February W15/W25 ITF tournaments, India (Jhajjar, Gurugram, Bengaluru)

[jayakris]

Wow, what a run by Sandeepti. So unexpected, and out of nowhere. She still hasn't dropped a set and has won 6 matches in a row.

Can she break Curovic's unbeaten streak of 8 matches in a row?

[jayakris]

Wow, what an amazing match played by Sandeepti Singh Rao! She took out the third seed Curovic and ended her 8 match win streak, 75 26 76(5) !!! Sandeepti was up 4-2 in the third, got broken back and faced 2 match points on her serve at 4-5 15-40... I thought she would have nothing left to mount a fight back from that hole. But she did. Great comeback there to win 4 point in a row and hold serve to 5-5. In the tiebreaker, she edged ahead twice and dropped minis twice, but converted her first match point off Curovic's serve to finish the three-hour match. Unbelievable that she was able to do all that in her 7th match in row - a streak during which she has upset one player after another, including the 1st seed in the qualies, and then the 1st, 5th and 3rd seeds in the main draw. Wow.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have found ourselves a player!!! How unexpected!!! I am elated

Zeel beat Vaidehi 75 62 in the other SF against Sandeepti.

[jayakris]

I wasn't going to let PKB break the rules and start a thread for a 19 year old. So I did it ... Here it is - Sandeepti Singh Rao Thread. She got it after only her third pro event. She played Jhajjar early last year, and has played the two W15s there just now. But the manner in which she has reached the final here, called for a thread. This cannot be a fluke.

[sameerph]

Wow, what a win by Sandeepti. Last I observed the scores she had saved 2 match points and levelled it at 5-5. Had to be away for a while and I had thought she will lose eventually in crunch against a much more experienced player but so happy to see this result happening.

What a run by her and she deserves her thread. She just won her 7th match this week and will be playing her 8th tomorrow. So, she is done better than many as per Jay's criteria which he mentioned earlier in relation to Sumit.

[suresh]

I wasn't going to let PKB break the rules and start a thread for a 19 year old. So I did it ...

Yes, a star is born.

[sameerph]

Sandeepti started with a bang and won the first set 6-1 but lost the next 2 sets probably running out of steam playing her 8th match in 8 days.

[F] Zeel Desai (IND,653) d. Sandeepti Singh Rao (IND,NR) 16 61 64

Congrats to Zeel but superb run by Sandeepti. She will get a special exempt spot for Gurugram W15 next week.

[jayakris]

Congrats to both Zeel and Sandeepti. It has been a while since Zeel has looked good, and it is a historic run by Sandeepti, who arrived with a bang to the Indian tennis scene.

[Omkara]

Sandeepti is now where Zeel was probably 5-6 years ago. Sudden burst in a season, making it to the final or winning one. But no one knows what happens after that. So many people just stagnated.

Good to see zeel winning. Hope to see some consistency from Sandeepti.

[sameerph]

Sandiptee's surge is a sudden burst in a season while Zeel had come thru gradually but her game has certainly stagnated. Zeel made Australian open juniors girls QF in 2017 Had a look at opponents whom she beat there- Jule Niemeier who is ranked 69 now. Olga Danilovic who is ranked 142, lost in QF 46 36 against Elana Rybakina who was a Australian open runner up this year and is in top 10. Zeel lost in close 3 sets at US open juniors same year against Colombian Camilo Osorio who is ranked 61 in WTA singles rankings now. Zeel has not been even in top 500, She had a career high of 542 achieved last year. Zeel should certainly have done better going by her junior achievements.

[Omkara]

This is her second trophy. The first one came 5-6 years ago. Clearly the transition to seniors wasn't managed well.

[PKBasu]

Sandiptee's surge is a sudden burst in a season while Zeel had come thru gradually but her game has certainly stagnated. Zeel made Australian open juniors girls QF in 2017 Had a look at opponents whom she beat there- Jule Niemeier who is ranked 69 now. Olga Danilovic who is ranked 142, lost in QF 46 36 against Elana Rybakina who was a Australian open runner up this year and is in top 10. Zeel lost in close 3 sets at US open juniors same year against Colombian Camilo Osorio who is ranked 61 in WTA singles rankings now. Zeel has not been even in top 500, She had a career high of 542 achieved last year. Zeel should certainly have done better going by her junior achievements.

Yes, our junior to senior transition has been catastrophic on the women's side -- with the obvious exception of Sania. Didn't realise/remember that Zeel had played Rybakina (the current Wimbledon champion) in the QF of the AO junior QF in 2017. Mahak Jain and Mihika Yadav have been the most recent casualties, plus of course Karman and Pranjala have also lived up to their initial junior and pro potential.

[sameerph]

True about all the cases which you mentioned. Karman and Prajala have mostly been done in by injuries much like Yuki. Else, there was an indication that they would fulfill their potential which could be top 100 in case of Karman, top 200 in case of Pranjala. Not so much convinced about credentials of Mahak and Mihika. Because Mahak gave up juniors all too early for us to judge her true potential and I thought Mihika had somewhat inflated rankings due to points achieved in tournaments in India/Asia. Neither of them played any junior slams. Also both Mahak and Mihika are very short.
So, that could have come in way of them achieving anything substantial on pro tour. Lets see if Mahak tries her hands on pro tour after she finishes her college stint. I doubt the way her planning has gone not playing any pro tournaments even during breaks in last 2-3 years when she has been in college.

But, in Zeel's case underachievement is most glaring. She was the one who had better success at junior slam than all others and did not recall her having a long injury lay off either. Still not able to make even top 500 so far is rather surprising.

[ornatebrute]

Both Mihika and Mahak did play some the junior slams.
Mihika: Wimb: QR1 (lost to Coco Gauff); USO: R1.
Had wins over players who went on to become top WTA: Qinwen Zheng(!!! likely the next Chinese Slam winner), Mai Hontama, Yuki Naito.
Mahak: AO R1 (lost to phenom Kostyuk who won the whole thing); Wimb: R2 (lost to Claire Liu); USO: R1 (lost to Xinyu Wang in 3 sets!)
Had wins over: Falkowska, Xiyu Wang (without the 'n')
Also was double bagelled by Iga Swiatek and double breadsticken (is that a legit word?) By Bianca Andreescu at Jr FC finals.

[sameerph]

Ok, I had forgotten that. Maybe fairer to say that Mahak and Mihika did not have as much success as Karman and Pranjala who both made R3 at Australian Open and more so Zeel who had made QF.

There are very few among juniors who have even made R3 at junior slams and last one on boys side to do it was Sumit Nagal in 2015.

Karman and Pranjala did it in 2016 while Zeel made the QF in 2017.

Since then we did not have anyone make even R3 in junior slams and that lack of success in juniors is now reflecting in our slide in pros.

[jayakris]

Also was double bagelled by Iga Swiatek and double breadsticken (is that a legit word?) By Bianca Andreescu at Jr FC finals.

No it is not a legit word yet, but we will give you credit and legitimize it in sports-India. That is great!

By my authority as a mod, I pronounce "bagel-breadsticken" and "breadstick-bagelled" also as legitimate words that can be used on sports-india for 60 61 and 61 60 scores!

["en" may be replaced with a more grammatically sounder-sounding "ed" in those words too. "Breadstuck" shall not be used, as the word does not originate from the verb "stick"]