European Challengers 2022

[sameerph]

Bala and Jeevan are thru to consecutive challenger doubles final.

At Blois Challenger 80, France (Clay)

[SF] N. Sriram Balaji (IND) / Jeevan Neduncheziyan (IND) d. Boris Arias (BOL) / Federico Zeballos (BOL) 60 63

Next,

[F] N. Sriram Balaji (IND) / Jeevan Neduncheziyan (IND) vs. (2) Romain Arnaedo (MON) / Jonathan Eysseric (FRA)

[sameerph]

And a challenger title in consecutive weeks for Bala and Jeevan.

At Blois Challenger 80, France (Clay)

[F] N. Sriram Balaji (IND) / Jeevan Neduncheziyan (IND) d. (2) Romain Arnaedo (MON) / Jonathan Eysseric (FRA) 64 67(3) 10-7

This is 9th challenger title for Balaji- 5 with Vishnu, 1 each with RamK, Elrich and now 2 with Jeevan. 11th challenger title for Jeevan - 2 with Austin Krajicek, 1 each with Saketh, Purav, Somdev, Rungkat, Arevalo, Skugor, Lopez-Perez and now 2 with Balaji.


Bala will be at 125 now in the ATP doubles rankings and Jeevan at 147.

[prashanthm]

Malaga Open, Spain - CH80

Comfortable win for Yuki to get into the main draw.....

[Q-F] (Alt) Yuki Bhambri (IND, 626) d. (8) Omar Jasica (AUS, 429) 64 63

He'll be up against Kuznetsov in the first round of main draw with a possibly clash with 7th seed Mmoh in the second round...

[R1] (Q) Yuki Bhambri (IND, 626) v. Andrey Kuznetsov (RUS, 218)

In doubles, Yuki/Saki are seeded second and will be up against Kuznetsov/Donskoy... Arjun partnered with Victor Vlad Cornea and they are the top seeds...

[R1] (1) Victor Vlad Cornea (ROU, 149) / Arjun Kadhe (IND, 144) v. Jamie Cerretani (USA, 148) / Johannes Haerteis (GER, 441)
[R1] (2) Yuki Bhambri (IND, 205) / Saketh Myneni (IND, 145) v. Evgeny Donskoy (RUS, 484/252s) / Andrey Kuznetsov (RUS, 724/218s)

[PKBasu]

Finally a small stroke of luck for Yuki, who was in Malaga just to play doubles in the Challenger (partnering Saketh), but entered the singles qualifying draw as the fourth alternate -- and took the place of 2nd seed Steven Diez (#348) in the draw (inheriting a Q1 bye), and immediately beat Omar Jasika (AUS, 424) in the final qualifying round, earning 4 ATP singles points. Jasika is the 2014 US Open junior champion, but has only made it to a career-high of 235 in the pro rankings. Definitely a good straight-sets win for Yuki, which edges his ATP live singles ranking up to 599.

Denis Istomin also got in as an alternate, but lost in Q1.

[PKBasu]

Sumit Nagal was also in the qualifiers at another Challenger in Sauerland (Germany) on clay, but got double-bageled by Georgii Kravchenko (UKR, 414) in Q2. That is a very worrying result, especially as Sumit is travelling with Somdev as coach and at least one other person (an expensive team).

[prashanthm]

Malaga Open, Spain - CH80

[R1] (Q) Yuki Bhambri (IND, 626) d. Andrey Kuznetsov (RUS, 218) 46 64 61

WOW! What a win for Yuki! He was down a set, a break down in the second set at 4-6 1-3 and came back very strongly to win the match. It was heartening to see the domination in the decider....

[arjun2761]

Wow, great win for Yuki. The fact that he won in 3 sets perhaps indicates that he is physically getting better.

[sameerph]

Yes, very good comeback win by Yuki. 11 points for in this challenger so far which will move him to around 565 in the rankings. Tough match up next.

[R2] (Q) Yuki Bhambri (IND, 626) vs. (6) Michael Mmoh (USA,177)

[PKBasu]

Malaga Open, Spain - CH80

[R1] (Q) Yuki Bhambri (IND, 626) d. Andrey Kuznetsov (RUS, 218) 46 64 61

WOW! What a win for Yuki! He was down a set, a break down in the second set at 4-6 1-3 and came back very strongly to win the match. It was heartening to see the domination in the decider....

Terrific win indeed for Yuki. Andrey Kuznetsov, who Yuki defeated, is the 2009 junior Wimbledon champion (so a contemporary of Yuki's albeit about a year older). Kuznetsov reached a career high ranking of 39 six years ago, so this is a very solid win indeed for the 2009 Aus Open junior champion (coming right after a win over the 2014 US Open champion).

[sameerph]

Yuki and Saketh win in straight sets in first round and Arjun also went thru to QF with a walkover.

At Malaga Open Challenger 80, Spain (Hard)

[R1] (1) Victor Vlad Cornea (ROU, 149) / Arjun Kadhe (IND, 144) d. Jamie Cerretani (USA, 148) / Johannes Haerteis (GER, 441) walkover

[R1] (2) Yuki Bhambri (IND, 205) / Saketh Myneni (IND, 145) d. Evgeny Donskoy (RUS, 484/252s) / Andrey Kuznetsov (RUS, 724/218s) 63 76(4)

[arjun2761]

Interesting that both of our pairs are the top seeds in the doubles event at the challenger level. So they are theoretically ready to make the transition to the ATP level but the pathways for doing it is pretty tough since singles players can also take the doubles spots based on their singles rankings (and there are no qualies at most ATP events for doubles).

[prashanthm]

ATP scores show that Yuki gave a walk over to Mmoh... I hope he is healthy in general and there is nothing physical or injury related....

[Rajiv]

Yes it is confirmed that Yuki gave a walkover.

even his schedule after Newport looks confusing,after Newport it is in Europe at Gstaad, then after Gstaad a mixture of US & Europe at Atlanta,Kitzbuel,Umag.

[Omkara]

ATP scores show that Yuki gave a walk over to Mmoh... I hope he is healthy in general and there is nothing physical or injury related....

I think he was just a bit careful

[sanjay8886]

I think he may not have wanted to play two games today. He has still not withdrawn from doubles. Not sure though, will wait to see.