European Challengers 2022

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sameerph
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Re: European Challengers 2022

Post by sameerph »

Yuki-Saketh have another good scalp to beat top seeds to reach the final. But, Bala and Arjun lose from a winning position, they served for the match at 5-4 in second set, got broken, then got broken against to lose the second set and than lost the match tie break too.

At Prostejov Challenger 100, Czech Republic (Clay)

[SF] Yuki Bhambri (IND) / Saketh Myneni (IND) d. (1) Alexander Erler (AUT) / Lucas Miedler (AUT) 64 64

[SF] N. Sriram Balaji (IND) / Arjun Kadhe (IND) l. (2) Roman Jebavy (CZE) / Andrez Martin (SVK) 76(3) 57 7-10
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Re: European Challengers 2022

Post by prashanthm »

Great win for Yuki/Saki! woohoo

What a roller-coaster of a match for Bala/Arjun! They were down a break in the first set only to overturn that towards the fag end and eventually win the first set in the tie-break. Second set was the complete opposite of the first set, our team was up a break multiple times only to relinquish it every time and eventually lost serve again to lose the set. :-(
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Re: European Challengers 2022

Post by prashanthm »

And yet another dominating performance to clinch the title in straight sets.... woohoo

[F] Yuki Bhambri (IND) / Saketh Myneni (IND) d. (2) Roman Jebavy (CZE) / Andrez Martin (SVK) 63 75

Yuki is now up to 222 in live doubles rankings, and Saki is at 163...
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Re: European Challengers 2022

Post by sameerph »

Yuki and Saki beat top 3 seeds in the QF,SF and F and in a big challenger on clay in Europe. They certainly can get to ATP level in doubles. Hope they dominate the challenger circuit for next few months and get to a ranking where they can compete at ATP level.

As of now, Balaji, Arjun, Saketh and Divij will be all ranked close to each other between #155 to #165 as India #3 thru #6 and Yuki is behind as India #9.
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Re: European Challengers 2022

Post by PKBasu »

Terrific win for Yuki-Saketh at the big Prostejov Challenger to end the clay season. Their second Challenger title together. And of course, they beat the 3rd seeds (Skugor-Molchanov, pairing a recent 2-time Wimbledon semifinalist & last year's FO quarter-finalist, with a former Prostejov doubles champion, 2018), then the top seeds and now the second seeds to really deserve this title. And Yuki-Saketh dropped just that one single set (in the QF) all tournament long.
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Re: European Challengers 2022

Post by PKBasu »

So Yuki-Saketh have 2 Challenger doubles titles, plus another 2 SFs and 3 QFs in Challenger doubles this year (Yuki has another Challenger SF with Ramkumar) to go with 2 Futures doubles titles (and a third at the end of last year). Despite those 11 results, Yuki's live doubles ranking has barely risen to 222...it's a tough life!
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Re: European Challengers 2022

Post by arjun2761 »

Since there is no qualies at the ATP tournaments, it's pretty tough to move up. Yuki needs to move from 342 to around 900 points to get near the top 100 which would mean another 4-5 challenger titles. That said, the Yuki-Saketh pair is capable of doing it as all 6 of the players they beat in the final 3 rounds are at that level with 4 of them being inside the top 100.

The only other path would be to use his PR with a highly ranked singles or doubles player to get into a few ATP doubles main draws but not sure that Yuki has any such connections outside of perhaps Michael Venus and Bopanna. I am assuming that Yuki can use his 127 PR ranking for both singles and doubles.
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Re: European Challengers 2022

Post by prashanthm »

Yes, on the assumption about being able to use his singles PR for Doubles entry...
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Re: European Challengers 2022

Post by PKBasu »

There have been some visa issues facing Yuki and Saketh. The latter, I think, doesn't have a UK visa. Yuki struggled to obtain one earlier in the year, but does have one now. He is getting prepared for the Wimbledon qualifiers, but it isn't clear whether that preparation includes playing singles anywhere next week. (Probably not).
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Re: European Challengers 2022

Post by arjun2761 »

At the Bratislava Challenger 90 Slovakia

[R1] Balaji NS/J Nedunchezhian d D Da Silva/C. Lock 6-3, 7-6 (9)
[R1] A Erler/L Miedler d. S. Myneni/E. Karlovskiy 6-3, 3-6, 10-6
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Re: European Challengers 2022

Post by sameerph »

Bala and Jeevan are thru to the SF.

