Solapur W25, N.Mumbai W25, Gwalior W15 - Dec 12/19/26, 2022

[jayakris]

I have been and still am a solid Ankita fan. My par for the course comment was about Indians faltering at semis or finals in almost all sports. That said, when is the last time even Ankita won a title or even reached a final? Again, that’s what I meant by par for the course.

Not disagreeing with your sentiment in general about Indians' results lately, but Ankita did reach a W25 final at Aldershot in UK four months ago. That is her only final this year though. Despite some lingering physical issues in some matches and calling the physio often, she has played better in the last 3-4 months after a very poor start in the year that caused her ranking to drop.

... and our hockey ladies won two tight matches in a semi and a final, in Spain ... That made my day yesterday. Need any good news we can get.

[jayakris]

I was busy the last few days and so was Sameer also, it seems. Haven't updated the news from Navi Mumbai where this week's W25 is going on.

But no earthshattering news. The qualifying just got done with three Indians making it in (2nd seed Jennifer Luikham, 5th seed Humera Behermus, 9th seed Farhat Aleen Qamar) out of 6 qulifiers. The top seeded Thai and 6th seeded Sharmada Balu retired in their Q1 matches and the 3rd and 4th seeded foreigners also qualified in. Qualifying results.

Here is the main draw. A bit stronger an entry list this week than in Solapur, with a couple more top players joining

Seven main draw matches got done today, and the bad news was that Sahaja Yamalapalli (IND,460) went down to Katarina Kozarov (SRB,610), 26 76(6) 46... She again had 12 double faults to 1 ace today, though a lot of the DFs came in the second set which she won, as she mounted a comeback. Anyway, she is yet another player who needs to find a way to get back her form from earlier in the year. Vaidehi beat wildcard Smriti Bhasin to make R16. Zeel lost to the second seed and Sowjanya lost to the 4th seed. 3rd seed Ankita is yet to play.

There may not be more than 4 or 5 Indians in the second round itself. Rutuja plays qualifier Farhat, and Riya plays Shrivalli - so there should be 2 more Indians. Qualifier Humera is playing the top seed Jakupovic (SLO,255) and (Q) Jennifer is playing the 6th seeded Russian. Wildcard Vaishnavi is playing the qualifier Heina Ogata from Japan and will hopefully advance. Hopefully Ankita will advance to play her in the R16 too.

[PKBasu]

Disappointing day for the Indians today, with six losses in R1 of singles, and only Vaidehi Chaudhary winning (beating a local wildcard).

[vatsalnew]

Hi everyone,

Glad to be back. I was having trouble logging into my old account, but I took Jay's suggestion and created a new handle

I wanted to share one observation/pattern in Sahaja's matches. She lost her last two matches 6-4 in the 3rd set, serving 16 and 12 double faults respectively in those matches. This is clearly the difference between winning and losing such close matches. Definitely something her team needs to work on!

[jayakris]

Hey, great to see you back, Vatsal!!

Yes, absolutely correct - on the DF problem. I had written in the last page about it. I have only seen a couple of matches that she played (on ITF live stream from abroad) earlier, where also I saw her serving double faults for no rhyme or reason. Like I said above, it didn't seem to be choking or anything. Just at random points. And not the kind of DFs which are close ones when one is trying to get a crucial point with acute corner angles or anything. Just hitting into the net or 5 feet too long or something silly when one least expects it. The loss at Solapur was clearly due to DFs (especially two of them at 4-4 in the third). She definitely needs to get accurate and just get the ball across the net. She has decent power in the serve, but the serve is not the bread and butter tool that wins her points - rather it is taking the ball early and hitting it at good angles and to the lines with power, and the ability to stay in the rallies if she wants to, to build the point up to the winner. So, just start the point with a serve that goes across the net. Getting the second serve in, is not that difficult a thing - and it is fixable. Hope she finds time and a good coach to do what is needed, because this is killing her right now.

[jayakris]

Meanwhile, we have only 4 players in the QF, sort of like we expected.

Ankita beat a decent player, Clara Vlasselaer (BEL,560) by a 76(3) 61 score. The first set was tight, as there were no breaks and only one BP, so she needed a TB, but the second set was all Ankita as she converted 2 of the 7 BPs she had and took care of business.

