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.

[PKBasu]

A couple of good wins for Manish and young Karan today:

[R1] Manish Sureshkumar d. Niki Kalyandi Poonacha 76(9) 46 62
[R1] WC-Karan Singh (IND) d. 8-Shuichi Sekiguchi (JPN) 63 64
[R1] WC-Siddharth Vishwakarma d. WC-Rushil Khosla 76(2) 63
[R1] 5-Sasikumar Mukund d. Q-Stijn Pel (NED, 1795) 64 62
[R1] Q-Rishab Agarwal d. SD Prajwal Dev 64 63

[sameerph]

Good upset win by Karan Singh. Apart from 5 mentioned by PKB in above post, there was a win by Sid Rawat in a close 3 setter against fellow Indian Ishaque Eqbal. 2 very close losses in 3 sets- Digvijay against last week's champion Donskoy and Abhinav Sanjeev against Japanese Takahashi.

Total of 6 Indians in last 16, same as last week. One all Indian match-up between Mukund and Rishab. 3 other Indians play seeds- Sid against second seeded American Crawford, Manish against third seed Donskoy and Siddharth against 6th seed Weber. Karan plays a higher ranked Thai player.

[jayakris]

I watched Karan Singh in his upset over the 8th seed Shuichi Sekihuchi (JPN,533). The guy can indeed play, and I was quite pleased! He is young at 19, but he has good tennis physique (strong legs and decent height at an inch or two over 6 feet). He is decently athletic and moves quite well on court. Sekiguchi is a 31 year old veteran who was once as high as #259 - a very short fellow who is still very fast on court and runs down almost anything you hit, with great retrieving abilities. Karan needed to play steady tennis without mistakes, which he did. Stayed solid in the rallies, but he made a few moves to the net at the right times and hit 2 or 3 good volleys too. Good temperament through the match too. Served 11 aces and had only one double fault in the whole match. But he didn't seem like a big server up the middle and can probably add more velocity to the serve. The serves to the corner seemed to be strong. His backhand (both double-fisted and single-handed) looked steadier and more solid than of many other Indians, at least in this match. It all helped him to stay just a bit ahead of the Japanese in quite a few games that went to multiple deuces, as Sekiguchi looked many times like he could turn this around but he just couldn't.

He strokes the ball smoothly in the rallies but he may need to add a more compact shot also to his game. I may be wrong, but I thought he might need to improve on taking the ball on the rise, especially on the forehand side. He needs to add more top spin to the ball on the forehand side, which will help him take it on the rise and add more velocity. I thought this affected him on balls that kept low on the forehand side (he put some returns into the net and a couple of running forehands were noticeably flt). It also affected his return game, which looked relatively weaker to me. His coach (apparently Zeeshan Ali?) needs to take a look. I guess it depends on the kind of grip he uses and all that too.

By the way, if he adds a double-fisted hackhand down-the-line shot, it will really help. But I see none of the Indians hitting that shot well these days. Bhupathi probably had one of the best ever BH DTL shots. Harsh and Somdev also had good DTL shots with top spin. Again, taking it on the rise is important there too, I think. He hit a lot of crosscourt BHs which were effective though.

Anyway, it is good to know that our highest ranked 19-year old is not a bad player. He has some potential. Karan started playing tennis quite late (his profile says age 11). He played ITF juniors late too, and only had a J4 or J5 final or two in 2020-21 right after Covid.

[Dinesh]

I’m watching Sidharth Vishwa play for the first time. When I tracked the lice scores, I didnt understand how he was leading 6-0 2-0 but this guy has a pretty unconventional game so far. He probably deserves a clothing sponsor since he won a nationals title sometime ago (?), but some of his shots are unusual. I like it. Let’s get the W!!

he has done it. 6-0 6-0. When was the last time an Indian underdog got a double bagel win? Almost never?! I don’t know if Arthur is injured or was struggling with the style of play/conditions in Lucknow, but I’ll take this win. Sid V looks promising. Let’s go!

[jayakris]

Sid V is 28 years old, though. I don't know if I should be excited but I am happy that the guy is winning. But 6-0 6-0 is almost definitely because Arthur Weber was not well.

Meanwhile 19 yr old Karan Singh was down a break at 46 26 but got two breaks in a row to take the second set and even it against Kovapitukted. Karan is not playing as well as yesterday and certainly not serving well, but he is hanging in there, and again showing good temperament. Not sure if he can win in the third set though. Occasionally he takes a ball short and hits a shot with velocity but not all that often. He needs to get better at that. He did hit two or three BH DTL shots that I was asking for yesterday. It is like he does have the shots but needs to get better at it by playing a lot. Okay, fine, keep going young man!

[Dinesh]

Karan leads 4-1 now. That Thai player is funny to watch because he has this tendency to question calls and get frustrated throwing tantrums. It was evident in his loss against Karan/Tushar last week as well and today he Jesus arguing and threw his racket once in the third set.

[jayakris]

And Karan finishes the job, not giving the Thai dude a chance after that guy started having some physical issue with his right leg (but he was moving okay). 46 64 62

I like Karan's hands at the net. He is not into blind serve and volley or anything, but I found his very occasional moves to the net to be quite natural, and he seemed to execute well a fair number of times near the net. One other thing I noticed is that he hits very few shots too short. Not trying to be over-aggressive and hitting to the baseline or anything, but generally hitting deep enough, so that he can stay alive in the points. There were a couple of deft lobs and an overhead BH volley also. I mean, really, the guy plays some shots like he is 30 years old ... The other thing is that he rarely looks stupid on court in his shot selection and point progression (unlike most of our players these days). He is not too good at turning things around to take control of the point, but he is good at not doing things to give control on a platter to the other guy. Does not seem to get adrenaline rushes that makes one do silly things. But he needs to develop a more powerful forehand. If he times his shots better and takes the ball early more often, he could have a more powerful forehand that would help him move many rungs up the ladder. The return game needs to improve too (though he seemed to get much better at it during the match today, from late in the first set). Generally gives the vibes of an intelligent player. I am sufficiently impressed.

(By the way, though I don't know where his singles career will take him, I am quite convinced that he can become an excellent doubles player at some point. He shouldn't even think much about it for the next 6 years, but it is something we can keep in mind.)

[jayakris]

Mukund won 62 76(3) over Rishab Agarwal, Sid Rawat lost 16 26 to the 2nd seed Oliver Crawford, and Manish lost 26 57 to the 3rd seed Donskoy.

So 3 of the 6 Indians lost in the R2. But thanks to the good show from two wildcards Sid V and Karan, we have three guys in the QF, which is quite good, considering only one (5th seed Mukund) could've been expected to be there.

Sid V faces the top seed, Mukund locks horns with the 2nd seed and Karan runs into the 3rd seed. Can one of them pull an upset and make the SF?

[PKBasu]

3 Indians in the singles QF this week, with Karan and Mukund joining Sid Vishwakarma:

[R2] WC-Siddharth Vishwakarma (IND) d. 6-Arthur Weber (FRA, 504) 60 60
[R2] WC-Karan Singh (IND) d. Palaphoom Kovapitukted (THA, 747) 46 64 62
[R2] 5-Sasikumar Mukund (IND) d. Rishab Agarwal (IND) 76(2) 63
[R2] 3-Evgeny Donskoy (RUS) d. Manish Sureshkumar (IND) 62 75
[R2] 2-Oliver Crawford (USA, 290) d. Siddharth Rawat (IND) 61 62