At the Bratislava Challenger 90 Slovakia

[QF] N. Sriram Balaji (IND) / Jeevan Neduncheziyan (IND) d. (WC) Peter Nad (SVK) / Peter Benjamin Privara (SVK) 76(2) 61

Next,

[SF] N. Sriram Balaji (IND) / Jeevan Neduncheziyan (IND) vs. (1) Alexander Erler (AUT) / Lucas Miedler (AUT)

In Perugia Challenger in Italy, Arjun Kadhe along with Michael Greets won the first round but lost in QF against 4th seeds.

In Lyon Challenger in France, Anirudh Chndrashekhar along with his Swiss partner won the first round but lost in QF against second seeds.
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Re: European Challengers 2022

Post by sameerph »

Bala and Jeevan are thru to the final after excellent win against top seeds.

At Bratislava Challenger 90 Slovakia (Clay)

[SF] (4) N. Sriram Balaji (IND) / Jeevan Neduncheziyan (IND) d. (1) Alexander Erler (AUT) / Lucas Miedler (AUT) 57 75 10-4

Next,

[F] N. Sriram Balaji (IND) / Jeevan Neduncheziyan (IND) vs. Vladyslav Manafov (UKR)/ Oleg Prihodko (UKR)
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Re: European Challengers 2022

Post by sameerph »

Bala and Jeevan win the title.

At Bratislava Challenger 90 Slovakia (Clay)

[F] N. Sriram Balaji (IND) / Jeevan Neduncheziyan (IND) d. Vladyslav Manafov (UKR)/ Oleg Prihodko (UKR) 76(6) 64

This is 8th challenger title for Balaji- 5 with Vishnu, 1 each with RamK, Elrich and now with Jeevan. 9th challenger title for Jeevan - 2 with Austin Krajicek, 1 each with Saketh, Purav, Rungkat, Arevalo, Skugor, Lopez-Perez and now Balaji.

Balaji will be now up to #140 firmly as India #3 ahead of Divij now and Jeevan at #164.
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Re: European Challengers 2022

Post by PKBasu »

Very impressive win for Jeevan and Balaji. They are definitely a promising pair, and will hopefully soon make the transition to the full ATP tour -- making them a potential Indian Express III (the second being the all-too-short-lived pairing of Divij and Purav).
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Re: European Challengers 2022

Post by sameerph »

Jeevan and Bala are thru to the SF this week too. Saketh and Arjun lost too.

At Blois Challenger 80, France (Clay)

[R1] N. Sriram Balaji (IND) / Jeevan Neduncheziyan (IND) d. Hendrik Jebens (GER) / Piotr Matuszewski (POL) 63 64
[R1] (4) Arjun Kadhe (IND) / Ruben Gonzalez (PHI) l. Boris Arias (BOL) / Federico Zeballos (BOL) 46 67(0)
[R1] (3) Saketh Myneni (IND) / Luis Davis Martinez (VEN) d. Andrea Collarini (ARG) / Facudo Diaz Acosta (ARG) 61 63

[QF] N. Sriram Balaji (IND) / Jeevan Neduncheziyan (IND) d. Grigoriy Lomakin (KAZ) / Vladyslav Manafov (UKR) 67(3) 64 10-5
[QF] (3) Saketh Myneni (IND) / Luis Davis Martinez (VEN) l. (WC) Arthur Fils (FRA) / Luca Van Assche (FRA) 16 46

Next,

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