ITF Junior Circuit 2022- India

[sameerph]

ITF junior circuit for this year started in India this week with a G3 in Chandigarh.

Boys title went to 16 year old Yuvan Nandal. Yuvan has been getting better since last year on junior circuit. He had 4 semi finals and 4 finals in 2021 mostly in G4 and G5 level. Now he improves with a title at G3 level. Yuvan is currently ranked 139 and this title will move him up to somewhere around 105. He is getting close to getting into grand slam main draws.

In the final, Yuvan beat 17 year old Daksh Agarwal.

Girls title went to 13 year old Tejaswi Dabas. She beat 17 year old Vaishnavi Adkar who is India #3 in juniors. To win a G3 tile is very rare and commendable.

[sameerph]

This week's J2 is shifted to Chandigarh too instead of Delhi probably due to high covid cases in Delhi.

In boys singles 4 Indians in the QF. Last week's title winner Yuvan Nandal got upset by fellow Indian 15 year Manipur boy Bushan Haobam in second round. Manas Dhamne upset second seed Aman Dahiya in first round and is thru QF. Other 2 Indians in QF are last week's runner up Daksh Agarwal and top seed Chirag Duhan. One Indian American boy Ayush Bhat is also in QF along with 3 other foreign players from Lebanon, France and Korea.

In girls singles, 5 Indians are in the QF. 4 seeds- Shruti Ahlawat, Vaishnavi Adkar, Suhitha Maruri and Sanjana Sirimalla and Laxmi Gowda. Last week's winner Tejaswi Dabas lost in second round to 6th seeded Russian. 2 other foreign players in QF are second and fifth seeds from Iran and Thailand respectively.

[sameerph]

2 Indian boys in SF - Manas Dhamne and Bushan Haobam. Indian-American Ayush Bhat upset top seed Chirag Duhan.

In girls, top seed Shruti Ahlawat got upset in QF. Vaishnavi Adkar is the only Indian girl in SF.

[arjun2761]

Manas at 14 and Bushan at 15 look very promising to do this well at this level at their current age! Hopefully, one of them can take the title here....

[VReddy]

Indian-American Ayush Bhat upset top seed Chirag Duhan.

Aayush is a reverse case of a player with primary residence in Hyderabad/India with passport (?) from USA

[sameerph]

Thanks, Vishnu. Yes, I read in Kamesh report today that Aayush trains in NTC in Delhi same academy that Bushan trains. So, he seems to be based in India although is listed as USA on ITF site.

In the meantime, Aayush beat Bushan 64 62 in SF to reach the final where he will meet Manas who beat a French boy 75 61 to make it to the final.

No Indian in girls final as 7th seeded Vaisnavi Adkar lost to fifth seeded Thai player. A bit disappointing.

[arjun2761]

Good luck to Manas in the final. Pretty impressive for a 14 year old to make a J2 final. Only caveat is perhaps the field isn't as strong as it should be given the Covid impact on travel (especially international travel).

[sameerph]

Manas beat Aayush Bhat in straight sets in final to win the title. Remarkable for a 14 year old to win a J2 title. Even our best junior in last 20 years or so, Yuki Bhambri was not able to do this at this age. Again with a caveat which Arjun added that this is somewhat weaker J2 than usual. Manas also had to come thru qualifying this week and won 10 matches without losing a set which shows his dominance and fitness.

[PKBasu]

Manas beat an 18 year old French boy who is ranked 269 in the SF, and 17-year-old Aayush Bhat (USA, 177) in the final.

In R1, he beat the 17 year old India #1 junior Aman Dahiya (ranked 77). Plus he qualified into the main draw, and went all the way to the title without dropping a set. THAT is about as impressive as they come!! And he just turned 14 a fortnight ago. WOW!!!

[jaydeep]

Remarkable performance by Manas to win J2 tournament @ 14 yrs age ... Taking advantage of weaker field is also art and importantly he came through qualifying to win the title.

[sameerph]

Manas Dhamne lost in second round of Kolkata J2. He has played lots of matches in last 8-10 days. So, tiredness would have crept in.

Only 3 Indian boys in the QF here- Second seed Aman Dahiya, fourth seed Saheb Sodhi and 16 year old Aryan Shah.

In girls singles, top 8 seeds are thru to QF which includes 5 Indians.

[arjun2761]

Bit disappointing that our youngsters lost early but good luck to the remaining Indians in both the boys and girls draw...

[sameerph]

All 3 Indian boys who were in QF- econd seed Aman Dahiya, fourth seed Saheb Sodhi and 16 year old Aryan Shah won their QF matches and moved thru to SG along with a Russian boy. Hope 1 of these 3 win the title this week.

In girls top 4 seeds are thru to SF which included 2 Indians. top seed Shruti Ahlawat will play third seed and last week champion from Thailand while fourth seed Suhitha Maruri will play second seeded Russian.

[sameerph]

Only Aman Dahiya made it to the boys singles final. Other 3 in boys and girls semi finals lost their matches. A bit disappointing outing for girls in these 3 weeks. Especially top ranked Indian Shruti Ahlawat had real chance to sew up grand slam entry for this year with a title in one of the weeks or a couple of finals.

Amand Dahiya also won the doubles title this week. So, this performance will take him close to top 60 and close to grand slam main draw. A title tomorrow will take him close top 50

[sameerph]

Aman Dahiya lost in the final against a Russian boy.

Still, a good outing for him.

He will be India # in boys now and both he and girls #1 Shruti Ahlawat will be ranked somewhere close to top 60 and will be certainly able to play qualifying draws of grand slams. With a little luck they will also make the main draw. A couple of good results somewhere in next couple of months will help.