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

[Dinesh]

Worst possible draw for our players in doubles. Top seeds Jeevan/Ramkumar face Yuki/Saketh in the opening round. Ramkumar plays JC Aragone in the singles main draw.

Interestingly, Saketh and Jeevan (unranked) signed up as alternates to play in the qualification draw, but Yuki’s name is not there.

[prasen9]

Confirms our theory. Sort of.

[sameerph]

Saketh lost in final qualifying round against 489th ranked Argentine in 2 tie breaks.

RamK will play his R1 match today.

[PKBasu]

Yuki can't get into the singles qualifiers of a Challenger like this because of his dismally low ranking. I doubt he would play even if he could get in. What he should have done is played all the Futures (at least last month). I think he is scared of losing to another Indian player (thinking, rightly, that he should be dominating them all the time). He has lost to Karunuday Singh (in Texas IIRC) and Sumit Nagal (in Bangalore), the former on one of his returns from an injury break.

The fact that Yuki beat both Prajnesh (easily) and RamK (in a tough 3-setter) in Dubai last year shows that he is still able to dominate almost all the Indian players -- although between Dubai and now, Yuki has had one more surgery. Frankly, had he been at all rational in his planning, he would have played all 3 Futures, and likely won all the singles titles -- which would have given him a nice cushion of points to start playing Challengers (or occasionally Challenger qualifiers). But he is taking the leisurely route back instead.

[Omkara]

Saketh lost in final qualifying round against 489th ranked Argentine in 2 tie breaks.

RamK will play his R1 match today.

What happened to Saketh? Post injury he just lost it.

[sameerph]

Injury and then covid has meant Saketh has lost around 3 years which means effectively his singles career is as good as over. He is 34 now. His best chance is in doubles now.

Yuki can't get into the singles qualifiers of a Challenger like this because of his dismally low ranking. I doubt he would play even if he could get in.

This challenger he would have got into qualies. Even Jeevan with no ranking got in. But, Yuki chose not to play. So, he seems very clear that he will play singles only at big tournaments.

[prasen9]

Yuki possibly thinks that his body cannot take a full load of singles tournaments this year. He can perhaps only take 8-10. So, he is choosing the top-tier ones to get more money and points per match.

[Rajiv]

At Salinas had some hope for Ram 3 weeks ago for a deep long run,but lost it last week when he was beaten in opening round on IH to a 400 ranked player,and that disconsolate form continued today also when he recorded his 9th straight R1 loss ,once again to a 400 ranked opponent to whom he had never lost in their 3 previous meetings and not even dropped a set.

Normally by this time of the year Ram earns sizeable points but this year hasn't earned one single point so far , and he needs to protect approximately 350 points for the rest of the year which means in a Challenger's about 10 QF's,3-4 semis, couple of finals, which looks unfeasible on his present form, and if this continues, this year would  be the last time he has ever played GS qualies,  and I will be glad to be proven wrong on this.
In 3rd set , a lob from his opponent, Ram hit it at his own feet on his side of the court, sums up his singles form at this moment.

[sameerph]

RamK missed 2 matchpoints with Aragone serving at 5-6, 15-40. Also missed a couple of breakpoints earlier at 3-4, 15-40. Converting any of those breakpoints would have meant a win. He just has no confidence to convert these right now.

[arjun2761]

This is a fairly typical pattern for RamK where he plays well for 2-4 weeks followed by much longer periods where he struggles. While his success rate is low, he makes up for it by playing a prodigious number of tournaments. So, he is due for a break out now.

I have always wondered why he hasn't invested more time in training (versus playing) and getting more consistent results when he plays but that isn't something he invests in apparently.

[PKBasu]

[R1] Yuki Bhambri / Saketh Myneni (IND/IND) d. 1-Ramkumar Ramanathan / Jeevan Nedunchehiyan (IND/IND) 63 76

Yuki/Saketh play the Lock brothers in the QF. They'd better win the title this week, having knocked out their top-seeded compatriots.

[vparam]

Why didn’t Ram K play with Saketh? Didn’t they win back to back tournaments in Bengaluru?

[sameerph]

I think RamK-Saleth won first week of challenger title and lost in final of second week. But, Yuki-Saketh played together more recently and won couple of futures titles. So, they may have decided to stick together here. Imp, the best pairing would actually be RamK and Yuki. I hope they play together somewhere soon.

[prasen9]

I think Saketh-Jeevan pairing would have been disqualified for being too old. If you allow people that old to play, you need higher insurance because, well, to be blunt, they may die of old age on court. Though it is a natural death, it is quite costly to lug them over and take care of them in a respectful manner. The organizers did not have that much money. So, they did not allow the geriatric pair and they had to criss-cross it and do it this way. Everything in the universe has some cosmic meaning. Duh!

[sameerph]

Yuki and Saketh easily came thru the QF to move into SF.

[QF] Yuki Bhambri (IND) / Saketh Myneni (IND) d. Benjamin Lock (ZIM) / Courteny John Lock (ZIM) 63 64

Next,

[SF] Yuki Bhambri (IND) / Saketh Myneni (IND) vs. Akira Santilan (AUS) / Rubin Statham (NZL)