ITF Junior circuit 2023 India

[Atithee]

At least there won't be the usual complaint that Indians get over-ranked from beating up other Indians in easier Indian events.

Usual?

[jayakris]

^^ Isn't it usual? Almost every year, I feel that our juniors get over-ranked. The results in grade 1, grade A and grand slam events abroad had invariably demonstrated that too. They get upset by lower-ranked players 4 out of 5 times and do not pull upsets of higher ranked players even 1 in 5 attempts.

[Atithee]

^^i thought I was the Lone Ranger. I’m surprised you agree. I thought just a few days ago we were arguing the same issue albeit not in this age group.

[jayakris]

^^^ Did we? I don't remember ever saying that the notion is wrong. But my tendency is usually to argue the counter point if I find one (on anything)... And I tend not to agree when specific names are mentioned or implied. So I might give reasons to imply that they are "not really that over-ranked" ... Basically cheer-leading the players a bit. We know that things are never easy in India. So I am a mild critic usually. But I am more critical when it comes to general systemic issues.

[sameerph]

It gets worse the next two weeks in the higher J200 events in Delhi and Kolkata, as 3 or 4 more top-100 players join on the boys' side, like Aditya Ganesan (USA,70), and some 5 or 6 more top players on the girls' side too, like Ashton Bowers (USA,55). The top seed this week, Suhitha Maruri, will only be a low seed next week. Actually, only 2 or 3 Indians will make direct entry in each draw the next two weeks.

(Maybe some top names for the next two weeks will move out and on to the Australian Open juniors though; Not sure).

1 Indian each qualified for boys and girls main draw thru 3 tough rounds of qualifying. Among boys, 4th seed Cahir Warik qualified with 3 easy wins, among girls 13 year Aishi Bisht upset 3rd Polish player in Q1 and a South African in final qualifying round to qualify, Looks a talented kid.

9 Indian boys and girls in singles main draw, only Daksh Prasad and Suhitha Maruri are low seeds, so it is a tough for our players.

[PKBasu]

Our SI son, Rohan Belday (USA, 214j), beat Rian Sharma (IND, 844j) 61 62 in R1 yesterday in New Delhi. He plays Nakajima of Japan in R2 tomorrow morning at 10am.

[sameerph]

Yes, apart from Rohan and 2 other Indian Americans top seed Adithya Ganesan and third seed Ayush Bhat, the only Indian national remaining in the draw in last 16 is Rethin Pranav who beat a Japanese qualifier in first round.

Among girls, only Tejasvi Dabas remains. She upset 8th seed Kazakh player in first round.

This is a very tough field but still would have expected 3-4 Indians at least on each side to be in last 16.

[sameerph]

In Delhi J200, Rohan Belday thru to QF with a 3 set win over a Japanese player who had upset 4th seed in first round. He will play 5th seeded Korean in QF.

No Indian national left in QF though as both Rethin and Tejaswi Dabas lost in second round in 3 sets.

[PKBasu]

[R2] Rohan Belday (USA, 214j) d. Satoru Nakajima (JPN, 206j) 36 63 75

Rohan and partner are also in the doubles SF this week, having beaten a couple of Indian (citizen) pairs comfortably in the first 2 rounds.

[gbelday]

Rohan lost singles and doubles yesterday! Good week overall for him. Played really well in singles but not so much in doubles yesterday. On to Calcutta next week!

He lost to a Korean kid Jangjun Kim in singles (and also doubles). Jangjun looks super talented. Very consistent, every shot is deep in corners and he also moves extremely well (like most Koreans). He’s coached by Lee Hyung-taik, who is traveling with him to Delhi and Calcutta. Had a brief conversation with him and he had some very encouraging words to say about Rohan.

USA born desi kids Aditya Ganesan is still alive in boys singles and Ayush Bhat in the boys doubles.

[jayakris]

Where is our Lee Hyung-Taik? I am okay if it isn't as good a player as HT Lee with a #36 highest rank (we have only had three male players better than him in our history, after all, and none of them is under 60). I just need to see anybody, even a top-500 player in the last 30 years, out there on court traveling and coaching players. We just don't have one. We have a whole bunch of tennis celebrities who haven't come anywhere near Lee in their tennis, though. Sad.

[sameerph]

That Korean kid Jangjun Kim won the title in New Delhi, last week also another Korean kid had won the boys singles title in Chandigarh. These Korean kids are so good on boys side.

