Pranjala Yadlapalli thread

[sameerph]

And Pranjala continued her excellent progress in the junior career when she won the grade B1 Asian closed junior championships today in Delhi beating the top seed Chinese Wushuang Zheng in the final.

She also won the doubles title yesterday along with the Chinese.

180 points from the singles title and 30 (120/4) from doubles title would mean 210 points would replace her current 75 points from last year's championships with a net addition of 135 points.

This would take here very close top top 20 in the ITF junior rankings next Monday. She will go ahead of career high rankings of Sanaa, Isha etc. and will probably equal Sania's career high ranking of 21. With more than 2 years still left in her junior career, Pranjala is certain to achieve the highest ever junior ranking by an Indian girl.

Go Pranjala.

[suresh]

Congratulations for Pranjala. She should aim to get to the top-10 in the juniors.

[PKBasu]

Fabulous stuff! Congratulations to Pranjala. She must play all three remaining Slams this year and (all four) next year, to gain experience of what it's like to feel the Slam pressure.

[Sin Hombre]

Congratulations for Pranjala. She should aim to get to the top-10 in the juniors.

She should aim to be #1

[sameerph]

Pranjala is now ranked 22 in the ITF junior ranking just 1 behind the Chinese whom she beat in the Asian junior championships. She is third among Asians behind 2 Chinese ( one of whom is world no.1) and fifth among 1999 born players or younger.

It looks focus for her in next couple of months would be on junior tour in Europe. She said she will be training for next 3 weeks and will play the warm up tournaments in Europe on clay before French open. So, it looks like it will be grade 1 in Italy next for her starting from May 11 followed by Grade A tournament in Italy and Astrid Bowl grade 1 in Belgium before French open.

[ankit1407]

has any one seen her play? How good is she?

[sameerph]

I have seen her play but that was more than 2 years back when she was not yet 14 in a Mumbai ITF juniors final. She already had some spark at that time but there must have been a lot of changes in her game now as she is slightly above 16.

[prashanthm]

37° Torneo Mauro Sabatini, Grade 1, Clay

Tame loss in the 2nd round of both Singles and Doubles for Pranjala after getting first round byes...

Clay is probably not her best surface...

[R2] Katarina ZAVATSKA (UKR) 6-3 6-4 Pranjala YADLAPALLI (IND) [3]

[R2] Ena BABIC (CRO) / Simona WALTERT (SUI) 6-2 6-4 Pranjala YADLAPALLI (IND) / Wushuang ZHENG (CHN) [1]

[sameerph]

Pranjala is now ranked 19th in the ITF junior rankings. This is the best ever ranking achieved by an Indian girl since combined ranking were introduced by ITF in 2004.

As per Kamesh Srinivasan, these were the best rankings achieved by Indian juniors -

Sania Mirza - 20
Sanaa Bhambri - 31
Ratnika Batra - 39
Tara Iyer- 45
Rutuja Bhosale -54
Snehadevi Reddy - 59

of the above, apart from Sania, others have not been able to do much on WTA tour. Of course, Rutuja, Ratnika and Snehadevi still have time on their side. But, Pranjala does appear to be having the best chance being only 16 and still having couple of years left in juniors.

She is coached by Ilyas Ghouse at GVK acadamy in Hyderabad.

[sameerph]

With Sumit pulling out, Pranjala is the only Indian playing in Grade 1 in Roehampton which is the only warm-up event on grass before Wimbledon juniors.

She started with an easy win against local wild card.

At Nike Junior International Roehampton (Grade 1- Grass)

[R1] Pranjala YADLAPALLI (IND,19) d. (WC) Ema LAZIC (GBR,149) 61 63

Next,

[R2] Pranjala YADLAPALLI (IND,19) vs. Kayla DAY (USA,59)

[sameerph]

At Nike Junior International Roehampton (Grade 1- Grass)


[R2] Pranjala YADLAPALLI (IND,19) l. Kayla DAY (USA,59) 46 36

So, not a good start on grass for Pranjala. Both Pranjala and Sumit will now play Wimbledon juniors starting this weekend.

[PKBasu]

Well, at least she beat one British player on grass. Not a complete waste of a warm-up tournament before the big one!

[sameerph]

Pranjala is playing the under 16 WTA future stars tournament this week on the sidelines of WTA finals at Singapore.( the one which Karman won last year). In the same tournament Mahek Jain is playing in the under 14 section.

Both are seeded second in their respective category and these are their results so far -

WTA U16 Future Stars Event

Round Robin matches -

Pranjala Yadlapalli d. Tru Phuong Ngyuen 6-0, 6-1
Pranjala Yadlapalli d.Ya-Yun Pai 6-1, 6-4

QF- (2) Pranjala Yadlapalli (IND) d. Meiqi Guo (CHN) 6-2, 6-2


WTA U14 Future Stars Event

Round Robin matches -

Mahak Jain d. Ira Rawat 6-1, 6-1
Mahak Jain d. Pabou Phothisomephone walkover

QF- (2) Mahak Jain (IND) d. Sara Nayar (MAS) 6-2, 6-2

[sameerph]

Pranjala is thru to the final of WTA futures stars under 16 final but Mahek lost in the under 14 semi final.

WTA U16 Future Stars Event

[SF] (2) Pranjala Yadlapalli (IND) d. Thasaporn Naklo (Tha) 6-3, 6-2.

[F] (2) Pranjala Yadlapalli (IND) vs. (3) Hye Ran Yun (KOR)

WTA U14 Future Stars Event

[SF] Jiayu Chu (Chn) bt Mahak Jain (IND) 7-6(8), 6-2.

[Daniel]

Tough loss for Mahak.

Hope Pranjala wins the final to maintain the Indian dominance at this event!