Qatar, Indonesia, Kuwait ITF Men’s series - January

[Dinesh]

Doha M25:

Round 1:

(2) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (339) 6-4 6-0 Tibo Colson (BEL, 671)
(4) Sasikumar Mukund (397) 6-0 6-1 (wc) Mashari Nawaf (QAT, UNR)

Round 2:

(2) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (339) vs Aleksandre Bakshi (GEO, 774) H2H 1-0 def in 3 sets last year
(4) Sasikumar Mukund (397) vs Jaimee Floyd Angele (FRA,564)

In doubles, Parikshit Somani (23yo) and Uzbek player Khumoyon Sultanov are the top seeds and win their first round in straight sets. This pair won the title last week at the M15 event at the same venue. This was Parikshit’s 3rd ITF title at this level.

[Dinesh]

Jakarta M15:

Round 1:

(4) Sidharth Rawat (588) vs Karan Singh (920)
Rishab Agarwal (979) vs Kit Jack Wong Hong (HKG, 1251)
(7) Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha (728) vs Fitriadi M Rifqi (INA, 1139)
Sidharth Vishwakarma (989) 6-7 7-6 3-6 (5) Duck Hee Lee (KOR, 645)
(Q) Abhinav Sanjeev Shanmugam (1268) vs (2) Arthur Weber (FRA, 553)

In the doubles draw, only Ishaq Eqbal/Karan Singh won their first round and plays the second seeds in the QF.

[Dinesh]

Both Prajnesh and Mukund lost in straight sets. Joke of a tournament! Indian Men’s singles tennis is helpless at the moment.

[sameerph]

Horrible losses for Prajnesh and Mukund. It seems our players play even worse when they play at lower level.

In Indonesia, only 2 of our seeds went thru to second round- Sid Rawat and Niki Poonacha. Sid had to go to third set tie break to beat young Karan Singh. Niki had to fight 3 sets to beat Indonesian wild card. Abhinav Sanjeev and Rishab Agarwal lost in third set tie breaks against their foreign opponents.

[prasen9]

Anyone from Sports-India going to the sraddha?

[sameerph]

Anyone from Sports-India going to the sraddha?

Haha. Where is the venue for that ?

Btw, in Indonesia, Sid Rawat and Niki Poonacha have reached the QF beating 2 qualfiers in second round and they play each other in QF. That means 1 Indian is guaranteed in SF.

In doubles pair of Karan Singh and Ishaque Iqbal are thru to SF.

And in M25 in Kuwait, pair of Parikshit Somani and Khumayn Sultanov have reached the final.

[prasen9]

Anyone from Sports-India going to the sraddha?

Haha. Where is the venue for that ?

AFRICA AVENUE NEW DELHI DL IN 110029

[sameerph]

Sid Rawat beat Niki Poonacha in 3 sets and went thru to the singles SF in Indonesia futures. So, as a 4th seed he at least justifies his seeding. He will meet top seed Australian Thomas Fancutt in the SF.

[jayakris]

Sid is playing well again?

[Dinesh]

^^^ How so? He played a couple of Indians and a lowly ranked Taiwanese player and beat them all in 3 sets. If he manages to beat the top seed or gives him a 3-set fight, I’ll believe he is back to his pre-covid level.

[jayakris]

Oh, okay. I was asking.... You answered

[Omkara]

There is a Netflix doc on tennis players. If you see it one will stop cribbing against our players for sure.

The need of the game is so high and how little our players get. The mental part of it is just ignored. We don't know what happened here. All three pairs lost in MDs in Aussie open, all players lost here in round 2 and same happened in Bhopal.

As if everyone here is supporting each other and their mental states are connected. One lose, everyone follows

[sameerph]

^^^ How so? He played a couple of Indians and a lowly ranked Taiwanese player and beat them all in 3 sets. If he manages to beat the top seed or gives him a 3-set fight, I’ll believe he is back to his pre-covid level.

Sid Rawat does beat the top seed in the SF. Yes, now we can say he is playing well again.

At Jakarta M15, Indonesia

[SF] (4) Siddharth Rawat (IND,588) d. (1) Thomas Fancutt (AUS,496) 26 76(4) 63

Up against second seed next,

[F] (4) Siddharth Rawat (IND,588) vs. (2) Aurther Weber (FRA,553)

[Atithee]

Good news keeps on rolling in.

[prasen9]

Good news keeps on rolling in.

Now this should go into the SI HoF.