[Tennis] Misc. Results for Indians abroad...

[sameerph]

Again the same issues of an Indian player not able to capitalise on a good upset.

At M15 Monastir 23A, Tunisia

[R1] (WC) Siddhant Banthia (IND,1266) l. Eliakim Couliabaly (CIV,965) 36 46

[Dinesh]

But the Ivory Coast player has won a title and finished as a finalist in the same venue in the last couple of months. He certainly had an upper hand.

[sameerph]

Siddhant Banthia went on to win doubles title with his Korean partner Uisung Park. They upset the top seeds in the semi final and got a walkover in the final.

[PKBasu]

Again the same issues of an Indian player not able to capitalise on a good upset.

At M15 Monastir 23A, Tunisia

[R2] (WC) Siddhant Banthia (IND,1266) l. Eliakim Couliabaly (CIV,965) 36 46

I presume this is R2, after beating Duck-hee Lee in R1. You labelled this R1 as well, which was confusing...

Perhaps stamina (and ability to bounce back quickly from a previous match) are issues that Banthia isn't dealing with well, which is why it has taken him 3 years to start playing 3rd and 2nd singles for his US university side (which isn't among the top teams anyway). College offers a good place to work on things like this, but perhaps he is also focusing on academics.

[sameerph]

Again the same issues of an Indian player not able to capitalise on a good upset.

At M15 Monastir 23A, Tunisia

[R2] (WC) Siddhant Banthia (IND,1266) l. Eliakim Couliabaly (CIV,965) 36 46

I presume this is R2, after beating Duck-hee Lee in R1. You labelled this R1 as well, which was confusing...

Perhaps stamina (and ability to bounce back quickly from a previous match) are issues that Banthia isn't dealing with well, which is why it has taken him 3 years to start playing 3rd and 2nd singles for his US university side (which isn't among the top teams anyway). College offers a good place to work on things like this, but perhaps he is also focusing on academics.

Yes, that was R2. This week he lost in first round of qualifying itself.

[jayakris]

At the W15 in Monastir, TUN

[Q1] (2) Asmitha Easwaramurthy (IND,1140/790) BYE
[Q1] (3) Humera Baharamus (IND,1237/597) BYE
[Q1] (5) Bhuvana Kalva (IND,1364/721) BYE
[Q1] Vasanti Shinde (IND), NR/1987) d. (8) Darya Lebesheva (RUS,NR/1084), 63 64
[Q1] Renne Singla (IND), NR/2168) l. Margaux Komano (FRA, NR/1644), 46 36
[Q2] (5) Bhuvana Kalva (IND,1364/721) d. Amal Gati (TUN, NR/1382) 60 61
[Q2] (2) Asmitha Easwaramurthy (IND,1140/790) l. Elina Zakharova (RUS,NR/NR), 57 06
[Q2] (3) Humera Baharamus (IND,1237/597) l. Maria Gabriela Rivera Corado (GUA,NR/1228), 64 67(6) [3]
[Q2] Vasanti Shinde (IND), NR/1987) l. Margaux Komano (FRA,NR/1644), 16 36
[Q3] (5) Bhuvana Kalva (IND,1364/721) d. Julia Traub (GER,NR/NR)

In the main draw,
[R1] (Q) Bhuvana Kalva (IND,1364/721) vs (8) Jazmin Ortenzi (ARG,657/32)
[R1] (WC) Smriti Bhasin (IND), NR/2002) vs Anastasia Nefedova (USA,576/283)

Man, look at the struggles of our girls who must all be out of playing shape... They have to go to Tunisia to play a lowly 15K event, and not even make the main draw. 2nd seed Ashmitha losing in the first match to an unranked Russian. Humera losing in the first match to a lowly player from Guatemala in an STB. Covid has simply destroyed the tennis plans of so many Indians. I feel bad for them. How long will it take for us to recover from all the lost time?

Most of them were there at Monastir for a W15 last week as well. Humera had direct entry and lost 26 06 to Indian-American Raveena Kingsley in the first round (Raveen made QF). Smriti Bhasin had a Q1 win. That was about it. No hope...

