Yuki Bhambri

[knarayen]

Nobody knows what's happening with Yuki. Whatever it is, I hope the medical solution works once and for all.

Watched Lucas Pouille play utterly superb tennis in the second set (especially the tiebreak) on the way to a 4-set victory over Raonic which took him to the Australian Open singles semifinal. And, of course, it reminded me of the consummate ease with which Yuki defeated Pouille 64 64 at Indian Wells last year -- at a time when Pouille was at his career-high ranking of 10 (he is now ranked 30!). And of course I was also reminded of how Yuki met Raonic at Queen's Club, and conceded after losing the first 1-6.

Yuki's body has failed to cooperate with his career. We have had brief glimpses of brilliance amid piles and piles of injury and recovery time. It has been a tragic career so far. I hope the doctors are taking really good care to ensure he comes back from this latest injury for a serious career now.

I hope Yuki recovers from his injuries. His win over Pouille last year at Indian Wells was (I hoped at that time) a turning point in his career. It is clear that his body is not able to sustain the level of play needed to win at that level. Both body and game needs attention from a really good coach - and our very own AITA sadly can do nothing to help. Oh yes, they will make excuses and they will blame Yuki for the same. Great spin masters the AITA have always been and will continue to be.

We all know what is really needed - funding for a world-class physio and coach for at least one full year of travel on the international circuit. This would be befitting for a national champion at that time and must in fact be provided for all 4 DC players all the time.

The Gunner will be facing the same problem soon - and we dont have cross-sport collaboration in India in these and other critical areas. Coach Gopinath in Badminton and Captain Kohli in Cricket can surely help if approached in the right way. This is squarely in the hands of the AITA.

Prof

[arjun2761]

The Gunner will be facing the same problem soon - and we dont have cross-sport collaboration in India in these and other critical areas. Coach Gopinath in Badminton and Captain Kohli in Cricket can surely help if approached in the right way. This is squarely in the hands of the AITA.

Unless you mean financially, I am not sure our cricketers or badminton players are all that fit. Srikanth has had injury issues of his own, for example. Also badminton players play fewer weeks and typically shorter matches with a feather weight shuttle so the impact on the body is less. Likewise, perhaps outside of fast bowlers, cricket is mostly a skill sport and not sure that any of the cricketers would be considered all that fit in the world of professional tennis.

The Gunner has had injury issues in the past but he seems to have figured out a formula to stay fit and improve his game at the same time. Keeping my fingers crossed that he has a nice 2-3 year run where he can maximize his potential.

[knarayen]

The Gunner will be facing the same problem soon - and we dont have cross-sport collaboration in India in these and other critical areas. Coach Gopinath in Badminton and Captain Kohli in Cricket can surely help if approached in the right way. This is squarely in the hands of the AITA.

Unless you mean financially, I am not sure our cricketers or badminton players are all that fit. Srikanth has had injury issues of his own, for example. Also badminton players play fewer weeks and typically shorter matches with a feather weight shuttle so the impact on the body is less. Likewise, perhaps outside of fast bowlers, cricket is mostly a skill sport and not sure that any of the cricketers would be considered all that fit in the world of professional tennis.

The Gunner has had injury issues in the past but he seems to have figured out a formula to stay fit and improve his game at the same time. Keeping my fingers crossed that he has a nice 2-3 year run where he can maximize his potential.

Each sport has its own unique requirements for fitness - at a world class level there is much to be shared between sports though. The Australian Academy of Sport recognizes this and incorporates cross-training into its athlete development across all sports with their elite athletes. I studied Sports Science and became certified with the USPTA and have built fitness into my tennis teaching - I speak from this experience.

Cricketers and badminton players at the world class level are far fitter than most people are aware. Kohli is supremely fit, even more than Dhoni who is a bit older, and the younger cricket players are in much better shape than I remember. This is why we are world leaders in cricket.

I was speaking in this context - maybe I am being a bit simplistic but I find that in India we pay lip service to these issues - other countries have invested heavily in the fitness of their athletes in their respective sports and recognize, as I have, that they cannot leave each athlete to his/her own devices with regard to fitness. There needs to be a dedicated fitness coach and tennis skills coach. We do not provide this for our tennis players, and we pay a price for the same.

Prof

[sameerph]

Interview of Yuki's coach Stephen Koon in Mumbai Mirror-

Yuki Bhambri can do wonders if he plays a full year on tour

No indication yet as to when is he likely to get back. His PR will kick off only after mid-April and in any case it will only be around 120-125 which will only get him into challengers.

[RohitG]

Bhambri didn’t have good enough physical strength and conditioning when he was young. So when he turned professional, he had to play catch up. If you look closely at his career, he hasn’t had the same injury twice. His current knee injuries are a consequence of having the Osgood-Schlatter syndrome (a form of knee pain) when he was young.

From the article, lack of conditioning in his junior days and playing catch up. Sums it up and makes sense why this is happening time and time again. This should be a case study for every coach at the junior level in India, where a guy of Yuki's caliber, who can read the game so well and his shot selection are great but he is held back due to his injuries.

