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

[sameerph]

Sid lost in 3 sets in the final.

At Jakarta M15, Indonesia

[F] (4) Siddharth Rawat (IND,588) l. (2) Aurther Weber (FRA,553) 46 63 36

[Dinesh]

Congrats to Sid for reaching finals last week and to Parikshit for reaching doubles final.

This week at M25 Al Zehra, Kuwait:

(4) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (339) vs Guy Den Heijer (NED, 1562)
(6) Sasikumar Mukund (397) vs Bor Artnak (SLO,681) 18yo #10 ranked junior

In doubles, Parikshit and his Uzbek partner Khumoyun are seeded 2nd and received a bye in the opening round.

[Dinesh]

At the M15 Jakarta ITF,

2 Indians qualified for main draw - Siddharth Vishwakarma and Abhinav Sanjeev.

(Q) Siddharth Vishwakarma (989) vs (Q) Sanhui Shin (KOR,1137)
Karan Singh (920) 6-2 6-3 Gunawan Trismuwantara (INA, UNR)
(7) Niki Kaliyanda poonacha (728) 6-7 3-6 Wishaya Trongcharoenchaikul (THA,972)
(4) Sidharth Rawat (588) vs (Q) Derek Pham (AUS,1015)
(8) S D Prajwal Dev (734) vs (WC) Anthony Susanto (INA,UNR)
(Q) Abhinav Sanjeev Shanmugam (1288) vs Moerani Bouzige (AUS,880)

Doubles:

3 Indian pairs are in the quarterfinal stage, notably 2nd seeds Niki and Rithvik, who are in a 21-match winning streak at the ITF level. Hope they continue to build their doubles ranking in order to enter the Indian challengers directly.

[sameerph]

At M25 Al Zahra, Kuwait (Hard)

[R1] (6) Sasi Kumar Mukund (IND,397) l. (JE) Bor Artnak (SLO,681) 46 36

[R1] (4) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,339) d. (Q) Guy Den Heijer (NED,1562) 61 76(5)

Artnak is a top 10 junior, so not surprised that he beat Mukund here.

Next,

[R2] (4) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,339) vs. (Q) Dax Donders (NED,1032)

[jayakris]

At M25 Al Zahra, Kuwait (Hard)

[R2] (4) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,339) d. (Q) Dax Donders (NED,1032), 63 62
So,
[QF] (4) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,339) vs Jakub Mensik (CE,415)

[jayakris]

At the ITF M15 in Jakarta (Hard),

To update on Dinesh's post above (Q) Siddharth Vishwakarma lost 26 36 but (Q) Abhinav Sanjeev Shanmugam went down in a massive fight 67(5) 76(5) 67(9) to Morani Bouge (AUS,880) who then went on to pull a 64 64 upset of the 8th seed SD Prajwal Dev in the R2, after SDPD had won 61 46 60 in the R1. In the second round, Karan Singh lost 26 46 to M Rifqi Fitriadi (INA,1132). So onlu 4th seed Sidharth Rawat remain in the QF. Sid beat Derek Pham (AUS,1015), 76(5) 75 and Kokoro Isomura (JPN,922), 64 75. So,

[QF] (4) Sidharth Rawat (IND,588) vs Wishaya Trongcharoenchaikul (THA,972)

2nd seeds Niki/Rithvik are in the doubles SF too.

[arjun2761]

Most of these are poor results. Asian futures are about the easiest tournaments that you can play in and most of our players are struggling at this level. Getting points at these events get you over-ranked. However, our players are not over-ranked because they are hardly able to win points even at this level.

[sameerph]

Sid Rawat is thru to SF in Indonesia.

At the ITF M15 in Jakarta (Hard),

[QF] (4) Sidharth Rawat (IND,588) d. Wishaya Trongcharoenchaikul (THA,972) 63 64

Next,

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

2nd seeds Niki/Rithvik are thru to doubles final. This pair has not lost a match since October last year and are on a 23 match unbeaten streak since and won 5 consecutive titles before this week. Chance to make it 6 consecutive titles tomorrow for them.

[VReddy]

Most of these are poor results. Asian futures are about the easiest tournaments that you can play in and most of our players are struggling at this level. Getting points at these events get you over-ranked. However, our players are not over-ranked because they are hardly able to win points even at this level.

This is not the case these days.

For example: Prajnesh today defeated Australian Open Jr Finalist and someone who is already close to top-400 ATP as a 17 yr old. Prajnesh`s opponent had a much higher UTR than him. Similar Sumit`s opponent in Thailand was a JR Grand Slam champion and had a much higher UTR than Sumit and so it was going to be an upset win if Sumit had won.

Go by UTR rankings which accounts for exactly the aspects that you had mentioned.

[PKBasu]

[QF] 4-Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,339) d. Jakub Mensik (CZE,415) 62 61

Absolute hammering to the youngster by Prajnesh! That's the way to do it...

[prasen9]

So, he held his seeding. Now move up PG!

[sameerph]

Yes, that was a good win. Next up against second seed from Germany.

At M25 Al Zahra, Kuwait (Hard)

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

Prajnesh had lost the only match he played against Benjamin in June 2021. Hope he reverses that result.

[arjun2761]

Most of these are poor results. Asian futures are about the easiest tournaments that you can play in and most of our players are struggling at this level. Getting points at these events get you over-ranked. However, our players are not over-ranked because they are hardly able to win points even at this level.

This is not the case these days.

For example: Prajnesh today defeated Australian Open Jr Finalist and someone who is already close to top-400 ATP as a 17 yr old. Prajnesh`s opponent had a much higher UTR than him. Similar Sumit`s opponent in Thailand was a JR Grand Slam champion and had a much higher UTR than Sumit and so it was going to be an upset win if Sumit had won.

Go by UTR rankings which accounts for exactly the aspects that you had mentioned.

What made you think that I was referring to UTR rankings? ATP and ITF tournaments use ATP rankings for entry and players earn ATP ranking points for each round and therefore the overranked/underranked referred to the ATP ranking points earned in these tournaments. More specifically, players get overranked by earning points in the easier low level ITF events in Asia. However, even that is hard to do if you can't win any matches at these events.

[suresh]

From Wikipedia:

Benjamin Hassan (born 4 February 1995) is a Lebanese-German tennis player. He has a career high ATP singles ranking of world No. 293, achieved on 12 August 2019. Hassan represents Lebanon at the Davis Cup, where he has a W/L record of 10–6..

The name made me check his background.

[Omkara]

At M25 Al Zahra, Kuwait (Hard)

[SF] (4) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,339) vs. (2) Benjamin Hassan (GER,298) 6-4, 2-3 on serve.

Prajnesh is fighting hard.