[sameerph]

Some of our men- Rishab Agarwal, Adil Kalyanpur, Siddhnath Banthia have been also playing in Monastir 15K's for past few weeks. They all have to go thru qualifying. This week only Rishab qualified for the main draw and now gets top seed in first round.

Last week Siddhant qualfied thru and made it to the second round. A couple of weeks back, Rishab made it to the QF.

But, it has been tough grind for these players in absence of tournaments in India and Asia.

[jayakris]

^^^ Yeah, I was going to see if I should compile the results from men. Nah, too many losses. Leave it there.

It is really sad to see these guys having to go to places like Tunisia (not really the worst place or anything, but still far away from home) to get a break. The problem is, others are also struggling and trying their hardest to survive in the circuit. Covid has been really hard on these lower-rung players. I give them all credit for hanging in there and trying.

[jayakris]

NINE Indian guys were in the first round of qualies at the M15 in Monastir, Tunisia this sweekend... Rishabh Agrawal (4th seed in Q), Adil Kalyanpur (10th seed in Q), Rishi Reddy, Bharath Nishok Kumaran, Harsh Raghav, Boopathy Sakthivel, Babji Siva Atturu, Kavin Masilamani, Dheraj Kodancha Sreenivasan.

Only the first four, who were the highest ranked ones, reached Q2. Two more rounds to select 8 qualifiers into the main draw of a low-rated M15. Oh boy, the grind these guys have to do, with no events held in India!! I feel for them.

[Kumar]

I think this COVID was looked at as an opportunity by some top notch athletes
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/30/spor ... ining.html

Crouser is one of many athletes across sports, from track and field to swimming to baseball, who have performed as well or better than ever despite the hardships imposed by the global pandemic. They say they have channeled the frustration of forced shutdowns into opportunity, and that they feel refreshed by increased rest, less exhaustive travel, enhanced focus on training, healed injuries, creative improvisation and a less stressful perspective about sport.

Lot of the examples talk about sports where one can work on their technique and improve without contact with others
I remember even Shubman Gill mentioned working on playing rising ball during the lockdown.

I guess Tennis is probably one sport that is extremely difficult if u don’t get good hitting partners. And I guess withour very stringent lockdown rules, the opportunity that other countries had was simply off limits to our kids.

[jayakris]

At the Monastir (TUN) M15, only the Q 4th seed Adil Kalyanpur made the Q3, with an STB win over unseeded Matthew Dellavedova (AUS)... 4th seed Rishabh Agarwal fell to Indian-American Ishaan Ravichander in an STB... Bharath Kumaran lost to 6th seed Kyle Seeling (USA) and Rishi Reddy lost to an unseeded Argentinian Matteo Martinez, with very poor straight set scores.

In the Q2 of the W15 at Monsatir (TUN), 4th seed Bhuvana Kalva beat unseeded Emma Kette (GBR) easily and faces the 6th seeded Indian-American Shria Atturu in the final qualies.

At the W15 in Ourense, Spain (hard), Rutuja Bhosale (IND,479) is in the main draw and plays Yvonne Cavalle-Reimers (ESP,395) in the first round... In the qualies there, Sowjanya Bavisetti (IND,624) was the 6th seed. She double-bagelled unranked Mariana Galvao Borges (BRA) in Q1 but then got upset by the 15th seed Nahia Berecoechea (FRA,1131) 16 61 [4-10] in the final qualies. So no luck for her either.

[jayakris]

In the Q3 of the W15 at Monsatir (TUN), (4) Bhuvana Kalva lost to (6) Shria Atturu (USA) 61 67 [4-10], but she made it in as LL and plays Saki Imamura (JPN)... Also in the main draw, Humera Baharmus plays 7th seed Ramu Ueda, and Ashmitha Easwaramurthi plays Chiraz Bechri (TUN)

In the Q3 of the M15 at Monastir (TUN), (10) Adil Kalyanpur lost to (7) Yuta Kawahashi (JPN), 16 16 (yikes!) but he also made it in as an LL and plays 5th seed gage Brymer (USA,526) in the R1.

