Australian Open 2022

[PKBasu]

Ramkumar has been inconsistent in the past -- playing a lot of tournaments, and doing really well (often reaching the final) in a selected few each year. But there is no doubt that the last couple of months of 2021 were excellent for him. He has become more consistent, and his backhand is now a strength.
I don't think we need to get too disheartened by one loss. It was a disappointment, but he will bounce back.

[PKBasu]

Prajnesh lost 26 67. He was getting blown away, down 1-4 in the second set, but fought back to 3-4 and then to 6-6. But lost the tiebreak, sadly.

Yuki's Q2 match is scheduled for 4:30am IST tomorrow on Court 12.

[sameerph]

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.

I agree. But, as you said he will need Rohan's help to follow this path immediately and as Rajeev said he has 275 points to defend in doubles in February. So, he will that help now. He needs to partner Rohan in Pune, Doha and Dubai and try to get another title and a runner up finish or something to get close to top 100 in doubles ranking. Else, at the end of February, he will be ranked too low in doubles to get to partner Rohan at ATP level and he will have to start building up doubles ranking from challenger level trying to win multiple challengers which is a tough route.

[arjun2761]

Good luck to Yuki in his second round opponent against an inform opponent. Pretty amazing that he pulled out the first round after having barely played over the last 2 years. His ability to hold his serve will be key to him having a chance in the second round match.

Definitely disappointing loss for RamK and for Prajnesh who had a good win in the first round. Ankita was clearly out of shape from recovering from Covid but the margin of the loss was surprising given that she is normally a scrappy player....

[Dinesh]

Yuki lost the first set 1-6. And loses a game early in the second set to trail 1-2. This is going astonishingly bad.

All over. 6-1 6-3 loss for YB. I have no hopes to see an Indian player in the main draw of a grand slam this year. Unless Sumit recovers in time to play actively during the clay season.

[suresh]

In sharp contrast to last week, it has been an all-round dismal week for our tennis players.

[knarayen]

This is Yuki's first return back after a long time in an injury-free Australian Open. I wasn't expecting much and the positive is that he actually won one round in the qualifying. I hope he takes it from here into better performances moving forward in an injury-free way.

[Rajiv]

Against Yuki the Czech bulldozed through the first set in barely 25 minutes , and when Yuki lost his serve in the opening game of the 2nd set , simply stopped watching as knew the writing was on the wall and in a hour the match was over.

After last week there was a feeling of some hope representing a turning point from the Indian contingent, but to say disappointed would be a restrained minimisation.

From now on we just have to stop pretending , suspend the disbelief and simply just lower the expectations.

[jaydeep]

Hoping for better score-line but remaining injury-free is a key element for Yuki ... Hopefully we will see better results from him in this season.

[jayakris]

There goes that... and that is that for that. That is all that I can say.

[Sanjay]

I don't know why but my hopes were high.

We are back to earth again with our mediocre results with aging players. We don't seem to have any new stars who are 20. We need Vijay to clone himself and come back.

[prasen9]

Need to focus on doubles and mixed again.

[PKBasu]

The 46 46 loss in doubles last week (partnering Michael Venus, world #15 now in doubles) was a sign that Yuki wasn't back to anywhere near his best. He beat a clay-courter here in Q1 (albeit one who made Q3 at the 2019 AO), but was crushed by an in-form player in Q2. I'd say this is par for the course, given his lack of match-practice. It should prepare him reasonably well for the Maharashtra Open and the 2 Challengers in India to follow.

But India's singles challenge at the Australian Open has ended rather early, in the penultimate round of qualifiers.

I think RamK, Yuki and Sumit will put some smiles on our faces later in the year.

[Rajiv]

So finally Novak's attempt to set his own rules fails
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-59991762

[Rajiv]

Barring Ram, all the conquerors of Prajnesh,Yuki,Ankita made it through to the Main Draw.