European Challengers 2022

[sameerph]

Yes, Yuki is playing doubles QF is starting now. He is not ready to play 2 matches in a day, so he had to withdraw from 1 of them. Long term he is still not sure if he can sustain in singles, so he chose doubles over singles today, it seems.

[arjun2761]

And they won the dubs in the super tiebreak (3rd set) coming back from 4-8 to win 6 points in a row.

[sameerph]

Yes, that was an excellent comeback by this pair. Arjun also goes thru to the SF with easy win.

At Malaga Open Challenger 80, Spain (Hard)

[QF] (1) Victor Vlad Cornea (ROU) / Arjun Kadhe (IND) d. (WC) Sergi Perez Contri (ESP) / Adriano Soriano Barrera (ESP) 63 62

[QF] (2) Yuki Bhambri (IND) / Saketh Myneni (IND) d. Yatusaka Uchiyama (JPN) / Luca Margaroli (SUI) 67(8) 62 10-8

Next,

[SF] (1) Victor Vlad Cornea (ROU) / Arjun Kadhe (IND) vs. Altug Celikbilek (TUR) / Dmitry Popko (KAZ)

[SF] (2) Yuki Bhambri (IND) / Saketh Myneni (IND) vs. Daniel Cukierman (ISR) / Emilio Gomez (ECU)

[Sanjay]

Yes, Yuki is playing doubles QF is starting now. He is not ready to play 2 matches in a day, so he had to withdraw from 1 of them. Long term he is still not sure if he can sustain in singles, so he chose doubles over singles today, it seems.

Ah thanks for clarifying. My heart sank thinking it may be injury.

[arjun2761]

Also, looks like he is prioritizing doubles over singles. Perhaps, he's made the decision that his tennis future is in doubles...

[prashanthm]

And that makes sense for more than one reason...

It is not good to throw your partner under the bus. So, doubles it is...

[sameerph]

Both our pairs lost in the SF though.

At Malaga Open Challenger 80, Spain (Hard)

[SF] (1) Victor Vlad Cornea (ROU) / Arjun Kadhe (IND) l. Altug Celikbilek (TUR) / Dmitry Popko (KAZ) 76(2) 36 8-10

[SF] (2) Yuki Bhambri (IND) / Saketh Myneni (IND) l. Daniel Cukierman (ISR) / Emilio Gomez (ECU) 46 46

A bit disappointing for Yuki to have given a walkover in singles and then losing in semi finals in doubles.

[PKBasu]

I thought it was a ridiculous decision by Yuki to give a walkover in singles in order to focus on doubles. I can see that his longer-term future is going to be in doubles, but he had a couple of really good singles wins, and should have played the next round. If his body didn't hold up, he could have conceded the doubles. But I think he is being over-cautious, and is wasting opportunity after opportunity in the process.

[PKBasu]

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.

This is clearly not a genuine schedule of tournaments that Yuki plans to play. I presume he has entered tournaments where he is likeliest to make it into the main draw with his PR (ATP250s), and will decide where to play closer to the time; Gstaad, Umag and Kitzbuhel are on clay . Sadly, it seems he is just trying to maximise his earnings, not his singles points. If the latter was the goal, he would have played a bunch of Challengers in the US, on his best surface. I presume what he will do is wait for the Newport field to be revealed; if he makes it in to the singles main draw, he will go there, otherwise he will stay in Europe in July and only try to play the hard court tournaments where he may get into the main draw, or where he thinks he might be able to qualify in, in August. Not a schedule calculated to maximize his chances as a singles pro.

[PKBasu]

Three Indian pairs in the Porto Challenger doubles draw in Portugal this week. (Lovely city where I spent 4 days last month; I've sent Yuki some restaurant recommendations for his birthday today). Yuki/Saketh are seeded 2, and play Grenier/Bellier in R1 (not that easy), Purav/Divij are seeded 4 and play Diez/Moriya, while Anirudh/VSP play Gengel/Niklas-Salminen in R1.