If Yuki's PR is going to be 125-ish, then probably it's better if he stays back and plays from May-November which is still a decent 6-7 months of competition, especially November where you have local challengers. He has 48 points falling off from Chennai Challenger finals, followed by 102 in March courtesy the run at Indian Wells and Miami and 125 points off on 15th April from the Taipei title. He has 365 points now and with a ranking of 152 and lack of match practice and sharpness, I doubt he will be able to defend the March-April points. With nothing much to defend in 2nd half of the year, if he can get some good 3-4 weeks, he can try to get at least close to his PR by end of the year and build on from next season. Plus a shortened season can be a blessing in disguise with lesser strain on his body, regular work which he is putting on fitness and a decent off season can help him get back in the top-100 in 2020 as he won't have to defend anything in the first half

[sameerph]

True, as of now earliest Yuki can think of returning is in March. As you say, if he is not fully back to form in the first couple of months since return, then there is danger of falling outside top 300-350 and not even being able to play challengers after May. Then, it will be a long haul back without PR especially in the new system where futures point do not count for ATP rankings.

Also with his PR, he ensures that he plays qualies at next 4 slams at least.

He made a mistake playing just 1 ATP tournament in October when he was obviously far from being fit. If he had not played that, he could have been back in March with a better PR rank.

Anyway, now it is better to wait for a month more to ensure that a decent PR remains with him for next 9 months.

[arjun2761]

Good to see Yuki persist with his plans. Outside of his serve, he has a solid top 100 game and should move up pretty quickly at the challenger level if he comes back fit. To succeed at the ATP level, though he will need to figure out a way to improve his serve as his first ball striking after the serve is already very good and there probably isn't much room for improvement there.

[PKBasu]

So it does look as if he will take 6 months off and come back with a PR.
The only problem with this is that all his big points will drop out before his return -- the two Masters at Indian Wells and Miami, and the Taipei Challenger title are all points that fall off in March and early April. He will come back with just 80 points in his ATP kitty (implying a ranking of around 335). He will have to use his PR to enter most tournaments unless he can get some wildcards. A very tough road back.

[arjun2761]

So it does look as if he will take 6 months off and come back with a PR.
The only problem with this is that all his big points will drop out before his return -- the two Masters at Indian Wells and Miami, and the Taipei Challenger title are all points that fall off in March and early April. He will come back with just 80 points in his ATP kitty (implying a ranking of around 335). He will have to use his PR to enter most tournaments unless he can get some wildcards. A very tough road back.

The real issue with him is fitness and injury prevention. If he is fit and injury free, he will win at the challenger pretty quickly and get back inside the top 150 probably by the end of the year. Plus he will have 9 PR tournaments (although he will probably reserve 3 of those for the GS qualies) which will help him come back. Beyond that he showed in IW/Miami 2018 that the could compete at the ATP tour as well but the grind of those tournaments essentially did him in as far as his latest set of injuries...

[sameerph]

So it does look as if he will take 6 months off and come back with a PR.
The only problem with this is that all his big points will drop out before his return -- the two Masters at Indian Wells and Miami, and the Taipei Challenger title are all points that fall off in March and early April. He will come back with just 80 points in his ATP kitty (implying a ranking of around 335). He will have to use his PR to enter most tournaments unless he can get some wildcards. A very tough road back.

Ranking of 335 will still be good enough to get into challenger draw in Asian in late April/May when number of challengers are high. There are 3 challengers in Korea/1 each in Uzbekistan/Kazakhstan ( and 2 in China on clay before that if he returns in mid April). So, he can play perhaps 2 weeks of challengers before French open qualies without having to use his PR. Hopefully get into 1-2 challengers in June too on grass ( although note sure if 335 will be good enough for that.

After June of course, his regular ranking will fall a lot ( unless he has immediate success after being back on tour.

Still, with around 12 or so tournaments, 3 + 9 with PR, he should get back into top 200-250 at least if he is fit. Key for him is to remain fit.

[vparam]

Any updates on a possible return date for Yuki?

[sameerph]

No idea. He has been seen doing all kind of physical exercises in his insta updates, even lifting heavy weights in recent update. Wonder if he can do all those things, why he cannot play tennis. He does not seem to have held a tennis racket yet.

[sportsfan]

Any updates on a possible return date for Yuki?

diddly-squat, other than that he was busy doing squats today

[RohitG]

No press release and no relevant post on twitter related to his injury status, scheduling or whatsoever. If Yuki interacts more with his fans and develops a base, perhaps that might help him more with sponsorship too. Leander has over a million twitter followers, Somdev about ~100k. Yuki too can have a base of 100k. You don't necessarily have to post about tennis either, look at Stefanos, he posts about his travels..

[arjun2761]

No idea. He has been seen doing all kind of physical exercises in his insta updates, even lifting heavy weights in recent update. Wonder if he can do all those things, why he cannot play tennis. He does not seem to have held a tennis racket yet.

Of course, doing these exercises is strengthening his muscles whereas playing tennis would stress some of the same muscles. Presumably, this means that he does not feel he is fit enough to play competitive tennis at this time.

I guess he could have a light hit or play recreational tennis but I suspect that Yuki will find his tennis strokes quite quickly once he starts playing so the bigger issue with him is staying fit once he starts playing competitively again.