ITF M25/M25 Rwanda & M25/M15 Uganda, Sep23-Oct20, 2024

[jayakris]

Karan adds 8 more pts to take his tally to 67 and the ranking up by about 35 spots to right around #545... Adil will move up about 130 spots to inside #840 with 24 total points. The points go in only on Oct 7th.

His 4 points from last week's SF in Tunisia M15 are still not updated in his total. So, he will be at 71 points with ranking around #530.
He has gone F, SF and now SF in last 3 weeks. Nice consistency after some lean period before that.

Ah I forgot the 4 from last week. Yeah, he is doing very well right now. Liked the solid tennis he played in the third sets in the last two matches, after the opponents won the second set TBs to come back on him. Good temperament.

[jayakris]

The seeding worked perfectly in doubles

[SF] (4) Siddhant Banthia (IND)/Sai Karteek Reddy Ganta (IND) l. (1) Benjamin Lock (ZIM)/ Courtney John Lock (ZIM), 46 67(3)
[SF] (3) Pranav Kumar (USA)/ Noah Schachter (USA) l. (2) Corentin Denolly (FRA), Aziz Ouakaa (TUN), 26 67(4)

But who cares for doubles. We Indians play singles, like real men do. As always, we are in the singles SFs and not in some silly doubles finals. Right?... RIGHT?...

[Atithee]

Right.

[jayakris]

[SF] (7) Karan Singh (IND,580) l. (4) Corentin Denolly (FRA,416), 46 16
[SF] Adil Kalyanpur (IND,969) l. (6) Florent Bax (FRA,514), 46 26

Karan went 1/10 on BPs and got broken 4/7... Adil went 0/5 at BPs and was broken 3/6... Combined, they went 1 of 15 at BPs and were broken 9 of 17 on the BPs they served. Serving well to avoid getting broken, was the key and they couldn't do it. It is like vgan mentioned above. You can't get broken and hope to break back against better players out there, it seems. Returning serves was tough with the balls flying around, as vgan had heard from Pranav Karthik. That sorta makes sense.

[jayakris]

Karan, Rishab will be seeded this week, and Adil, Yuvan and Sid-B will also be in the main draw. Rishi Reddy is #5 in the qualies, Muni Ananth Manis is #6, Sai Karteek #10 and Bharath Kumar #11 in the qualies - the first three are in Q2 (final round) and Bharath's Q1 is yet to be done.

[jayakris]

Lots of good qualifying news today!

21 year old Kiruthik Kalyan AS (IND,NR) who had got a retirement at 0-4 from the 3rd seed Spiridon in the Q1 yesterday, went ahead and upset the 16th seed Ethan Denzel Sibanda (ZIM,ITF-1163) 61 63 to make the main draw.

10th seed Sai Karteek Ganta (IND,2055) upset the 4th seed Pranav Kumar (USA,1694) 61 76(2) to qualify.

11th seed Bharath Nishok Kumaran (IND,2079) upset the 7th seed Mehluli Don Ayanda Sibanda (ZIM,1851) to advance too.

6th seed Muni Anath Mani (IND,1851) beat the 9th seed Juan Jose Bianchi (VEN,1935) in a comeback, 67(5) 63 [10-5] to move on!

5th seed Rishi Reddy (IND,1742) beat the 15th seed Vasilios Caripi (RSA,ITF-1138) 62 75 to qualify.

So 5 guys made it in through qualies and join the 5 direct entries in the main draw. How about that? After Aryan withdrew from this week, I expected only 7 or 8 in the MD, unlike the nine last week. Instead we will have 10 in the main draw. Let us hope for a good draw for our guys. The MD is not out yet.

[gunsnroses]

Kiruthik Kalyan AS gets his first ATP point!

[R1] Kiruthik Kalyan AS (IND,NR) d. Muni Ananth Mani (IND,1851) 6-1, 6-2

[jayakris]

^^^ Yes, and he did that in an emphatic manner with that scoreline too!

Here are the matchups and Tuesday scores.

