Yuki Bhambri/ Saketh Myneni (pair) Thread

[jayakris]

Here is the YukiSaki thread, as promised, if they were to win two rounds at an ATP event. The promise was made just yesterday and they did the job the next day itself.

At Eugene Korea Open Tennis Championships ATP 250, Seoul

[R1] Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Saketh Myneni (IND) d. Jonathan Eysseric (FRA)/ Artem Sitak (NZL), 46 76(5) [10-6]
[QF] Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Saketh Myneni (IND) d. (3) Diego Hidalgo (ECU)/ Cristian Rodriguez (COL), 63 64

The SF opponents will be decided later today (Thursday). It could be the top seeds Klaasen-Lammons, unless Gille-Vliegen upset them.

(Earlier comments on this week's matches can be found in the Yuki thread from this post onward)

[jayakris]

They have made $18K together so far. Not huge money but much more than what you make in challengers (which is hardly enough to cover travel expenses for doubles players, on average). Money also helps. I am so glad for these two. Both have gone through so much of travails, and both are so much more talented as tennis players than fate has allowed them to become. Hope this is the start of a solid doubles career for Yuki and Saki.

Indians typically do not do well in Korea. Wins have been very rare there, but the few wins our players have had there have been memorable. Like Somdev's Davis Cup show, Sania's win against Hingis, Ankita's run last week, etc. YukiSaki will fondly remember Seoul for their first ATP doubles semi too.

[suresh]

I want them to win here! Bring on the top seeds.

[prashanthm]

With this win, Yuki is upto 102 and Saki upto 89 in the live rankings...

And yes, they are up against the top-seeds in the semis....

Scheduled for tomorrow, second match on Ct 2 for Friday.... Too late for me in the EST timezone...

A win in the semis will help Yuki break the Top-100 barrier for the first time in live rankings...

[SF] Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Saketh Myneni (IND) v. (1) Raven Klaasen (RSA)/ Nathaniel Lammons (USA)

[sameerph]

Wow, what a win against a pair who have been even more dominant on the challenger circuit than themselves.

Well deserved thread. This pair has already won 5 challenger titles this year and are into SF in the very first ATP tournament they are playing together.

This pair of Klassen and Lammons are playing together first time this year at least. Individually, they have had great results- Lammons ranked 55 won an ATP title last week at San Diego and reached an ATP final and won 4 challenger titles. 71st ranked Klassen reached 3 ATP finals this year. But, all of this success of these 2 have come with different partners.

Hope Yuki and Saki use this window of opportunity that they have not played together and much and create a big upset.

[PKBasu]

Yuki's Facebook page suggests that they will be in Korea for several weeks, so I presume they will be playing the Challengers in Seoul and Kwangju, among others. It really doesn't make that much sense, except perhaps to maximise use of the visa. Given their rankings, they should now be aiming to play more ATP tournaments.

[Moved the post from the Yuki forum. Mod, Jay]

[arjun2761]

I'm not sure that they can get into too many ATP draws based on their current 100+ rankings. Going forward if they win this tournament and they have 80+ and 90+ rankings, they may have a few more chances. Ultimately, they have to claw their way into the top 60 (or at worst top 70) to more regularly get into ATP draws. For that they may have to win a couple of more challengers to get there....

[Moved the post from the Yuki forum. Mod, Jay]

[jayakris]

Points from a couple of challengers can always help as safety points, in case they hit a bad patch or run into any injury periods next year... Plus they can save some money in avoiding international air travel, and avoid disruptions to schedule from jet-lag and all that. Eat well, practice with some regular schedule, work out properly, etc. Three weeks in a healthy place like Korea won't hurt. Gwangju is a 4 hour train ride away and Busan just an hour after that. Both are nice cities. Gwangju especially, as it is some sort of a historic/cultural hub in Korea too. They have earned the right for some relaxation. Then let us take the ATP tour by storm!

[Atithee]

I thought you could use your singles PR for doubles. Doesn’t Yuki have some still left to use? He may be saving them for singles though.

[prashanthm]

I thought you could use your singles PR for doubles. Doesn’t Yuki have some still left to use? He may be saving them for singles though.

That is an option, if he hasn't run out of uses/time, but his SIngles PR (127) is worse than his current doubles ranking... So, not much of use anymore for doubles...

