European Challengers 2023

[jayakris]

P.S I have never heard of this city name before and I suppose this is the first time they are organizing a professional tennis event there.

It is a well known city. Pronounced as "Its a case of wherever"

When you have no clue where it is, the city gets called Szekesfehervar.

[Omkara]

[vatsalnew]

Sumit made it to the singles qualifying entry list.
Aisam/Ramkumar, Purav/Divij in the doubles entry list. Perhaps Arjun will find a random partner to sign up on-site?

Tournament will be played on indoor clay.

P.S I have never heard of this city name before and I suppose this is the first time they are organizing a professional tennis event there.

Sumit won't be playing this event

[sameerph]

Thanks Vatsal. In that case, we should merge this with European challengers thread for 2023 which we have as only doubles players will be there.

[jayakris]

Actually, where did you see that Sumit made the qualies list there, Dinesh? I don't see his name in the list I saw at the dartrankings site. Not as a withdrawal either. Was he ever in the list?

[Dinesh]

Yes. When a player in the alternates list manages to get into the qualifying list and ends up withdrawing, the darts site don’t show any records of the player’s withdrawal.

If you check on player schedules in the same site, it shows Sumit is #40 in the alternates (to MD) list, so maybe he just didn’t want to have to play couple of extra matches to get to the Md.

[jayakris]

Got it. Makes sense. Are there any sites other than darts for entry lists? I haven't checked lately...

[jayakris]

RamK played qualies there as an ALT and lost 36 16 to (PR) Julian Ocleppo (ITA,384).

[jayakris]

Thanks Vatsal. In that case, we should merge this with European challengers thread for 2023 which we have as only doubles players will be there.

Topic merged. Mod, Jay

[jayakris]

Top seeds Aisam/Ramkumar and 3rd seeds Purav/Divij have first round byes, so we await the QFs on Wed/Thu at the "Itsacaseofwherever" challenger.

[jayakris]

Here are the QFs being played on Thursday.

[QF] (3) Purav Raja (IND)/ Divij Sharan (IND) vs (Alt) Rimpei Kawakami (JPN)/ Aldin Setkic (BIH)
[QF] (1) Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK)/ Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) vs Sarp Agabigun (TUR)/ Ergi Kirkin (TUR)

[Rajiv]

So the plan devised in Dubai, to vulture one of the weakest Challengers on offer that gave a meagre 50 points to the winners failed and the top seeds Ram & Aisam crashed out in straight sets to an unknown Turkish pairing in the First round.

Saw Quereshi after a long time and looked a pale shadow of his former self with laboured movements and muffing shots , atleast our Boppanna who is of the same age still has a lethal sting and good court coverage in his game , and then when you combine it with an out of form Ram the result is pretty much obvious which occurred.

Thought with his (Ram) floundering singles atleast still had dbls to back upon, but now that too is looking in a disarray. And compare it with the same period last year where he already won 2×250's, a Challenger win plus 2 Challenger finals and had amassed over 650 points.

And playing with adhoc partners continues and next week it is Bala at Biel, atleast he is our own and a man in form and hope can lift Ram .

[jayakris]

[QF] (3) Purav Raja (IND)/ Divij Sharan (IND) d. (Alt) Rimpei Kawakami (JPN)/ Aldin Setkic (BIH), 36 63 [10-8]
[QF] (1) Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK)/ Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) l. Sarp Agabigun (TUR)/ Ergi Kirkin (TUR), 67(4) 36

[PKBasu]

Ramkumar is in a dangerous free-fall. I hope he pauses, comes to India to play the M25s over the next couple of weeks, and starts regrouping. He needs to get back into the winning habit.

[PKBasu]

Divij-Purav lost the SF 67 36 today. At least they lived up to their third seeding, but they need to do better than their seeding in a few tournaments now.