[gbelday]

Where is our Lee Hyung-Taik? I am okay if it isn't as good a player as HT Lee with a #36 highest rank (we have only had three male players better than him in our history, after all, and none of them is under 60). I just need to see anybody, even a top-500 player in the last 30 years, out there on court traveling and coaching players. We just don't have one. We have a whole bunch of tennis celebrities who haven't come anywhere near Lee in their tennis, though. Sad.

I was finally able to reset my password successfully. If I go with the suggested password, it works but if I choose my own, the password reset function doesn’t work. Just FYI for those facing issue with resetting their password.

Jay, I doubt if any of our ex-players have the desire or the time to help our juniors. Harsh and Somdev are involved in developing some juniors in Minnesota and In Germany respectively and they are the ones that are capable of doing something for our players.

HT Lee mentioned that Jungjim is part of a govt funded player development program and the kids are chosen early and nurtured towards becoming professional players. I don’t have many details but that program also includes the school.

I was able to observe the NTC PD program run by Zeeshan and it’s a joke. The sessions are from 9-12:30 6x an week and the players start coming in at 9:15. Zeeshan doesn’t show up until 10. The drills they were doing were so basic. I am not sure if any of our Indian coaches know what it takes to develop professional players. Zeeshan and co. are basically milking the sponsors (govt?). I was also told by one parent that no parent was ready to send girls to that program at DLTA (for security reasons) and no parent would send their boy there if it were not a free program.

I don’t expect anything big out of that program or from any of the Indian “greats”.

The DLTA complex is a joke. The DLTA offices and the officers cafe is nice and swanky but the stadium, the stands, seating areas, “lounge”, restrooms, dormitories etc are in such terrible condition. So many of the players got sick in Delhi. The dorms were allocated as official residences for the players. J2 main draw players are supposed to get free hospitality. The one Slovakian kid who stayed there could last more than one night (no heat, roaches etc).

The only good thing are the courts. They play well like you would expect but rest of the infra needs a serious upgrade.

[knarayen]

Where is our Lee Hyung-Taik? I am okay if it isn't as good a player as HT Lee with a #36 highest rank (we have only had three male players better than him in our history, after all, and none of them is under 60). I just need to see anybody, even a top-500 player in the last 30 years, out there on court traveling and coaching players. We just don't have one. We have a whole bunch of tennis celebrities who haven't come anywhere near Lee in their tennis, though. Sad.

I was finally able to reset my password successfully. If I go with the suggested password, it works but if I choose my own, the password reset function doesn’t work. Just FYI for those facing issue with resetting their password.

Jay, I doubt if any of our ex-players have the desire or the time to help our juniors. Harsh and Somdev are involved in developing some juniors in Minnesota and In Germany respectively and they are the ones that are capable of doing something for our players.

HT Lee mentioned that Jungjim is part of a govt funded player development program and the kids are chosen early and nurtured towards becoming professional players. I don’t have many details but that program also includes the school.

I was able to observe the NTC PD program run by Zeeshan and it’s a joke. The sessions are from 9-12:30 6x an week and the players start coming in at 9:15. Zeeshan doesn’t show up until 10. The drills they were doing were so basic. I am not sure if any of our Indian coaches know what it takes to develop professional players. Zeeshan and co. are basically milking the sponsors (govt?). I was also told by one parent that no parent was ready to send girls to that program at DLTA (for security reasons) and no parent would send their boy there if it were not a free program.

I don’t expect anything big out of that program or from any of the Indian “greats”.

The DLTA complex is a joke. The DLTA offices and the officers cafe is nice and swanky but the stadium, the stands, seating areas, “lounge”, restrooms, dormitories etc are in such terrible condition. So many of the players got sick in Delhi. The dorms were allocated as official residences for the players. J2 main draw players are supposed to get free hospitality. The one Slovakian kid who stayed there could last more than one night (no heat, roaches etc).

The only good thing are the courts. They play well like you would expect but rest of the infra needs a serious upgrade.

Very sorry to hear. Any news about the tennis program at the Dravid- padukone center in Bangalore? Have they produced any good players of late?

[jayakris]

Exactly the situation that I was expecting. Thanks, gautam. Pathetic situation, and I do not see much of a change, unless somebody like Somdev can take over and run AITA. But AITA is not the only issue. Harsh, Prakash, Stephen, Somdev, etc, not getting into serious coaching in India is not helping at all. Harsh and Somdev especially, as they were both very cerebral guys with great knowledge on the technical side (and also quality individuals). They would have been great to mold some young players.