ITF M15 Bhopal, Bengaluru, New Delhi - March 2022

[sameerph]

3 weeks of Indian mens futures start next week with M15 at Bhopal followed by Bengaluru and ending with one in New Delhi.

This is the entry list for first week at Bhopal-

MAIN DRAW DIRECT ACCEPTANCE

1 IND Sasikumar Mukund 370
2 IND Sidharth Rawat 650
3 IND Manish Sureshkumar 674
4 IND Arjun Kadhe 739
5 CZE Dominik Palan 747
6 GER Robert Strombachs 750
7 IND Niki Kaliyanda poonacha 852
8 GBR Julian Cash 874
9 FRA Constantin Bittoun Kouzmine 948
10 IND S D Prajwal Dev 964
11 POL Maks Kasnikowski 976
12 IND Nitin Kumar Sinha 979
13 IND Rishab Agarwal 992
14 IND Abhinav Sanjeev Shanmugam 1012
15 FRA Nicolas Tepmahc 1048
16 IND Dalwinder Singh 1091
17 (Special Exempt, if needed)
18 (Special Exempt, if needed)

MAIN DRAW JUNIOR RESERVED (Players Accepted by ITF Top 100 Junior Ranking)
19 KOR Woobin Shin 2215
20 IND Nishant Dabas

QUALIFYING
1 IND Dev Javia 1102
2 JPN Daisuke Sumizawa 1119
3 GBR Alexis Canter 1203
4 IND Ishaque Eqbal 1241
5 IND Rishi Reddy 1315
6 IND Adil Kalyanpur 1339
7 IND Vishnu Vardhan 1351
8 IND Chandril Sood 1372
9 IND Paras Dahiya
10 IND Digvijay Pratap Singh 1412
11 IND Suraj R Prabodh 1424
12 IND Faisal Qamar 1459
13 IND Siddharth Vishwakarma 1488
14 IND Lohithaksha Bathrinathm 1584
15 IND Atharva Sharma 1639
16 IND Karan Singh 1675

So, Indian dominant field but there are some Europeans who will play spoilers.

[sameerph]

Qualifying results for first week in Bhopal-

1st Round

Rishi Reddy (IND/1) d. Sandesh Dattatray Kurale (IND/wc) 6-3 6-3
Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan (IND/11) d. Tarun Karra (IND/wc) 7-5 6-1

Adil Kalyanpur (IND/2) d. Rohan Mehra (IND) 6-2 6-3
Karan Singh (IND/10) d. Chandril Sood (IND) 6-7(3) 6-2 10-5

Vishnu Vardhan (IND/3) d. Arjun Mahadevan (IND) 6-1 6-2
Theertha Shashank Macherla (IND/Alt) d. Josh Reid (AUS/15) 6-3 6-3

Paras Dahiya (IND/4) d. Gokul Suresh (IND) 6-2 6-1
Kent Tagashira (JPN/12) d. Worovin Kumthonkittikul (THA) 6-2 6-4

Suraj R. Prabodh (IND/5) d. Anurag Agarwal (IND) 6-4 6-1
Madhwin Kamath (IND/16) d. Yash Yadav (IND) 6-4 7-5

Faisal Qamar (IND/6) d. Tushar Madan (IND) 6-3 6-4
Fardeen Qamar (IND/14) d. Deep Munim (IND/wc) 6-2 6-4

Siddharth Vishwakarma (IND/7) d. Jagmeet Singh (IND) 6-2 6-1
Lakshit Sood (IND/13) d. Tanik Gupta (IND/wc) 6-0 6-4

Lohithaksha Bathrinath (IND/8) d. Yash Chaurasia (IND) 6-1 6-2
Atharva Sharma (IND/9) d. Chinmaya Dev Chauhan (IND/wc) 7-5 5-7 10-5

Theertha Shashank Macherla (IND/Alt) replaces Yugal Bansal (IND/wc)

