Dubai ATP 500, February 19-27 2022

[sameerph]

And Yuki gets a tough draw.

At Dubai ATP 500

[Q1] Yuki Bhambri (IND,669) vs. (5) Joao Sousa (POR,86)

Sousa won Pune ATP title a couple of weeks back.

[arjun2761]

[Q1] Yuki Bhambri (IND,669) vs. (5) Joao Sousa (POR,86) 6-3, 3-6, 3-2 (on serve).

Close match so far. Yuki has more game but is also making more UFE.

UPDATE
[Q1] Yuki Bhambri (IND,669) vs. (5) Joao Sousa (POR,86) 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(5)

[Omkara]

6-5 on serve

[Omkara]

Great game beating top 100 player. If he is fit for next game, he will make it to the main draw for sure.

[Rajiv]

Superb win in 3 sets against a player in form, next up 148 ranked Chris O'Connell for a place in the MD... winnable match

[sameerph]

Opening a thread for this tournament as Yuki had an excellent top 100 win in first round of singles qualies . RamK-Saketh have received doubles wild card and Bops also there.

Moving earlier posts from Yuki's thread here.

[sameerph]

Excellent win by Yuki against an in-form top 100 player. If he is playing so well, I wonder why he did not play singles at least 1 of the weeks of Bangalore Challenger. Could have gone deep with that game.

[Q2] Yuki Bhambri (IND,669) vs. Christopher O'Connell (AUS,148)

O'Connell is another in-form player having made third round of AO with win over 13th ranked Schwartzman.He also qualifed for Wimbledon last year and had win over Jack Sinner in Atlanta. So, again a pretty tough match.

[prasen9]

Excellent win by Yuki against an in-form top 100 player. If he is playing so well, I wonder why he did not play singles at least 1 of the weeks of Bangalore Challenger. Could have gone deep with that game.

I can only think of two things. He wants to limit the number of matches he plays in a year in singles. Due to injury concerns. So, he is only going to play the very top-tier of singles at least until he cannot get into those tournaments. The other is that he does not like the higher altitude of Bengaluru and its more rarified air. He possibly never had great results there if my memory is correct but I may be wrong. Memory is not my greatest suit.

[sameerph]

Will have to check his results at Bengaluru to confirm your theory. But, then he should have played only if he got wild card ( not using his PR) which he would have surely got if he wanted. So, how does it matter even if he loses in first round.

Maybe the first reason you mentioned is what he is thinking ( not playing too many singles matches. He is taking a high risk in that case. It may happen that after using all his PR , his ranking may not get good enough to be in top 300 or so which is entry point for challengers. Quite possible as he will be getting tough draws in all those ATP tournaments.

[SaniaFan]

Or is he confident enough to make those TOP tournaments count?

[PKBasu]

Very impressive win for Yuki, beating the Tata Maharashtra Open 2022 singles champion in Q1 at Dubai. A pity he hasn't got a doubles wildcard. RamK-Saketh, of course, have earned it, although they lost the Bengaluru 2 doubles final.

I find it bizarre that Yuki chose not to play singles on either of the two weeks at Bangalore. He does struggle a bit in the higher altitude, but should have asked for a singles wildcard at least for the first week.

[PKBasu]

Yuki earned 10 points for the win over Sousa, slightly less than he could have earned by making the QF in Bengaluru, but more than the 7 points for making R2 (which was the round that other Indian players got stuck at both weeks). He also earned US$11,170 for the win -- more than the title winners in Bengaluru made each week! So the cost/benefit suggests his current path isn't an irrational one. But home Challengers are valuable, nonetheless, precisely because they are rare.

[PKBasu]

Superb win in 3 sets against a player in form, next up 148 ranked Chris O'Connell for a place in the MD... winnable match

Christopher O'Connell beat 13th seed Schwartzman in R2 of the Australian Open this year, and qualified easily into the Doha Open singles main draw last week. So he is in form -- and beat #84 Laaksonen in straight sets in Q1 today. So it will be another tough match tomorrow.

[Sanjay]

Wow YB beat No 86, very good!

[Sanjay]

I find it bizarre that Yuki chose not to play singles on either of the two weeks at Bangalore. He does struggle a bit in the higher altitude, but should have asked for a singles wildcard at least for the first week.

How do wildcards work? Do tournaments offer it to selected players or do players have to apply/ask for it?