Junior Circuits Abroad for Indian Kids...

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Re: Junior Circuits Abroad for Indian Kids...

Post by sameerph »

And both are thru to the final. :clap:

[SF] (3) Aryan Shah (IND,75) d (16) Seungmin Park (KOR,128) 64 46 62

[SF] (5) Yuvan Nandal (IND,63) d. (15) Pavle Marinkov (AUS,114) 62 62

A G1 level final between 2 Indian juniors is very rare, got to check when it happened last time. It happened recently between Manas and Aryan at Asian juniors in November but that was at home.

Both will move inside top 50 now and the winner among them tomorrow will move up to top 40. :D
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Re: Junior Circuits Abroad for Indian Kids...

Post by jayakris »

I don't think a final in an unrestricted J1 (or J300 now) has ever happened between two Indians abroad, Sameer. I just don't remember it in the last 27 years. This is rather historic.

The Manas-Aryan final in a JB1 India itself was a bit of a rarity, but JB1 Asian Juniors is often only as good as a J2, as it is restricted to Asia-Oceania. Plus it was in India and the field was somewhat weak. Some of the Chinese and Australian players and those like Campana Lee who were tops in Asia didn't come, with some Covid effects and travel issues still lingering. Hayden Jones of Australia was the only solid top-75 player there and Aman Dahiya of India at around 100 was the second seed. So, I only consider that as a J2 level event which typically has 2 to 4 top-100 entries.

In comparison, there were 10 top-100 players at the J300 in Sarawak. Actually this was a somewhat tougher J300 abroad than is normal. The prestigious Indian Wells J300 which is restricted to just Americans and Canadians (regional final) had only 8 top-100 players, for comparison.

Two Indians raising their January top-75 rankings to top-40 in the final junior year?? I think that last happened with Yuki in 2009 and before that Karan Rastogi and Somdev in 2003, possibly (Actually Yuki was #1 at age 16 in January 2009, but dropped off a bit during the year and turned pro after he became 17 late in the year, which I then felt was due to poor physical development despite a tall frame - and as we saw, that continued later too; he was winning with incredible talent at age 16). Somdev moved up to just #40 right after turning 18 in February, again at this time in 2003 after a semifinal at the J1 in Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur). In fact, Somdev was only top-50 quality in singles; a lot of points he had were actually from doubles with Karan, as Somdev and Karan were easily a top-10 pair in the world at that time. Karan was ranked as high as #6.

This is pretty damn seriously great news. I am ecstatic! :dance: woohoo
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Re: Junior Circuits Abroad for Indian Kids...

Post by jayakris »

If I am AITA, I will be making phone calls to a Mr. Karan Rastogi right now, to travel with a team of Indians (Yuvan, Aryan, Manas) for a few top junior events this year and then from late in the year, to start on a two year job as our national coach traveling with a team (Yuvan, Aryan, Chirag, etc) next year at some pro events and another junior team (Manas, Rushil, Vihan, etc) to top junior events. Raise some $75K for his salary and $75K for $175K for travel expenses for his and the players' travel for about 15-20 junior and senior events, per year (players apply for some money, not all, for travel and are selected or added/dropped for events based on their need, by the coach).

Come up with $500K for two years for a coach and travel. Just quick calculations. I can guarantee that out of those 5 players, we will have at least one top-100 player and at least 2 or 3 top-200 players by sometime as early as even 2025 or 2026. And they will be there for a long time. (If they do this, I am sure a couple of the top foreign-Indians may also consider playing for India, to add to the party; then we really strike Gold!)

If not Karan, let us convince Harsh Mankad to do this. I offer to twist Harsh's arm and get him out of Minneapolis. Heck, we don't need to go to anybody - let us just get Somdev to be the coach and build a team. If there is a will, there is a way. But AITA has no will.

As of now, I hope these kids will just go to US colleges for 2 or 3 years each, and come out at age 22 to hit the pro-tour. The Bhupathi/Harsh/Somdev path. Other paths have rarely worked, in my opinion, because the players typically do not "grow" and get well-rounded as individuals at academies, even if they may get better in tennis for a while. They (with the exception of the very few few who "grew" into quality players and individuals after 5 or 6 years of self-improvement by late age) generally end up getting lost in Academies, do not improve at a personal level, and end up mismanaging their own careers, both in the overall decisions and in the day-to-day tour decisions.
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Re: Junior Circuits Abroad for Indian Kids...

Post by sameerph »

jayakris wrote: Sat Mar 18, 2023 12:29 pm I don't think a final in an unrestricted J1 (or J300 now) has ever happened between two Indians abroad, Sameer. I just don't remember it in the last 27 years. This is rather historic.
Well, I searched a bit and best place to search is this thread itself. :D

And in 2017 at this very tournament in Sarawak, Malaysia, the girls singles final was between Zeel Desai and Mahak Jain. Zeel won the title there. Before that Pranjala won a G1 title in Thailand in 2015 and Karman won one in Germany on clay in same year. Last one from boys side to win a G1 title was Sumit Nagal in 2015 in Germany.

There was a lull after 2017. So, good to see decent level junior talent emerging at least on the boys side now.

