only then there is some chance to move forward. Otherwise the same drama will keep playing over and over.

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Re: Australian Open 2022

Post by VReddy »

Rajiv - Why not take the plunge towards ATP doubles (not challenger) as priority? He can continue to play ATP 250 Qualies & Main Draw doubles with Bopanna`s hand for 4-6 months and see where it takes him?

There are 2 paths that are clearly emerging

1. Singles career track as priority till age 33/34 with RamK having stable career between 100-200 rank and with a bit of luck, occasional foray into top-100 like Yuki/Prajnesh. Life is mostly on the Challenger Tour.
2. Doubles as priority will make him a stable top-50 player with a foray into top 20 and a couple of cracks at a Grand Slam title either in doubles or mixed. In this path, he will be a regular on the ATP Tour with several main draw appearances via qualies path incl. some famous top-50/100 wins along the way along with opportunities to play several matches against top-20 players. Singles ranking will enable him to play Grand Slam qualies till about age 30 before slowly tampering off

I hope he considers path (2). If his game is indeed ready, he will have a few good runs on the ATP Tour and rise up via this path too. However, for (2) path - Bopanna`s hand to fast-track him into top-80 ranking would be invaluable. The time is now. A year or two down the line, there will not be a Bopanna to fast-track him into the ATP Tour.
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