Shrivalli got a retirement from Riya who is totally out of form and having some physical issue. Riya lost a set 6-0 and called it quits. Srivalli had got a returement from Siowjanya last week too, but has played well in other matches in this circuit like in her upset of the 2nd seed last week, so I wouldn't say that she has been getting just lucky.

Rutuja had no problems at all in a 62 61 win over qualifier Farhat Aleen Qamar. But young Vaishnavi could not get past veteran qualifier Heine Ogata (JPN,1265).

Ankita plays Ogata, and is favored to make the QF, but Rutuja plays the 6th seed and Vaidehi plays the 8th seed in the upper half and would need to create upsets. The same with the only Indian in the bottom half, Srivalli, who has the very difficult task of taking on Priska Madelyn Nugroho (INA,391) who is on a 6 match win streak and beat the 7th seed in the R1. Srivalli had lost 26 26 to her last week in the QF, but I am gonna take a chance and call a Srivalli upset this time!

[sameerph]

Meanwhile, we have only 4 players in the QF, sort of like we expected.

4 in last 16, 4 in QF I would be glad with. But, only 1 is favoured to get there.

[PKBasu]

Yes, just 4 in the last 16 of an Indian tournament is a pretty poor performance. Let us hope at least 2 of them make it into the QF. As Jay pointed out, 3 of the 4 Indians are in the top half of the draw.

[vatsalnew]

Hey, great to see you back, Vatsal!!

Yes, absolutely correct - on the DF problem. I had written in the last page about it.

Thank you, it's a pleasure to be back.

Oh sorry I must have missed that!

[jayakris]

Meanwhile, we have only 4 players in the QF, sort of like we expected.

4 in last 16, 4 in QF I would be glad with. But, only 1 is favoured to get there.

Yeah, I meant 4 in the R16 ... We have 2 in the QF already. Ankita won easily, 61 62 and Vaidehi upset the 8th seed Yashina, 61 76(6) !!... Now we are assured of one of them in the SF too. But if Rutuja, who just started playing, can upset the 6th seed, things won't be too bad.

Sadly, I jinxed Srivalli like Sameer jinxed Rutuja last week. She retired early in the first set, giving effectively a day off to Priska, which is trouble for everybody else too ...

[PKBasu]

We are assured of one Indian in the singles SF this week -- as Ankita plays Vaidehi in one QF. There was a massive upset win for Vaidehi Chaudhari, who beat 8th seed Ekaterina Yashina (a long-standing Futures stalwart with a career-high of 335 and current ranking of 378) 61 76(6). Ankita duly beat Ogata of Japan 61 62.

Shrivalli retired at 2-4 in the first set, while Rutuja lost 46 36 to the 6th seed.

[PKBasu]

Top seeded Ankita-Prarthana are in the SF of doubles again this week, with an easy 63 61 win in the QF. In the SF, though, they face the stable pairing of Vasanti Shinde (IND) and Ines Murta (POR), who are playing their sixth consecutive tournament together. Last week, they took Ankita/Prarthana to the STB, losing it narrowly 8-10 (in the QF). This run to the SF of a W25 is the best performance for Vasanti-Ines; they have previously made the SF of a W15 in Spain, and the QF of a W25 and W25+H in Portugal.

Vaidehi-Shrivalli (who made the doubles SF last week) lost to the 2nd seeds in the QF this week after winning the first set: 61 26 7-10.
Sharmade-Sowjanya lost to the 3rd seeds Yashina/Nugroho 26 16.

[PKBasu]

Humdinger between Ankita and Vaidehi goes to the third set. Ankita easily won the first set 6-2, but Vaidehi (who, like Ankita, is part of the Gujarat stable of women tennis players) dug deep and won the second set 76(4). Ankita up 2-0 in the final set now.

[PKBasu]

[QF] 3-Ankita Raina d. Vaidehi Chaudhuri 62 67(4) 62

[PKBasu]

And top seeded Ankita/Prarthana are through to their second consecutive doubles final:

[SF] 1-Ankita Raina/Prarthana Thombare (IND/IND) d. Vasanti Shinde/Ines Murta (IND/POR) 64 62