ITF M25/M15 India- March/April 2023

[PKBasu]

Manish and Parikshat won the SF against Nitin and Axel 63 63. They will play the final against the ASEAN pairing of Alcantara (PHI) and Isarow (THA).

Great to see Niki Kalyandi Poonacha reaching the SF this week. He's been inconsistent the past 3 years, but his win over Axel Weber was excellent. Weber is a 30 year old late bloomer, who was ranked outside the top 1000 until end-2021, but had a breakout year last year, playing all over the world and slowly graduating out of playing Futures qualifiers in places like New Zealand, Morocco, Tunisia, etc. He won a M25 in Indonesia, having made the final the previous week there in October last year. This January, he won a M15 in Indonesia, beating Sid Rawat in the final, reaching his career-high of 495. Niki stopped the momentum of his rising tide -- good job! Now it's time for Niki to have a breakout tournament. Making the final here would be a great start! (Donskoy looks a very big obstacle in the final though, for everyone in this field...).

[sameerph]

Niki lost tamely in the singles SF.

[SF] Niki Kalyandi Poonacha (IND,711) l. Yusuke Takahashi (JPN,690) 36 26

[sameerph]

For next week for M25 in Lucknow, Mukund, Sid Rawat, Digvijay, Manish, SDPD,Niki are the only 6 who directly got into main drawn as it gets tougher at the top it seems. Karan Singh was just outside main draw, but he is not in the qualies draw, so not sure if he made it in or got a wild card.

From the entry list and qualifying draws- fair to conclude that 2 of the wild cards went to Siddharth Vishwkarma and Rushil Khosla both from UP and both fair wild cards. Now sure who got the other 2 wild cards.

[PKBasu]

I went to the DLTA courts to watch the singles SF and doubles final on Saturday. Niki was clearly hampered by a sore shoulder, and played sub-par. (I only arrived when he was already 3-6, 0-2 down). He was thoroughly beaten, although I managed to cheer loudly (and alone) from just behind him, and get him to win a service game to love (making it 2-5) but it was too late

Also watched the disappointing doubles final. Our pair (Manish-Parikshit) lost the first set tamely, then went up 4-1 in the second set against the ASEAN pair (Alcantara-Isarow of Philippines-Thailand). The rain came down at that point, and I fled the stadium. Once play resumed, our pair lost the next 5 games Parikshit is good at the net, but otherwise was the weakest of the four players from the back-court.

[sameerph]

3 of the second round qualifying matches could not be competed today it seems. But, for a change couple of Indian players knocked out top 2 seeds in qualies- L Badrinath was leading 75 12 against top seeded Australian Jacob Bradshaw when the Australian retired, Yash Chaurasia upset second seeded Canadian Stevensen in qualies. There will 3 all Indian match-ups in final qualifying round and 3 other Indians will play foreign players.

Hopefully, 4-5 Indians will qualify. Wild cards in main draw have gone to Siddharth Vishwakarma, Rushil Khosla ( who will play each other), Karan Singh and Ishaque Eqbal.

[sameerph]

Hopefully, 4-5 Indians will qualify. Wild cards in main draw have gone to Siddharth Vishwakarma, Rushil Khosla ( who will play each other), Karan Singh and Ishaque Eqbal.

6 Indians qualify for main draw. Faisal Qamar, Madhwin Kamath ( who had a good win over Vishnu) and Abhinav Sanjeev win in all Indian matches while 3 other Indians best foreign players in final qualifying round- 21 year old Yash Churasia ( who had second upset win over a seeded foreign player, Rishab Agarwal and Raghav Jaisinghani.

So, total of 16 Indians in main draw of 32. 5 are all Indian matches and 6 other Indians play foreign players. Hope 7-8 Indians get to last 16.