Final Round

Rishi Reddy (IND/1) d. Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan (IND/11) 6-7(7) 6-1 10-5
Adil Kalyanpur (IND/2) d. Karan Singh (IND/10) 7-6(8) 1-6 11-9
Vishnu Vardhan (IND/3) d. Theertha Shashank Macherla (IND/Alt) 6-2 6-3
Paras Dahiya (IND/4) d. Kent Tagashira (JPN/12) 3-6 6-2 10-6
Madhwin Kamath (IND/16) d. Suraj R. Prabodh (IND/5) 6-4 6-4
Faisal Qamar (IND/6) d. Fardeen Qamar (IND/14) 6-1 6-2
Siddharth Vishwakarma (IND/7) d. Lakshit Sood (IND/13) 6-1 6-1
Lohithaksha Bathrinath (IND/8) d. Atharva Sharma (IND/9) 6-2 6-0

7 of the 8 seeds make it to the main draw. 20 year old Madhvin Kamath pulls off the only upset.

[sameerph]

Main draw -

Sasikumar Mukund (IND/1) vs. Ishaque Eqbal (IND/wc)
Rishab Agarwal (IND) vs. Madhwin Kamath (IND/Q)
Nitin Kumar Sinha (IND) vs. Nicolas Tepmahc (FRA)
Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha (IND/7) vs. Constantin Bittoun Kouzmine (FRA)

Arjun Kadhe (IND/4) vs. Rishi Reddy (IND/Q)
Vishnu Vardhan (IND/Q) vs. Digvijay Pratap Singh (IND/wc)
Alexis Canter (GBR) vs. Adil Kalyanpur (IND/Q)
Dominik Palan (CZE/5) vs. Faisal Qamar (IND/Q)

Robert Strombachs (GER/6) vs. Dalwinder Singh (IND)
Siddharth Vishwakarma (IND/Q) vs. Lohithaksha Bathrinath (IND/Q)
Nishant Dabas (IND) vs. Udit Yadav (IND/wc)
Manish Sureshkumar (IND/3) vs. Maks Kasnikowski (POL)

Julian Cash (GBR/8) vs. S D Prajwal Dev (IND)
Abhinav Sanjeev Shanmugam (IND) vs. Sushant Dabas (IND/wc)
Dev Javia (IND) vs. Paras Dahiya (IND/Q)
Sidharth Rawat (IND/2) vs. Daisuke Sumizawa (JPN)

24 Indians are in main draw and 8 foreign players.

Yuki and Saketh are playing only doubles here and are second seeds.

[sameerph]

These are first round results-

[R1] (WC) Ishaque Eqbal (IND,1233) d. (1) Sasikumar Mukund (IND,369) 46 76(4) 20 retd.
[R1] Rishab Agarwal (IND,1033) d. (Q) Madhwin Kamath (IND,1988) 62 64
[R1] Nicolas Tepmahc (FRA,1039) d. Nitin Kumar Sinha (IND,888) 63 62
[R1] (7) Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha (IND,840) d. Constantin Bittoun Kouzmine (FRA,922) 62 26 64
[R1] (4) Arjun Kadhe (IND,668) d. Rishi Reddy (IND,1308) 61 63
[R1] (Q) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,1338) d. (WC) Digvijay Pratap Singh (IND,1239) 63 64
[R1] (Q) Adil Kalyanpur (IND,1329) d. Alexis Canter (GBR,1198) 63 63
[R1] (Q) Faisal Qamar (IND,1453) d. (5) Dominik Palan (CZE,692)
[R1] (6) Robert Strombachs (GER,767) d. Dalwinder Singh (IND,1073) 63 62
[R1] (Q) Lohithaksha Bathrinath (IND,1579) d. (Q) Siddharth Vishwakarma (IND,1483) 67(2) 61 62
[R1] Nishant Dabas (IND,NR) d. (WC) Udit Yadav (IND,NR) 60 63
[R1] (3) Manish Sureshkumar (IND,662) d. Maks Kasnikowski (POL.969) 64 36 61
[R1] (8) Julian Cash (GBR,873) d. S D Prajwal Dev (IND,955) 63 75
[R1] Abhinav Sanjeev Shanmugam (IND,996) d. (WC) Sushant Dabas (IND,NR) 63 64
[R1] Dev Javia (IND,1090) d. (Q) Paras Dahiya (IND,1618) 63 75
[R1] (2) Sidharth Rawat (IND,585) d. Daisuke Sumizawa (JPN,1144) 64 67(5) 61

So, out of 8 foreign players in main draw, 5 got knocked out in first round. 2 wins against higher ranked foreign players by Faisal Qamar and Adil Kalyanpur. Only Indian loss against lower ranked foreign player was Nitin Kumar Sinha losing against Frenchman which was a bit disappointing.