Unfortunately, Zeel , Mahak, Pranjala have not realised their potential on pro tour. Mahak just went away from the tour and then went to US college, Pranjala has been badly hit by injuries and for whatever reason, Zeel never got going on pro tour.

Karman and Sumit had better success, of course thy were most talented of the above lot, but again unfortunately injuries hit them. Else, both could have been top 100 players.

Hope this current lot transitions to pros better. Next step for them would be to do well in tournaments in Europe and US.
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Re: Junior Circuits Abroad for Indian Kids...

Post by jayakris »

^^ Thanks. I was wondering if some girls' had done it, actually. I thought that must have happened, but I wasn't sure.
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Re: Junior Circuits Abroad for Indian Kids...

Post by sameerph »

Yes, on the girls side the other one I saw was back in 2005 when certain Sania Mirza and Tara Iyer played in the final in Manila. But, does not look like any all Indian final on boys side for long.
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Re: Junior Circuits Abroad for Indian Kids...

Post by jayakris »

^^^ Oh yeah, Tara Iyer!! I was racking my brain to remember who it was that I remembered playing at a high level against Sania those days. Yet another name that we lost somehow. Tara had gone to WTA top-350 when she was just 18 years old in 2007. A year or more junior to Sania. She is one of the players we lost after she went to US colleges. She did play for a couple of years after leaving college but I guess found better things to do in life :(
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Re: Junior Circuits Abroad for Indian Kids...

Post by arjun2761 »

Yes, Tara Iyer seems to be pretty accomplished completing a PhD in economics from Oxford and is now an economist at the IMF in the DC area.
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Re: Junior Circuits Abroad for Indian Kids...

Post by sameerph »

Yuvan Nandal beats Aryan Shah 63 64 to win J300 title in Sarawak, Malaysia.

I think Yuvan is first once among boys since Sumit Nagal back in 2015 to win this level title.

With that title, Yuvan will go inside top 40 . Aryan too will be inside top 50.

As said earlier, both should comfortably make the main draw of all remaining junior slams of the year.
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Re: Junior Circuits Abroad for Indian Kids...

Post by jayakris »

Congrats Yuvan!

Here is an article from Kuching, Malaysia, with pictures of Yuvan and Aryan after the final.

You can see why I felt Yuvan is ready for the pro tour. He is physically a step ahead of typical Indian players. Aryan is as tall, or maybe a tad bit taller but need to work on his legs for sure (not sure of core strength and all that, but legs are always visible, and I notice).
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Re: Junior Circuits Abroad for Indian Kids...

Post by sameerph »

Yes, Yuvan looks physically strong. He can transition faster to pros.

Looks like these 2 could be playing in Mysuru and Chennai futures now in next 2 weeks. At Chennai futures, both of them are in as Junior reserved spots. In Mysuru, Aryan Shah appears in alternates to qualies but Yuvan is not there. Maybe both can ask for a wild card there.

It will be good to plan to play these 2 tournaments and then after few weeks move to Europe for some preparatory clay tournaments before French open juniors. No expectation from them on clay, anything will be a bonus.
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Re: Junior Circuits Abroad for Indian Kids...

Post by jayakris »

sameerph wrote: Mon Mar 20, 2023 6:58 amYes, Yuvan looks physically strong. He can transition faster to pros.
That is why I have been a bit more up on him than Aryan in the last few months even when Aryan was ahead on rankings, ever since I saw his match against Campana Lee in the Korean J2. He looked more physically ready (thick legs! :) ) than any Indian 17 year old I have ever noticed. And he is quite athletic on court, with all variety of shots that he is not too scared to try, along with solid baseline rallying abilities. He just needs to play more, get more instinctive and accurate, and stay calm on court - which can come from confidence.

But Aryan must be very talented too, as it may not be physical power or anything that helps him win. Plus, he is not too puny or anything either. Get a bit stronger and he could become very good and be of top-25 junior quality too. I think Yuvan is already top-25 quality in juniors, as he has had some close matches against the top-10.

Yuvan has moved up to #38 and Aryan to #52 in today's new junior rankings.
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Re: Junior Circuits Abroad for Indian Kids...

Post by sameerph »

Btw, both Yuvan and Aryan train at Impact acadamy in Thailand. Saw their post on FB-

Impact Tennis acadamy

As an academy nothing better than two players meeting in the final. Someone has to win someone has to lose but both had a good week. Train together, push each other, win together this is how. it should be. To be the best - the best need to train together. Congratulations to @yuvannandal and @_aryan_s_21 on a great week. Much improved. Congratulations to Yuvan’s father and Aryan’s mother who provide the support as they try to navigate their sons career and drown the noise.
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Re: Junior Circuits Abroad for Indian Kids...

Post by jayakris »

I was about to talk about that. The best thing is that these two seem to be good friends and can train against each other. Somebody like AITA need to really get behind these two kids. We have no time to waste.
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Re: Junior Circuits Abroad for Indian Kids...

Post by sameerph »

Almost no decent player trains in India these days. They have no faith in AITA and Indian coaches. So, those who can afford go to academies in Europe (mostly) and US. Those who cannot afford go to Thailand.
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