India Challengers February 2024

[jayakris]

I think Sumit has grown out of Challengers. Time to focus only on ATPs IMO.

A slight bit too early. He should judiciously play some rare challengers based on when the points drop off, till he gets inside the top-80 or so.

[sameerph]

6 Indians are playing singles qualifying in Bengaluru challenger today. Karan Singh lost a very close match 67(3) 75 67(9) against second seed Dan Added (FRA,302). He missed a few match points in third set tie break, one on his own serve. What a missed opportunity for Karan.

Sid Vishwakarma lost 46 46 against 7th seeded Ukranian.

Now,4 more matches left but I think only hope is Mukund who plays 4th seed Samuel Vincent Ruggeri (ITA,312)

Mukund lost 36 46 against Ruggeri . He really should have got a main draw wild card after reaching QF last week, here he had to play after just 1 day break.

So, no Indian made it to final qualifying round. Only 3 Indians in singles main draw -

[R1] Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,462) vs. Maxime Janvier (FRA,259)

[R1] S.D. Prajwal Dev (IND,596) vs. (5 Adam Walton (AUS,153)

[R1] (2) Sumit Nagal (IND,98) vs. Geoffrey Blancaeux (FRA,274)

[PKBasu]

Indian tennis administration is a disgrace. Professional tournaments should be giving the Indian players with a best chance the wildcards, not pick based on regional or other considerations. What a crying shame that the India #2 in singles is denied a wildcard, after he performed so creditably last week in making the singles QF.

[jayakris]

I am okay that one WC goes to a local player, which is done almost everywhere. But giving a wildcard to Pospisil is just unpardonable. But I assume that only one WC was under AITA's control and that went to RamK.

The frequency with which Indian events give wildcards to foreigners is pathetic.

[Rajiv]

We gave a huge tradition of kowtowing to foreigners right from Chennai ATP 20 years ago and nothing has changed in these 2 decades, and the reasons to do this are quite obvious and don't want to go into details.

For our guys, leave aside MD WC they have been flatly refused even a Quali's WC , even though their request was legitimate and logical.

Just take a look at the 3 Challengers held few weeks ago in Nonthaburi. For all the 3 weeks WC's in both the MD & Quali's were only given to home Thai players.

[Sanjay]

Ram comes back from 3 MPs to win! Well done.

[Rajiv]

One of the best ever wins by Ram since his slew of R1 losses to everyone and anyone.
So has he regained his mojo and is it a new chapter... NO not yet and a long long way to go.
This win just confirms his commitment to singles which is unwavering and what it does , it gives the singles campaign and his commitment to it a extra filip.

Ideally the target should be to get into the 200's within the next few months via the Futures, a route one which Prakash , Somdev successfully took refuge in order to raise their rankings when they were making a comeback from injuries.

But Futures option is not possible since nowadays he has a distraction of Doubles play which he can't ignore like he did in the past and has to strike a fine balancing act between the two of them

So in the short-term , regular results such as today's , to aim for a 350 + range in the next 2/3 months and then mix possible Futures to aim for a 200 range during the short-lived grass court season, as today's result clearly shows he still has in him for singles play and should fight well in his next match against the top seed Nardi a match in which he has nothing to loose.

[Sanjay]

I feel that he should focus on one thing - singles or doubles. He is not like John McEnroe to do well in both formats. He also needs enough rest. So if he feels he has it in him to compete and do well in singles, then he should stick to singles. If he feels he is done, then move to doubles and be the best he can be. By playing both, he is tiring himself out, risking more injuries, and not being able to focus.

Thoughts?

[sameerph]

Why RamK give up singles when he is still capable of winning against players close to top 250 like he did today. And it is ok to play both singles and doubles when he is usually losing after 1-3 matches at challenger level as he is doing now. If he really starts going deep towards end of the week in singles at challengers, he can concentrate only on singles for the time being. Also, he may not be entirely sure of making it to higher level in singles not, so better to keep his doubles ranking at a decent level instead of let it fall to a level where he has to start from futures later.

Anyway, excellent win today where RamK saved 3 match points serving at 4-5, 0-40 down to come back and win in 3 sets.

[R1] Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,462) d. Maxime Janvier (FRA,259) 67(4) 75 64

[Omkara]

I saw RamK play his match in Chennai. I feel his decision to change his back hand from one hand slice to double hand one, cost him a lot. But it's better than what it was before. Players just push the on his backhand in hope for a weak return. I didn't see RamK hit back winners, but atleast he is pushing them back. Needs lot of work though.

But to be fair Ramk is trying to do what Steffi couldn't. She has the skill, money and coaching, yet she didn't even try. Let's give credit to Ramk. He tried. With limited resources.

[arjun2761]

Why RamK give up singles when he is still capable of winning against players close to top 250 like he did today. And it is ok to play both singles and doubles when he is usually losing after 1-3 matches at challenger level as he is doing now.

[R1] Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,462) d. Maxime Janvier (FRA,259) 67(4) 75 64

This is spot on. Doubles actually isn't as taxing for players who have the fitness to play singles. It is the number of singles matches which is taxing to them. If RamK starts going deep in challenger singles draws (play 3-4 or more singles matches in a week) then he may need to reconsider his doubles commitment. Otherwise, it may be OK for him to try to manage both. The bigger challenge for him to do both is his singles ranking as he likely will struggle to get into singles main draws at the challenger level whereas he is more likely to get in the doubles draw with a good partner (such as Saketh).

[prasen9]

Yes, if his body will allow both, then that at least gives him some extra income with which he can buy some extra coaching, fly a bit better via direct flights, etc. And, for those weeks you go deep in singles or the week after, you can skip doubles citing fatigue or some injury - players always have minor injuries.

The main problem is the singles and doubles ranking mismatch. If he chooses tournaments by doubles ranking, which perhaps is not a bad idea, then he plays the qualifiers. In this case, if/when he qualifies, the points on offer are much more per match and thus is less taxing on the body on a per ATP point basis and thus works out well if you want to both have a singles and doubles career. The problem is to qualify and have those two extra matches on your body. Sort of a fine balancing act.

[PKBasu]

Ramkumar has done the perfectly sensible thing by going back to the Futures level, winning one to gain points, then going up to the Challengers. Of course, at the moment, he still doesn't have a high enough ranking to get into Challenger singles draws, so this week and the next two are crucial for his singles future.

Good win, and let's go all out against the top seed (and last week's runner-up, who must be tiring).

[Sanjay]

Sumit is pulverizing the other guy. Hope he maintains the high level.

Too bad, hardly any crowds to watch.

[Rajiv]

The noticeable point about these Indian Challengers is the excellent live streaming quality, HD quality, multiple angles, players close up and ofcourse replays, a far cry from the single grainy coverage from one single angle lone camera of recent past
And saw some of the camera men were non Indians , so it means that a special team is in place to cover Challengers world wide seems to be ATP's bigger game plan.

Should be a case to rejoice , but am bit circumspect as probably by the year end ATP might start collecting money considering the efforts put in to relay a Challenger like a major tournament with high definition quality complete with replays which was unheard of when live stream guys use to cover using a single camera ,and had this lingering questions when they took it over the live streaming platform,
But hope i am wrong on this and we continue to get free coverage.