Salinas $80K Challenger, Ecuador (Apr 4-10)

[Dinesh]

Ramkumar is in the Singles MD entry list. Mukund is in the qualifying list. Yuki and Saketh are in the Doubles MD entry list.

Tournament will be played on hard courts. This is a one-off tournament in Ecuador, so I’m hoping some of these players will travel to Mexico or the US for the successive weeks. Good to see Yuki taking his (doubles) career seriously.

[sameerph]

Also Yuki and maybe Saketh can/will get into singles qualifying draw here. Subsequent week Ramk will be at Mexico challenger while Mukund is in qualies. Doubles entry lists are not yet out for that week.

[arjun2761]

Wow, this is Ramk like scheduling by Yuki to travel all the way to Ecuador to only play doubles. I wonder if he is still not confident in his fitness (as in injury recovery) to play more singles....

[prasen9]

That can be the only explanation. He has decided he will play X matches in singles during the year. And that X is very small. Most possibly only where he can get injury-protected entries and where there is top money. Simultaneously, he is exploring how good he can be as a doubles specialist. He does not think his body can take a full singles calendar at least this year and is being cautious. However, he thinks that doubles his body can handle and that will also keep him somewhat matchfit in between his sparse singles forays. In my mind, this can be the only explanation. Does anyone else have another theory that fits?

[sameerph]

Agree with most of this theory. Also he has limited PR spots. Not checked but I think about 7-8 more tournaments more. He would have to reserve 3 of them for grand slam qualies, he said he may use one at Queens, one may be at Washington, maybe a couple more somewhere in US hard court season.

So, does not want to use them at challengers as of now. I see Saketh now as first alternate to qualies of this challenger with his PR of 491. Yuki will need lots of withdrawals to make it to qualies draw with his regular ranking even if he wants to play.

[arjun2761]

Agree on judicious use of his PR. But a little surprised that he did not play 1-2 weeks of the Indian futures in singles which could have moved his ranking to inside or close to top 500. Also, spending on travel to Ecuador for doubles alone doesn't make a lot of sense from a money planning perspective either.

The higher level tournaments definitely make sense from prize money perspective, but they are also difficult to collect points in (when compared to challengers) as you are typically playing much higher ranked players earlier. If he makes a run in the bigger tournaments, then the discussion is moot but otherwise it seems playing some lower level singles would have made sense especially where he didn't need a WC.

The injury concerns with playing more singles is probably the most logical reason since doubles is a lot less taxing than singles.

[prasen9]

Yes. I think he does not care about a ranking of 200. He has taken the approach top-100 or nothing. So, he will play these top tournaments and wherever his ranking lands it lands. He wants to see how far he can go in these top tournaments. Possibly he does not value anything at the lower levels anymore.

The doubles is possibly a wash wrt finances as you said. But, a) it keeps him somewhat fit, and b) he possibly has his eyes on becoming a doubles great and thus wants to up that ranking. I think fundamentally he has started having less hope on his singles career but will take an honest shot in the top-tier tournaments and if he fails there or his body breaks down again despite the low tournament load, he become a doubles specialist.

All of this is conjecture based on his actions. He may as well change his mind and start doing things differently. Let's see.

[sameerph]

That is perfect, Prasen. He is not upbeat on his singles career as of now. Else, he would have taken a wild card at the couple of Bengaluru Challengers where he would not have needed to use his PR. If he did not play singles there, I do not see him playing singles much at challengers abroad. Only at ATP tournaments and grand slam qualies. He may also be playing those just to boost his finances and use those to part fund his doubles career where there may be a long term future.

[jayakris]

If Yuki is not confident of a singles career, he should just travel with RamK and make a LOT OF money in doubles. They can be a top-10 doubles team easily.

[rajitghosh]

Yes deadly combination Ram and Bham

[Omkara]

Yes deadly combination Ram and Bham

[Rajiv]

South America has been a no go area for our players , As far as i can remember only 2 players have made a trek to that continent in the past 30 years.
Leander to Brazil in preparation for Frejus and couple of years back Sumit to Argentina and some other country.
But now we have have 3 Indians in S America , could have been 4 if Mukund would not have withdrawn.

[sameerph]

'
Jeevan is also heading to Salinas as per update on his insta.

Singles cut has dropped way down to 403 now. Saketh is now slated to be a seed in qualifying even with his low ranking. I really hope Yuki asks and gets a wild card in singles. This is a perfect kind of tournament for him to go deep and earn a lot of easier points.

[Atithee]

For our players, I’ve seen that the easiest points are the hardest to get. I wouldn’t count on it.

[prasen9]

I am hoping Yuki does not succumb to the lure. He should only play a limited number of singles matches this year and he shouldn't waste some of that on smaller tournaments.