[jayakris]

At the W15 in Ourense, Spain (hard), Rutuja Bhosale (IND,479) lost to Yvonne Cavalle-Reimers (ESP,395), 36 16 today... Actually, she was a up a break at serving at 3-2 in the first but then lost 10 of the next 11 games. That was that. Also, Sowjanya Bavisetti and Sakura Hosogi (JPN) lost to the 4th seed Marina Bassols-Ribera (ESP) and Jacqueline Cabaj-Awad (SWE), 36 46 yesterday. The end there for them. Rutuja didn't try double there.

At the W15 at Monsatir, Tunisia, Humera Baharmus lost to 7th seed Ramu Ueda, 06 36 today... Ashmitha Easwaramurthi lost to Chiraz Bechri (TUN), 26 06... Lucky loser Bhuvana Kalva just retired injured when down 1-3 in the first set to Saki Imamura (JPN)

At the M15 at Monastir (TUN), Lucky loser Adil Kalyanpur lost to the 5th seed Gage Brymer (USA,526), 26 26 in the first round.

Argh ... These players are all so out of form that none of them can seem to offer even a semblance of a fight these days.

[jayakris]

Earlier this week at the M15 in Monastir (Tunisia), none of the men made it through the qualifiers but they all seemed to play a little better in their losses. 16th seed Rioshi Reddy reached the Q3 and lost to the second seed Saitoh (JPN). Bharath Kumaran upset the 5th seeded Michael Zhu (USA) and took out a Japanese before losing to an Aussie in Q3. Ajay Pruthvi Nemakal made it to Q2 and lost to the top seed. Kavin Masilamani and Boopathy Sakthivel lost in Q1 but not by near-bagel scores or anything.

At the W15 in Monsatir, #1237 Humera Baharmus lost in R1 to 26 57 to Nana Kawagishi (JPN,1269)... #1098 Sravya Shivani Chilakalapudi beat a low-ranked Columbian in a tight 3-setter and retired in the R2 against the 5th seeeded Bolovian, Noelia Zeballos Melgar. Humera and Kawagishi lost the QF to the 2nd seeded Korean player. Sravya and Sharmada Balu lost in the QF to a 3rd seeded Japanese pair.

It's quite amazing that so many lower-ranked players from so mony countries have gone to Tunisia. Not too many places where they could go.

At the W15 in Vigo (Spain), #480 Rutuja Bhosale beat Alba Rey Garcia (ESP,940), 63 60 and then fell in the R2 to the top seed Conny Perrin (SUI,255), 36 16... Rutuja and Ya-Hsuan Lee (TPE) were 2nd seeds in doubles but got upset in the QF... in Sowjanya Bavisetti was the 3rd seed in Q but lost rather cheaply in the Q2 against a 15 seeded Serbian. Sowjanya and Sakura Hosogi (JPN) lost in the QF to the third seeds.

[PKBasu]

Remember Rashmi Teltumbde? She was a promising junior around the same time as Yuki was surging to the top on the boys side. She reached 81 in the junior rankings when she was 16+ (early 2009) and 958 in the pro rankings when she was 17 (Nov 2009). She made R2 of the AO girls singles in 2010, and then went to Texas Tech where she did quite well in college tennis, winning Big-12 honors (particularly in doubles). Sadly, she didn't really pursue a tennis career beyond that (never making it past her 2009 ranking in 2014-16), instead going on to IIM-Ahmedabad, and joining a consulting firm thereafter.

She and my daughter (who is 3 years younger) are now colleagues in an American management consultancy. Both of them are based in Singapore and have been working on the same project (but different pieces of it). Amid all the Covid restrictions, they hadn't really met socially until last week, but that's when they exchanged notes about Rashmi's tennis past...I notice that Rashmi's Texas Tech bio also mentions that she is the great-granddaughter of Dr. BR Ambedkar, father of India's Constitution.