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

[sameerph]

Sid Rawat into another final in Indonesia, he got a walkover in his SF.

At the ITF M15 in Jakarta (Hard),

[SF] (4) Sidharth Rawat (IND,588) d. Marat Sharipov (RUS,786) walkover

Next,

[F] (4) Sidharth Rawat (IND,588) vs. (1) Nicholas David Lonel (ROM,228)

Niki/Rithvik won yet another title easily winning the final 61 63, their 8th title together. Their unbeaten streak has gone to 24, 6 straight titles.

Niki will be at 305 in doubles rankings now, Rithwik at 335. Hope they get to play India challengers and win some matches to further move up the rankings faster to regularly play in challengers.

[suresh]

Prajnesh lost the second set 2-6.


[SF] (4) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,339) vs. (2) Benjamin Hassan (GER,298) 6-4, 2-6


Set 3

1-0 Breaks Hassan at love to go up 1-0 in the decider.
2-0 Praj hold serves after a couple of deuces. No ball boys, almost no crowd. Praj winning long rallies but there is no variety from him.
3-0 Praj breaks after going down 0-30! Hassan has an error prone forehand.
4-0 Tricky hold by Praj from 40-30. Hassan swearing in German.
5-0 Breaks Hassan at love. Good footwork from Praj and poor play from Hassan,
6-0, Praj wins.

[Omkara]

[SF] (4) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,339) vs. (2) Benjamin Hassan (GER,298) 6-4, 2-6, 6-0

Tennis is a tough game. Third set Hassan missed a few easy serves in the first game and could never make a comeback.

I loved the effort put by Prajnesh. He had lot to lose from this match. He gave it everything.

So good to see it!!

[suresh]

Yes, it is a good win for Prajnesh. However, he stays way too much at the baseline. He needs to come in once in a while to add variety. Next up


[F] (4) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,339) vs. Khumoyun Sultanov (UZB, 491)

[jayakris]

This week has gone quite okay, with Prajnesh and Sid in finals and Ankita making a semifinal, and all of them going beyond their seeding in doing that.

[sameerph]

Oh dear, very close loss for Sid Rawat in final in Indonesia.

At the ITF M15 in Jakarta (Hard),

[F] (4) Sidharth Rawat (IND,588) l. (1) Nicholas David Lonel (ROM,228) 64 16 67(9)

9-11 loss in third set tie break means Sid must have missed some match points in that third set. Anyway, good to have fought so hard against 228th ranked player. He seems to be at least getting back to somewhere to pre-covid levels. After these 2 runner up finished he will move up somewhere around 520.
Hope he gets a chance to play at least qualies at India challengers.

[Omkara]

Tough loss. But I feel Indians now playing tournaments commensurate to their current abilities. Whatever happened in COVID, that dropped their game by a level or two. Now play at these levels, build up points and some money and then have a go at the next level.

[sameerph]

And Prajnesh wins the title.

At ITF M25 Al Zahra, Kuwait (Hard)

[F] (4) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,339) d. Khumoyun Sultanov (UZB,491) 62 76(5)

After taking the first easily, Prajnesh was up 4-2 in the second set but there was a fightback from Uzbek player and he got the break back, it went to tie break. 1 mini break exchanged till it went to 6-5 in Praj's favour and Praj took the next point on Uzbek's serve.

[Rajiv]

So Prajnesh wins 62 76 in a largely baseline duel and finally takes the crown in many attempts at a M25.

Should get him around 305 to 307 and much closer to breaking the psychological 300 rank barrier.

[Omkara]

He put up a big fight. He is no where near his A game. Age is not in his side. But it's heartening to see he won in the end. This week has indeed been good from AO to Indonesia to India and finally in Kuwait. All as per time zone !!

What planning