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

[sameerph]

She lost in the SF.

At W15 Monastir, Tunisia

[SF] (7) Jenniffer Luikham (IND,921) l. (5) Manon Leonard (FRA,746) 16 36

Still she went 1 step higher than as expected by her seeding. So, posted these results.

[Dinesh]

18-yo Nishant Dabas has entered a couple of Aussie ITFs using his top-100 junior ranking exemption and will play his first round main draw match later today at the M15 Caloundra ITF. Upon research, it appears he is part of the Kooyong international tennis academy and that might have enabled him to participate here, as opposed to Sri Lanka/Malaysia.

M15 Caloundra ITF

R1 Nishant Dabas (1642) vs [Q] Alex Bulte (AUS,UNR)

Nishant also secured his first pro doubles win at the ITF level.

R1 Nishant Dabas (UNR)/ Ryotaro Matsumura (JPN,2053) 6-4 1-6 10-7 Colin Sinclair (NMI,507)/David Barclay (AUS,UNR)
QF Nishant Dabas (UNR)/ Ryotaro Matsumura (JPN,2053) vs [4] Dayne Kelly (AUS,1230)/ Calum Puttergill (AUS,421)

[sameerph]

Due to rain even first round matches have not started at this Australia futures where Nishant Dabas is playing.

In the meantime, in womens futures in Tunisia, Vaidehi Chaudhari has reached SF. Jennifer Luikham also reached QF before losing to top seed.

At W15 Monastir, Tunisia

[R1] Jennifer Luikham (IND,868) d. (5) Elena Milovanovic (SRB,740) 64 62
[R1] (2) Vaidehi Chaudhari (IND,629) d. Julita Saner (SWE,897) 76(3) 61
[R2] Jennifer Luikham (IND,868) d. Camilla Gennaro (ITA,NR) 62 36 76(7)
[R2] (2) Vaidehi Chaudhari (IND,629) d. Zdena Safarova (CZE,NR) 63 63

[QF] Jennifer Luikham (IND,868) l. (1) Zeynep Sonmez (TUR,504) 26 26
[QF] (2) Vaidehi Chaudhari (IND,629) d. (7) Sijia Wei (CHN,864) 67(6) 61 63

Next,

[SF] (2) Vaidehi Chaudhari (IND,629) vs. (7) Dayeon Back (KOR,844)

[Dinesh]

Niki Poonacha also reached QF in singles and SF in doubles (w/ 21yo Rithvik Choudary Bolipalli - junior at Univ of South Florida) this week at the M15 Monastir, Tunisia ITF. Next week, he will continue in Tunisia whilst a few lower ranked Indian players (incl. 14yo Manas Dhamne) will be vying for a main draw berth.

[sameerph]

Vaidehi makes it to the final in Tunisia.

At W15 Monastir, Tunisia

[SF] (2) Vaidehi Chaudhari (IND,629) d. (7) Dayeon Back (KOR,844) 63 76(11)

Next,

[F] (2) Vaidehi Chaudhari (IND, 629) vs. Priska Madelyn Nugroho(INA, 945)

[sameerph]

Vaidehi lost in the final in Tunisia.

At W15 Monastir, Tunisia

[F] (2) Vaidehi Chaudhari (IND, 629) l. Priska Madelyn Nugroho(INA, 945) 36 61 46

[Dinesh]

Niki Poonacha has reached QF (singles) and SF (doubles) once again at the Monastir (Tunisia) M15 Futures.

R1 Niki Poonacha (989) 6-7 6-2 6-2 [6] Cyril Vandermeersch (FRA, 780)
R2 Niki Poonacha (989) 6-4 1-6 6-3 [Q] Jakub Kroslak (SVK, UNR)
QF Niki Poonacha (989) versus [1] Skander Mansouri (TUN,316)

In the doubles draw, Niki and Rithvik Choudary upset the 2nd seeds today in the QF to reach the next round. This is their 3rd consecutive semifinals at this stage.

[sameerph]

Niki lost against top seed retired while being 26 12 down.

