Yuki Bhambri

[knarayen]

Do any of you remember any Indians ever making even a semifinal of a tennis event EVER in Korea?

Why do our players do poorly in South Korea? This is a question for reporters from the Indian Tennis Daily to ask our current players during their interviews. @vishnu @vatsal ??

Interesting observation - keen to know the answer myself too. it may simply be a coincidence - poor scheduling where players are not prepared could be another reason.

[RohitG]

I managed to find these:

2011- Divij & Purav- Runners Up (Seoul Challenger)
2012- Yuki and Divij- Winners (Busan Challenger)
2016- Leander and Sam Groth- Winners (Busan Challenger)

Difficult to find SF appearances but at least these count.

[jayakris]

Ah, so LP did win something in Korea in the end. I forgot about the challenger doubles title in 2016. I remembered Yuki/Divij's in 2012. But these are still pretty few. Anyway the singles futility, where nobody seems to have ever reached a futures, challenger, or ATP/WTA semifinal in Korea is what I was focusing on. Doubles hasn't been much better either. But to be fair, Indians tend not to go to Korea much, for whatever reason. I don't know why. It's a great place, and probably among the friendliest places in the world where they are also pretty efficient in running the events and taking care of details. I don't remember Indians ever planning on a good 3 or 4 week trip to Korea. It is always a one or two week quick trip squeezed in the middle of some other regular plans, perhaps added as an afterthought or something. And it often shows.

[Prashant]

Is the sample size large enough for this to be significant?

[arjun2761]

Agree that the sample size is probably quite small to be significant. One possible reason could be that Indians don't do as well in cooler climes of Japan, Korea, and perhaps Northern China as do in the warmer climes such as Southern China, HK, Taiwan, Thailand etc.

[VReddy]

Do any of you remember any Indians ever making even a semifinal of a tennis event EVER in Korea?

Why do our players do poorly in South Korea? This is a question for reporters from the Indian Tennis Daily to ask our current players during their interviews. @vishnu @vatsal ??

Good observation. Korea just never stuck in my mind as much probably because we don't have a series of multi-week events lined up there with our top players playing? Interesting observation though.

I really hope UTR adds this dimension (country) into its player ratings. Would be good to check for these anomalies. If I get a chance to ever interview Stephen, I will request that feature for sure!

[sameerph]

So, after the first round loss at French open, this looks like Yuki's schedule for grass season based on entry lists-

June 4- $150K Surbitron Challenger - Should be among top 4-5 seeds
June 11- s-Hertogenbosch ATP 250,Netherlands, 6 out from main draw, in the qualifying list too
June 18- Queen's Club ATP 500, in the qualifying entry list
June 25- Either at Antalya or Eastborune ATP 250, He is 9 out from Antalya and 16 out from Eastbourne.

So, after Surbitron he seems to be playing tougher ATP tournaments.

[PKBasu]

It's good to see that Yuki has entered all those tournaments. Of course, it is highly unlikely that he will play all four weeks. But it would be good if he plays 3 -- Surbiton Challenger, denBosch (assuming he makes the main draw), and Antalya (where he is likelier to make the main draw than Eastbourne).

[Rajiv]

Yuki should be making it to the MD of most of them barring Queen's probably , As these Grass Courts ATP's the entry cut drops dramatically and many years ago even LP, Rohan, Prakash have made it to the MD in one of them even when their rankings didn't permit originally , and Yuki being ranked much higher should not be having problem's making the MD , But will he play 4 weeks in row in run up to Wimby is another question.

[sameerph]

I too don't think he will and should play all 4 weeks. I think he will be skip either 1 of week 3 or 4 i.e Queens or Antalya week.

[sameerph]

Yuki is now just 1 out from denBosch ATP main draw next week. Hopefully he gets in the next 2-3 days. Would be a good chance to test his skills on grass at a higher level after this week at Surbitron.

He also entered the qualies at Antalya which confirms his entry there. So, now his schedule looks like this for grass season before Wimbledon.

June 4- $150K Surbitron Challenger - Should be among top 4-5 seeds
June 11- s-Hertogenbosch ATP 250,Netherlands, 6 out from main draw, in the qualifying list too
June 18- Queen's Club ATP 500, in the qualifying entry list
June 25- Antalya ATP 250, 9 out from main draw, in qualies list.

Most probably he will skip the Queens week in between, I think.

[PKBasu]

Yes, if he wins a round or two at DenBosch, there'll be little need to play the Queen's Club qualifiers. I suspect he'll get into the Antalya main draw the following week anyway.

[sameerph]

Yuki now makes the main draw of DenBosch ATP next week. Hope he wins a round or two at ATP main draw level next week.

[PKBasu]

Interesting side light: Yuki has played Marco Cecchinato (the French Open semifinalist) once — at the Chennai Open on 31st December 2016 (ie, the 2017 Chennai Open), and Yuki won 75 61.

[kishash]

How one hopes Yuki very soon has a breakthrough big tournament like Cecchinato has at this French open!