(PR) Rishab Agarwal (IND,965) l. (6) Aziz Ouakaa (TUN,700), 46 16
(Q) Kiruthik Kalyaan AS (IND,NR) d. (Q) Muni Ananth Mani (IND,1848), 61 62
Siddhant Banthia (IND,1354) d. (Q) Arthur Laborde (SUI,ITF-223), 61 76(4)
Yuvan Nandal (IND,1060) vs (1) Max Houkes (NED,282), Wednesday
(Q) Rishi Reddy (IND,1746) vs (Q) Paul Barbier Gazeu (FRA,1437), Wednesday
(5) Karan Singh (IND,562) vs Manuel Plunger (ITA,1402), Wednesday
Adil Kalyanpur (IND,973) vs (Q) Sai Karteek Reddy Ganta (IND,2053), Wednesday
(Q) Bharath Nishok Kumaran (IND,2078) vs (Q) Mattias Southcombe (GBR,2126), Wednesday

Yuvan continues to get no favors at all from these draws ...

And Yuvan and Karan drew the top seeds in doubles too. 26 57 loss to the Lock brothers - Benjamin and Courtney - today. In fact, all three Indian pairs lost today in the first round. Adil/Rishi lost to the 4th seeds Pranav Kumar and Noah Schachter of USA, 63 57 [4-10] and 3rd seeds Sid-B and Sai Karteek lost 67(4) 67(7) to Arthur Laborde (SUI)/ Maximilian Neuchrist (AUT). Four close sets lost in 6 sets. So no Indians in the QFs there. How often does that happen when 6 Indians play doubles at any event?

[Dinesh]

^^^ We’d rather take 6 wins in singles which seems very likely

[jayakris]

R1 results from Tuesday:

Yuvan Nandal (IND,1060) l. (1) Max Houkes (NED,282), 26 36
(Q) Rishi Reddy (IND,1746) l. (Q) Paul Barbier Gazeu (FRA,1437), 36 57
(5) Karan Singh (IND,562) l. Manuel Plunger (ITA,1402), 46 67(1)
(Q) Sai Karteek Reddy Ganta (IND,2053) d. Adil Kalyanpur (IND,973), 61 10
(Q) Bharath Nishok Kumaran (IND,2078) d. (Q) Mattias Southcombe (GBR,2126), 61 63

R2 Matchups:

(Q) Bharath Nishok Kumaran (IND,2078) vs (2) Benjamin Lock (ZIM,348)
(Q) Kiruthik Kalyaan AS (IND,NR) vs (3) Corentin Denolly (FRA,416)
(Q) Sai Karteek Reddy Ganta (IND,2053) vs (8) Maik Steiner (GER,811)
Siddhant Banthia (IND,1354) vs Maximilian Neuchrist (AUT,816)

We will most probably not have anybody in the QFs, so everybody can go to Kampala early.

[arjun2761]

Disappointing effort by Karan after his SF run in the previous week. Hopefully, he can show more consistency going forward to stay at the current level before he moves further up.

[sameerph]

Karan was playing 4th straight week and had played 13 matches in last 3 weeks. As Jay says, playing 4th straight week should be a strict no for our players. Karan should have a taken this week off.

[jayakris]

[R2] (Q) Bharath Nishok Kumaran (IND,2078) l. (2) Benjamin Lock (ZIM,348), 16 26
[R2] (Q) Kiruthik Kalyaan AS (IND,NR) l. (3) Corentin Denolly (FRA,416), 26 26
[R2] Siddhant Banthia (IND,1354) l. Maximilian Neuchrist (AUT,816), 36 26
[R2] (Q) Sai Karteek Reddy Ganta (IND,2053) l. (8) Maik Steiner (GER,811), 36 16

[jayakris]

So the caravan can get to Kampala, Uganda early. Sid Vishwakarma also joins next week for the W25. Nobody played too much this week, and everybody should be fresh to make a run next week. Hope Yuvan, Karan, Sid V, Adil etc would help themselves next week.

[jayakris]

At this week's Kampala M25 entry list, SidV and Karan are there as possibly the 2nd and 3rd seeds. Dev Javia also may get seeded. Yuvan Nandal is a direct entry. Nitin Sinha and Rishi Reddy were listed in the qualies but have made the main draw, it seems.

In the 2-round qualies, our man Maan Kesharwani is the top seed. #4 Bharat Kumaran, #10 Rishit Dakhane, #11 Ritabrata Sarkar, #13 Shourya Manik were the other seeds. Maan, Ritabrata and Shourya are in the Q2... Kiruthik Kalyaan upset Bharat and made the Q2, and Rishabhdev Raman upset the 9th seed Eduard Vlasceanu of Romania to make Q2... Hopefully 2 or 3 will join the 6 guys expected in the main draw.