[sameerph]

As Arjun said, they do not have much of a choice right now about playing ATP level tournaments. Next 2 weeks they would not have got into any ATP tournaments.

Next week for Tokyo ATP 500 cut off is combined ranking of 163 while for Astana ATP 500 it is as high as 99. The week after that there are couple of ATP 250's in Europe - Gujon and Florence but cut-off for both is around 160. So, no chance for them. So, Yuki-Saki will have to play challengers and since they are in Korea- Gwangju challenger 80 next week and Seoul Challenger 110 the week after are best options.

In the week after i.e the week starting October 17 there are 3 ATP 250's in Europe- Antwerp. Stockholm, Naples. So, there is a chance that they may get into main draws at 1 of the places. So, they have to take a decision if to go there ( if they get in) or stay in Korea for 1 week more for bigger Busan challenger 125. Because anyway they will get into that ATP tournaments in only that 1 week and after that there are only bigger tournaments left for next couple of weeks which they will not get into.

They will need to get into at least top 80 to get into ATP tournaments regularly and for that they need to keep playing challengers since there is no qualifying for ATP 250 tournaments. So, I guess they will continue in Korea for next 3 weeks and then if their ranking is still not into top 80 will continue with challengers in November either in Europe or US or Japan.

[Rajiv]

Saki Lost his serve in the opening game , A DF and 3 straight returns at his (Saki's) shoe laces to set up the break , the top seeds held easily to go 2 nil up and hope this doesn't set the pattern for the set and rest of the match.

[jayakris]

Just on time, with Lammons serving at 5-4 for the first set, our guys won 4 straight points to break back to 5-5. But right in the next game, a Yuki DF made it 30-40 and they got broken. Yikes. 5-6 and facing serve ... Lost the first set 5-7. They need to try for one more of their comeback jobs.

Our guys saved 2 BPs from 30-40 on Saki's serve in the 5th game and held for 3-2 in the second.... They had to claw back from 0-40 and save 4 BPs to hold on Saki's serve again in the 9th game... Great job there, on 6 straight BPs on Saki's serve. 57 54... But in the 11th game, they lost 3 points in a row from 40-15 with Yuki unable to get his first serve in (he has had trouble all day on that). Broken in the key game once again. Then the other guys held, and the match is gone, 57 57.

Our guys saved a lot of BPs, mostly on Saki's serve (10 of 13 BPs) but BPs on Yuki's serve were the trouble points. Klaasen/Lammons had 7 aces and only one DF (that is a lot of aces for a doubles match). YukiSaki were at 3 aces and 2 DFs.

[SF] Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Saketh Myneni (IND) l. (1) Raven Klaasen (RSA)/ Nathaniel Lammons (USA), 57 57

[prashanthm]

Burnt the midnight oil, but to no avail...

In the end, it all came down to the few crucial points and losing serve in crucial games at the fag end of each set.... A combination of our pair's inability to close points they were dominating and the opponents sending that extra ball was a big proponent of the end result....

[sameerph]

So they still need to improve on some aspects to succeed against top level ATP players.

As of now Saketh at #89 and Yuki at #102 in live rankings. Saki at 933 points, Yuki at 819 points. Their combined ranking of 191 still not good enough to get into too many ATP main draws. Except for 1 week in Europe when there are 3 ATP tournaments in a week, they are not likely to get in anywhere this year. So, their target has to be to make the ATP main draws and also main draw for Australian open at first.

Last year cut-off at AO was combined ranking of 160. As of now ranking of 80 is at 1032 points. Both do not have any points to defend for rest of the year. Saki has 15 as his 18th best result,Yuki has 10. So, Saki will need around 115 points and Yuki around 225 points to reach that level. May need 2 or 3 more challenger titles or run to SF/ final at 5-6 events to go there. 9 weeks of challengers play left this year of which they may play 6-7. Get 2-3 titles in those or get to SF in 2-3 weeks and final in others. Not easy. As I said earlier, there are big challengers in Seoul and Busan which give 110 and 125 points respectively for title winner. So, if they win those or get into one of the European ATP's and go at least to SF there it will help.

Usually getting to top 80 required 1 or 2 ATP titles as RamK has got. Doing it thru challenger route is very hard as it means winning about 7-8 challenger titles and than holding on to those points.