Yuki Bhambri/ Saketh Myneni (pair) Thread

[Sanjay]

Really ridiculous decision to end the season so early (third week of October). Sadly, very typical of Yuki throughout his career. He doesn't have the points to get him into the AO doubles draw. So why stop now? They could have played some of the big-point Challengers in November and ensured they were very close to qualifying into the AO doubles main draw. But such logical steps are never taken...

I think it comes down to whether he is motivated to be a better player. Does he care anymore? Those are the important and hard questions to be answered. Is he willing to put in the hard work? Or has he mentally moved on from tennis. I think he has.

[arjun2761]

He is definitely committed to being a doubles specialist given that he could have used some of his PRs to get into meaningful singles draws and didn’t. However, he wasn’t the most dedicated singles player and is perhaps even less dedicated as an doubles player.

[jayakris]

^^^ I wouldn't say that he wasn't dedicated to singles. How many times did he come back from injuries to top-200 and top-150. Thrice? Actually 4 times? People without dedication won't make that many comebacks from injuries. Look at this below roller coaster from February 2010. Falling out of top-400 four times due to injuries.

inside 325 --> below 550 --> inside 200 --> below 550 --> to 151 --> below 400 --> inside 90 --> below 550 --> inside 90 --> out of ranking --> inside 550 after 3 years --> quit.

(Did I get that right? It is quite a roller coaster, so I lose track even while looking at the ATP ranking history page )

I don't know if anybody else would have ever made 4 upward moves of 350+ spots inside the top-600 of ATP rankings! Yuki kept coming back from the setbacks. Time and again.

Yuki's problem was not dedication, unless you consider the poor job on schedule management, traveling, visas, and general planning to be from lack of dedication. The latter thing has been a problem all along. He probably needed a manager who was better at those things. It wasn't like he was acting in movies, trying tennis politics, writing newspaper articles, setting up academies or doing any celebrity stuff. He was only focused on tennis. So I would say he was plenty dedicated. He needed to manage things better. Even some of those injuries were caused by poor tour management (possibly).

[arjun2761]

Dedication isn't just not doing something else. Dedication is putting in the hard work to be the best you can be. Most the moves he made were largely due to his talent. Every time he came back from his injury, he'd start playing at a top 100-150 level almost right away including when he came back this time (with him beating #87 in his 3rd tournament back). On the talent vs. hard work spectrum, most of his success came from talent.

The lack of travel planning and urgency to compete is one indicia of not being as committed. The other indicia to me is whether his game improved over time. It seems to me his game was pretty stagnant for quite a while and his weaknesses (e.g., his serve) remained a constant through his career even though Yuki isn't short like Sumit.

[jayakris]

^^^ You may be right. It is quite possible that Yuki was never putting in the necessary amount of dedicated effort to improve on his talent. Just that we do not have data to say it. Not even anecdotal info from others or rumors. If he seemed to be distracted and doing other things, that would be a data point. We don't even have that. Many others gave such data points, but Yuki didn't. But there is data that he kept trying to come back and did not give up for a long time, unlike many others. That is all I am saying. And I give him credit for that.

But my hunch is similar to yours. If you held a gun to my head and asked why I think Yuki didn't get to (and stay) where his talent could have taken him (ie top-75 for at least a couple of years and even top 40 briefly), I would say that he was not driven enough. Maybe you would call it not dedicated enough.

[prashanthm]

I think general planning and management coupled with on-court lack of confidence/attitude would be the culprits most of the time in Yuki's case...

One data point, although mostly subjective, is the serve that Arjun mentioned. Wasn't he supposed to put it more strength and effort into improving his serve and he was transitioning from Jr circuit to Pro circuit as he was getting taller and stronger. Again, as someone mentioned in some other thread, it could have been the player dictating the coaching vs the actual coach without looking at the longer-term goals. Who knows? But the fact remains that the serve did not improve that hurt him badly in singles and will be a hindrance in doubles as well and that many lesser free points on offer...

[prashanthm]

The year didn't start off great for Yuki/Saki at the Pune ATP, but they recovered to win a CH title in Thailand and were subsequently awarded the APAC wildcard into the Australian Open. It was Saki's first GS main draw entry and their first entry as a pair, but they lost in R1 after running the 14th seeds very close and lost the final 3-6 after being up 3-1...

Next up, they have entered the Dallas ATP 250 event (Feb 6-12) and have made it in comfortably with their new combined CH...
They'll probably stay back in the US for the week of Feb 13-19 and try their luck at the Delray Beach ATP 250 event...

20-26 Feb: Doha ATP 250
27 Feb-4 Mar: Dubai ATP 500, if they move up in the rankings
08-19 Mar: Indian Wells Masters 1000, if they move up significantly in the rankings

[PKBasu]

So they are skipping the India Challengers. Reasonable decision now that Yuki has given up on singles altogether. But it makes me depressed...

[prashanthm]

Probably, but if they can't get their rankings high enough for the Dubai 500 and Indian Wells 1000 they may play the Indian Challengers... I think it'll be a wait & watch approach...

[sameerph]

Next up, they have entered the Dallas ATP 250 event (Feb 6-12) and have made it in comfortably with their new combined CH...
They'll probably stay back in the US for the week of Feb 13-19 and try their luck at the Delray Beach ATP 250 event...

20-26 Feb: Doha ATP 250
27 Feb-4 Mar: Dubai ATP 500, if they move up in the rankings
08-19 Mar: Indian Wells Masters 1000, if they move up significantly in the rankings

Yes, Yuki-Saki have made it in for Delray beach ATP main draw the week after Dallas. Lets see if the week after this they go for Doha ATP 250 or come back for India challengers.

[Dinesh]

They made it to the direct acceptance list at Doha ATP 250 event. Bopanna/Ebden are also in the list.

[Dinesh]

Yuki Saki won their first round match at the Dallas ATP 250 in 3 sets. They were leading 3-1 in the first set with a break while I was watching and then had to leave to the tennis courts to play, but saw them losing the opening set 5-7 and thought this is going to be impossible (considering Chris Eubanks have a pretty solid serve), but they came back, winning the 2nd set TB whilst saving a match point and won the MTB 10-3

Run into last year’s hottest challenger pair of Patten/Cash (Cash - Kadhe’s collegiate partner).

[PKBasu]

ATP Dallas Open

[R1] Saketh Myneni/Yuki Bhambri (IND/IND) d. Christopher Eubanks/Marcos Giron (USA/USA) 57 76(3) 10-3

Saketh is now the #2 India doubles player at 84 in the live rankings, Yuki at a career high of 85 in doubles. Ramkumar sadly has dropped to 125. Jeevan (91) and Balaji (101) are close behind.

[sameerph]

Great. Their first win at ATP tour level aa a pair. Now they get to play 3 ATP tournaments in a stretch ( hopefully 4 if they get a wild card into ATP Dubai 500 ).

If they manage to get deep SF/F in one of these weeks they will be mostly in a position to make the cut for FO/Wimbledon.

[arjun2761]

^^^ I think they made the SF at an ATP event in Korea last fall with 2 wins, so not the first ATP win for them as a pair.

Hopefully, they can make their second SFs against the hottest team on the challenger tour last year with an astonishing 10 titles. YukiSaki were also one of the hotter teams on the challenger tour last year with 5 titles (and a 6th this year), so it should be a close match.