[PKBasu]

I'm not sure where Arjun Kadhe is playing this week, but he is now at a career-high doubles ranking of 138, just behind Saketh (135) and Jeevan (136). Balaji is the India #3 in doubles, ranked 115. RamK is at a career-high of 67. Bopanna is 21, but I agree is an absolute idiot to skip Wimbledon. (If his body can't take 5 sets, he would have figured that out early, and could have concentrated on MxD...). Purav Raja is 178, Yuki is 187 and Divij has dropped to 205 in the live rankings.

[vishalg]

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.

This is clearly not a genuine schedule of tournaments that Yuki plans to play. I presume he has entered tournaments where he is likeliest to make it into the main draw with his PR (ATP250s), and will decide where to play closer to the time; Gstaad, Umag and Kitzbuhel are on clay . Sadly, it seems he is just trying to maximise his earnings, not his singles points. If the latter was the goal, he would have played a bunch of Challengers in the US, on his best surface. I presume what he will do is wait for the Newport field to be revealed; if he makes it in to the singles main draw, he will go there, otherwise he will stay in Europe in July and only try to play the hard court tournaments where he may get into the main draw, or where he thinks he might be able to qualify in, in August. Not a schedule calculated to maximize his chances as a singles pro.

Don't bash the guy on his birthday. He turned 30 today.

[PKBasu]

I'm not bashing him, just stating facts. He is the 8th alternate for the singles main draw in Newport, but is not among the top-20 alternates in the other ATP250s he's entered (on clay). Plus he hasn't entered the qualifiers. So what will actually transpire is that he will play the US Challengers most of the next few weeks (after, hopefully, squeezing into the Newport main draw).

I wished him for his birthday in the early hours, and also sent him a list of the 3 best restaurants in Porto

[sameerph]

Three Indian pairs in the Porto Challenger doubles draw in Portugal this week. (Lovely city where I spent 4 days last month; I've sent Yuki some restaurant recommendations for his birthday today). Yuki/Saketh are seeded 2, and play Grenier/Bellier in R1 (not that easy), Purav/Divij are seeded 4 and play Diez/Moriya, while Anirudh/VSP play Gengel/Niklas-Salminen in R1.

2 of our 3 pairs won today- Yuki and Saketh had a tough opener where they were a set and 2-5 down. From there, they won the next 5 games to take the second set and then won the match tie break.

At Porto Challenger 80, Portugal (Hard)

[R1] (4) Purav Raja (IND) / Divij Sharan (IND) d. Fabio Coelho (POR) / Goncalo Falcao (POR) 62 76(7)

[R1] Anirudh Chandrashekhar (IND) / Vijay Sunder Prashanth (IND) l. Marek Gengel (CZE) / Patrick Niklas-Salminen (FIN) 67(3) 75 8-10

[R1] (2) Yuki Bhambri (IND) / Saketh Myneni (IND) d. Antonie Bellier (SUI) / Hugo Grenier (FRA) 57 75 10-6

Next,

[QF] (4) Purav Raja (IND) / Divij Sharan (IND) vs. (WC) Pedro Araujo (POR) / Daniel Rodrigues (POR)

[QF] (2) Yuki Bhambri (IND) / Saketh Myneni (IND) vs. Denis Istomin (UZB) / Alibek Kachmazov (RUS)

[sameerph]

Divij and Purav missed 5 matchpoints in second set and then lost that set and the match tie break. Yuki and Saketh had another comeback win from a set down.

At Porto Challenger 80, Portugal (Hard)

[QF] (4) Purav Raja (IND) / Divij Sharan (IND) l. (WC) Pedro Araujo (POR) / Daniel Rodrigues (POR) 63 57 8-10

[QF] (2) Yuki Bhambri (IND) / Saketh Myneni (IND) d. Denis Istomin (UZB) / Alibek Kachmazov (RUS) 46 64 10-8

Next,

[SF] (2) Yuki Bhambri (IND) / Saketh Myneni (IND) vs Marek Gengel (CZE) / Patrick Niklas-Salminen (FIN)