N.American Hard court Challengers 2022

[PKBasu]

Fourth Challenger doubles title of 2022 for Yuki-Saketh. They won in Salinas (Ecuador), Prostejov (Czechia), Porto (Portugal) and now Lexington, KY (USA). Prior to that they won 4 Futures titles (3 of them in 2022). A really good run as a pair. If they can win next week's title in Chicago, they should be in good shape to soon start playing ATP main draws. But most likely will not get into the US Open doubles main draw.

For Yuki, the success in doubles is preventing him from playing Challenger singles qualifiers.

[jayakris]

At the $53,120 Chicago challenger,

[R1] (PR) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Saketh Myneni (IND) vs Luke Saville (AUS)/ Jordan Thompson (AUS)

[Dinesh]

Yuki/Saki won their first round match in Chicago after saving 7 MPs in the super tie-breaker. They were down 4-9 and won it eventually with a score of 14-12. Massive comeback!

At the $53,120 Chicago challenger,

[R1] (PR) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Saketh Myneni (IND) d. Luke Saville (AUS)/ Jordan Thompson (AUS), 46 63 [14-12]

This win puts Yuki to his career-high #134 in the doubles charts, while Saki will beat his current CH with another win this week. They will face the winner of Branden Holt/Nicholas Monroe versus 3rd seeds, Sander Gille/JP Smith match.

[sameerph]

They are comeback kings, Yuki and Saki. So many matches they have pulled off like this in last few months from losing position. That was a tough pairing to play against Saville and Thompson.

[Dinesh]

They are on another comeback trail today in the quarterfinals. Lost the first set 4-6 but came back with a solid tie-breaker win (12-10) to level things up. MTB starting soon.

[jayakris]

^^^ And they did it again!
[QF] (PR) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Saketh Myneni (IND) d. (3) Sander Gille (BEL)/ John-Patrick Smith (AUS), 46 76(8) [13-11]
so,
[SF] (PR) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Saketh Myneni (IND) vs (2) Andre Goransson (SWE)/ Ben McLachlan (JPN)

[Dinesh]

Unbelievable! Saketh double faulted on their first match point opportunity and I wasn’t sure they would come back after that. Sadly, this eliminates any chance of Yuki playing singles at Cincy Masters since he’s currently 6 spots out of the qualifying list with 4QWCs to be given out.

[sanjay8886]

Actually, semis starts in next hour or so. They can still tank the game, if they want to. But, I don't think he will be able to get into Cincinnati qualies, and nor he is too keen in playing that..

[Dinesh]

Yuki/Saki lost the first set 5-7 against the second seeds Mclachan (#85)/ Goransson (#88). Another comeback on the cards?

Won the second set 6-4. Lost 3-10 in the MTB. Still a great result against a regular ATP-level team. Yuki’s serve is a concern if he’s to graduate to the ATP tour. Both of their opponents served big, when they needed the most.

[jayakris]

They are on their usual pattern. They looked good in the second set, especially on the big points, as and when the other team seemed to threaten. Got ahead early and kept that break to the end of the second set. Now the STB... Yet again

Looks like their Houdini acts will finally end... Went down 0-5 against some big serves from the other guys, and some mishits and mistakes. Now 3-9 and they go down!

[SF] (PR) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Saketh Myneni (IND) l. (2) Andre Goransson (SWE)/ Ben McLachlan (JPN), 57 64 [3-10]

The Swede and the "Japanese" played well in the end. It happens.

[arjun2761]

Yuki/Saki lost the first set 5-7 against the second seeds Mclachan (#85)/ Goransson (#88). Another comeback on the cards?

Won the second set 6-4. Lost 3-10 in the MTB. Still a great result against a regular ATP-level team. Yuki’s serve is a concern if he’s to graduate to the ATP tour. Both of their opponents served big, when they needed the most.

Yes, while Yuki's serve can improve, the primary flaw in their play is that Saketh can't even keep a ball in play from the back court. In their going to a 0-5 deficit in the MTB, their opponents didn't have to do anything as Saketh couldn't get the ball into play in any of those points.

[jayakris]

Yes, Saketh is quite patchy. He comes up with some good stuff at the net, but is just not solid from the back. Yuki and RamK are the best team, and they really do need to find a way to start playing together. Probably can't happen, till RamK starts focusing on doubles though. Meanwhile, Saketh is probably the best partner for Yuki to keep going and raising his ranking into ATP-tour levels.

[sameerph]

Saketh is 112 in live rankings, Yuki at 134. Both at their career highs. It is so very tough to move up from challenger level to ATP level in doubles. One needs to be in 80's to make it in some of the ATP 250's for which around 1000 points are needed. Saketh is at 720 points right now and Yuki at 536. So, need to win 4 more challenger titles or better to make it.

RamK got lucky break with Rohan and did well to win 2 ATP titles which gave 500 points in 2 weeks.

If somehow Yuki-Saki can get into an ATP tournament and go on a run transition will be faster. . But, cannot see that happening. Maybe only one they can play is Pune ATP at the start of next year.

[jayakris]

Yuki and Saketh are at the Challenger 125 in Vancouver (hard), Canada this week.

[R1] (PR) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Saketh Myneni (IND) vs Ruben Bemelmans (BEL)/ Zizou Bergs (BEL)

Saketh is also in the singles qualies, but not Yuki

[Q1] (Alt) Saketh Myneni (IND,1313) vs (11) Clement Chidekh (FRA,514)

[jayakris]

I should probably put in Divij/Purav results from the Dominican Republic challenger also into this thread that is now renamed as "N. American"... Dominican Republic is in N.America. But will leave their scores in their thread...