Top seed Mukund got upset by Ishaque Eqbal.

[sameerph]

Today, all 3 foreign players who played went thru to QF.

[R2] (WC) Ishaque Eqbal (IND,1233) d. Rishab Agarwal (IND,1033) 73 57 61
[R2] Nicolas Tepmahc (FRA,1039) d. (7) Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha (IND,840) 64 20 retd
[R2] (4) Arjun Kadhe (IND,668) d. (Q) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,1338) 64 76(4)
[R2] (Q) Faisal Qamar (IND,1453) d. (Q) Adil Kalyanpur (IND,1329) 76(2) 64
[R2] (6) Robert Strombachs (GER,767) d. (Q) Lohithaksha Bathrinath (IND,1579) 63 64
[R2] (3) Manish Sureshkumar (IND,662) d. Nishant Dabas (IND,NR) 61 63
[R2] (8) Julian Cash (GBR,873) d. Abhinav Sanjeev Shanmugam (IND,996) 63 63
[R2] (2) Sidharth Rawat (IND,585) d. Dev Javia (IND,1090) 61 60

5 of the top 8 seeds are in QF. 3 of the Indians- Sid Rawat, Manish and Ishaque face tricky foreign players in QF.

[sameerph]

Singles QF results-

[QF] Nicolas Tepmahc (FRA,1039) d. (WC) Ishaque Eqbal (IND,1233) 64 60
[QF] (4) Arjun Kadhe (IND,668) d. Q) Faisal Qamar (IND,1453) 76(3) 63
[QF] (3) Manish Sureshkumar (IND,662) d. (6) Robert Strombachs (GER,767) 36 64 62
[QF] (2) Sidharth Rawat (IND,585) d. (8) Julian Cash (GBR,873) 26 64 64

So, 3 Indians who were seeded to get into SF''s got there. Nice comeback wins by Manish and Sid Rawat over foreign opponents.

Yuki and Saketh are thru to doubles final and will be up against fellow Indian pair of Lohithaksha Badrinath and Abhinav Sanjeev.

[sameerph]

It would be an all Indian final in Bhopal.

[SF] (4) Arjun Kadhe (IND,668) d. Nicolas Tepmahc (FRA,1039) 62 76(5)

[SF] (2) Sidharth Rawat (IND,585) d. (3) Manish Sureshkumar (IND,662) 62 60

So, I think currently the best 2 Indian players in these futures ( although Arjun is ranked lower than Manish as has not played enough singles) made it to the finals. May the best man win.

[suresh]

These are good results. Manish making the SF is also an upturn in his performance.

[sameerph]

Yuki and Saketh win the doubles title easily here.

They are really too good gir this level. If they want to play only doubles, they nay try challengers together with Yuki's PR.

[sameerph]

And Arjun Kadhe won the singles title.

[F] (4) Arjun Kadhe (IND,668) d. (2) Sidharth Rawat (IND,585) 76(2) 64

[jayakris]

Congratulations, Arjun!! He is giving notice that he should not be forgotten in singles, just because he plays doubles at a high level.

[PKBasu]

Yes, Arjun has shown a series of good results in singles. Good to see him win the title this week. Had he played the India Futures in Nov-Dec'21, he would be the 4th-ranked Indian singles player by now. Clearly, he is the next best after the Big-4 (RamK, Prajnesh, Sumit, Yuki) although Yuki is playing singles too sporadically to have an appropriate ranking just yet. Mukund has been extremely mercurial in his performances (and it's worth remembering that Arjun beat Mukund in an ATP qualifier a couple of months ago).

