Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha thread

[jayakris]

Starting off the most unexpected thread to ever start out of the blue here...

At the $25K Indonesia F3, Jakarta

[R1] Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha (IND,1111) d. Connor Farren (USA,885), 26 76(12) 63
[R2] Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha (IND,1111) d. Aaron Schmid (SUI,993), 36 63 64
[QF] Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha (IND,1111) d. Ajeet Rai (NZL,1158), 67(3) 76(2) 76(3)
[SF] Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha (IND,1111) d. (7) Jeremy Beale (AUS,726), 76(4) 60
[F] Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha (IND,1111) d. Michael Look (AUS,803), 63 61

That is such an amazing show from Niki!!

[jayakris]

Here is the Times of India story - Poonacha makes breakthrough with maiden singles title

Born and raised in Neyveli, TN (with Dad from Kodagu and Mom from Andhra). He was also once in Spain but had been out for a long time due to an abdominal tear, and again down with an injury last year as he was coming back. Now he is at the Bopanna academy in Bangalore. Bops has something cooking now!

[jayakris]

Here is a good quality video of a match from late 2016. It's a 2 hour 40 min match between Niki and Evan Song, that Niki lost in the end. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAF2N72bopg

[suresh]

Congratulations to Niki for his first professional title which earns him his own thread here at Sports India.

[sameerph]

Yes, well deserved thread for Niki Poonacha. He looks to be quite tall with a decent serve from that video. It will be interesting to see his progress in next year or so. He is 23 which is not too late at all in mens tennis.

[S_K_S]

That's the way to announce yourself onto the scene.

[jaydeep]

Deserving thread for Niki after winning the $25K title at abroad.

[meyyis]

He is ranked at 689 in the latest Live Rankings as Ind #12.

[Rajiv]

Nikki until last year was pedalling his wares as a coach to probably augment his finances.

https://www.orangecoach.com/employers/r ... a-poonacha

But now with this wonderful win , he can leave those days behind and plan his career to reach greater heights , one which he is capable of reaching considering the potential he has shown by bagging this title.

[sameerph]

And just like his first title in Indonesia when we started this thread, Niki wins his second title today in New Delhi out of nowhere when we least expected him to having hardly played and won in recent times. Excellent run by him to win the title this week beating 3 higher ranked foreign players and getting one walkover in the semi finals.

This are his details results this week-

At Delhi ITF M15

[R1] Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha (IND,861) d. (WC) Nishant Dabas (IND,NR) 64 36 62
[R2] Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha (IND,861) d. Filip Bergevi (SWE,731) 64 64
[QF] Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha (IND,861) d. Lorenzo Bocchi (ITA,757) 63 67(4) 63
[SF] Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha (IND,861) d. Dalibor Svrcina (CZE,863) walkover

[F] Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha (IND,861) d. (4) Oliver Crawford (USA,576) 63 76(5)

10 points from this title will move him up more than 100 spots to inside top 750 and hope he gets inspiration to do better now.

[PKBasu]

The ATP site shows him ranked 772 (before this tournament). How did the 856 ranking come about in the middle of the week??
Perhaps he was defending points this week (from 2 years ago??). The whole system is a bit topsy-turvy at the moment.

[sameerph]

Actually his doubles ranking is 772. I just copy and pasted from our tournament thread the results for all rounds. His actual singles ranking is 861 and I am updating it in the post above.

[suresh]

Congratulations to Niki on his second title. And a huge thanks for saving us from a disastrous series of Futures with this win.

[jayakris]

Niki

[PKBasu]

Yes, I noticed soon after my previous post that 772 is his doubles title (which is displayed on the ATP page). Being ranked in the 860s in singles, he has a long way back to the top-500, which must be his first goal.