[Dinesh]

Jennifer Luikham has reached the SF at the $15K Monastir ITF this week.

R1 Jennifer Luikham (836) 6-1 6-4 Ela Nala Milic (SLO,UNR)
R2 Jennifer Luikham (836) 6-3 7-6 Shrivalli Rashmikaa Bhamidipaty (784)
QF Jennifer Luikham (836) 6-4 6-1 Maria Vittoria Viviani (ITA,1047)
SF Jennifer Luikham (836) versus (1) Xinxin Yao (CHN,646)

Good luck to Jennifer!

[sameerph]

Jennifer lost in the SF against top seed.

At W15 Monastir, Tunisia

[SF] Jennifer Luikham (IND,836) l. (1) Xinxin Yao (CHN,646) 36 36

[jayakris]

Anybody remembers Aditya Balsekar who won a J5 in Bangladesh in late 2019? ... Well, he has reappeared and is having a really good run in Mexico. He is 19 now and turns 20 in a couple of months.

At the M15 in Cancun (hard), Mexico

[Q1] Aditya Vishal Balsekar (IND,NR) d. Armando Acuna (MEX,NR), 60 60
[Q1] Aditya Vishal Balsekar (IND,NR) d. Lazar Markovic (USA, ITF/1724), 57 75 (10-5)
[Q1] Aditya Vishal Balsekar (IND,NR) d. Ronan Joncour (FRA,1367), 46 62 (10-7)
[R1] (Q) Aditya Vishal Balsekar (IND,NR) d. Gabriel Evans (USA,1180 & ITF/143), 06 75 32 RET.
[R2] (Q) Aditya Vishal Balsekar (IND,NR) d. (8) Alejandro Mendoza (BOL,884), 76(7) 64
[QF] (Q) Aditya Vishal Balsekar (IND,NR) vs (3) Jorge Brian Panta (PER,576)

It turns out that he had left India just after the pandemic hit (very timely decision) and started playing for a lower-ranked college program at the Radford University in USA. He has been there for a couple of years and has been doing fine. Looks like he has used the time to improve himself a bit. The coach they had at Radford must have been good. I saw that he was just hired away by another University.

He had qualified last week also at Cancun with 3 good wins, but lost 46 57 to a top-900 player. The scores above show some pretty good fight and determination in the guy. I am going to keep an eye on him. He is 6-1 and looks decently built too (one of the things I look for). He is definitely playing at a top-800 level, which is not bad for somebody to get to before age 20.

[sameerph]

Yes, really nice run out of nowhere. Not heard too much about this guy earlier. He was not among top 3 or top 5 Indian juniors certainly. So, clearly his game has much improved with his college stint. Will keep an eye on him now.

[jayakris]

I was watching it this week. When he won the Q2, I thought, "hmmm, what is that?"... When he won the Q3, I thought "huh? WTF?"... Then he won the R1, and I thought "isn't that nice, he got his first ATP points too, lucky dude!" (as the other guy retired late in the 3rd set). Then he went and upset the 8th seed in straight sets, and now I just had to take him seriously!

This is an interesting run, for sure. To be clear, I don't think I have seen an Indian player win 6 matches in a row in one event at the pro level... So, I won't hold it against him if he doesn't pull off yet another upset in the QF

[jayakris]

As of now, among Indians under the age of 20, Aditya and only 2 other guys have 2 or more ATP points (talented 18 year old Nishant Dabas and 19 year old Karan Singh), but Aditya is the only one under 20 with a win over a top-1000 ATP player.

[jayakris]

At the W15 in Monastir, Tunisia (hard)

[R1] (5) Jennifer Luikham (IND,789) d. Feryel Ben Hassen (TUN, ITF/1544), 63 61
[R2] (5) Jennifer Luikham (IND,789) d. Na Dong (CHN, ITF/1274), 75 62
[QF] (5) Jennifer Luikham (IND,789) d. Hwiwon Wi (KOR, 986) 62 62
[SF] (5) Jennifer Luikham (IND,789) vs Anastasia Iamachkine (PER,982)