The biggest upset of the tournament of course was in the first round itself, when Ishaque Eqbal surprised the top-seeded Mukund. I am sure the latter is going to do a lot better in the next 2 weeks (hopefully making it to the SF or better both weeks). But Ishaque is a terrific player. I saw him beat Sid Rawat in a cracker of a match in the Gurugram Futures in December. Manish is steadily making progress, and will hopefully continue to benefit from these Futures.

One major problem with many of the talented Indian players -- Manish, Sid, Ishaque, Nitin -- is that they are rather diminutive in height (none of them much more than 5'7" or so, about the same height or slightly shorter than Sania. For a woman player, that height is not such an impediment, for men in today's pro tennis world, it definitely is a handicap.

[PKBasu]

These are good results. Manish making the SF is also an upturn in his performance.

Not really an upturn, except that the field is perhaps stronger now than in the Nov-Dec'21 Futures. Then, Manish won the singles title in Indore, lost in R2 to Sekulic (the man he'd beaten in the Indore final) in New Delhi, and then lost in the QF in Gurugram (having beaten the hot Sekulic, finalist the previous 2 weeks, in R1).

So, making the SF here in Bhopal is an upturn relative to his last two performances, but he did better in the previous Futures in Madhya Pradesh -- winning the singles title at Indore!

Frankly, I wish these were higher-level Futures -- M25 rather than M15. Sekulic made the QF of the M25 in Bendigo this week, for instance.

[PKBasu]

Surprisingly, Ishaque Eqbal is being made to play the qualifiers this week, despite beating the top seed in R1 last week and making the main draw QF. Surely, he deserved a wildcard ahead of anybody else!

[sameerph]

But, he qualified comfortably.

These are qualifying results for this week in Bengaluru-

1st Round

Dev Javia (IND/1) d. Arnav Pathange (IND/wc) 7-5 6-2
Bharath Nishok Kumaran (IND/10) d. Fardeen Qamar (IND) 6-3 1-6 13-11

Daisuke Sumizawa (JPN/2) d. Chandril Sood (IND) 6-1 6-1
Tushar Madan (IND) d. Lakshit Sood (IND/16) 7-6(3) 6-2

Alexis Canter (GBR/3) d. Vivek Gautam (IND/wc) 6-2 6-2
Karan Singh (IND/13) d. Thehan Sanjaya Wijemanne (SRI/wc) 6-1 6-0

Ishaque Eqbal (IND/4) d. Shahbaaz Khan (IND) 6-4 6-3
Kent Tagashira (JPN/15) d. Gokul Suresh (IND) 6-4 6-3

Digvijay Pratap Singh (IND/5) d. Yash Chaurasia (IND) 6-4 7-5
Siddharth Vishwakarma (IND/11) d. Josh Reid (AUS) 6-0 6-3

Rishi Reddy (IND/6) d. Akram El Sallaly (EGY) 6-2 7-5
Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan (IND/14) d. Kavan Somu Kumar (IND/wc) 6-0 6-2

Adil Kalyanpur (IND/7) d. Worovin Kumthonkittikul (THA) 6-1 6-2
Lohithaksha Bathrinath (IND/12) d. Ronin Lotlikar (IND/wc) 6-4 6-2

Paras Dahiya (IND/8) d. Vinayak Sharma Kaza (IND) 6-2 6-4
Suraj R. Prabodh (IND/9) d. Chathurya Nilaweera (SRI/wc) 6-4 6-2

Final Round

Dev Javia (IND/1) d. Bharath Nishok Kumaran (IND/10) 6-3 6-1
Daisuke Sumizawa (JPN/2) d. Tushar Madan (IND) 6-3 6-2
Alexis Canter (GBR/3) d. Karan Singh (IND/13) 6-3 7-6(4)
Ishaque Eqbal (IND/4) d. Kent Tagashira (JPN/15) 6-2 6-1
Digvijay Pratap Singh (IND/5) d. Siddharth Vishwakarma (IND/11) 6-2 7-6(3)
Rishi Reddy (IND/6) d. Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan (IND/14) 6-4 6-1
Adil Kalyanpur (IND/7) d. Lohithaksha Bathrinath (IND/12) 6-1 2-6 10-8
Paras Dahiya (IND/8) d. Suraj R. Prabodh (IND/9) 6-1 6-0

Top 8 seeds make it to the main draw.