Prakash Amritraj thread...

[PKBasu]

The eldest son of Vijay Amritraj (and presumably named for Vijay's good friend Prakash Padukone, who won the All-England Badminton Championship, the Wimbledon of that other racquet sport), Prakash announced his arrival on the international tennis scene with 3 weeks of total dominance of the singles event at the 2003 Indian satellites, where he won the second and third leg as well as the Master's title. His ATP (entry-system) ranking will jump to around 410 on July 7th (from 618 currently), while his doubles ranking should jump around 20 spots to 208 (from 228 currently). With cousin Stephen, Prakash has already made the semi-final of a pro-tour doubles event (in Los Angeles), and has played singles at the US Open when he was 18 (but had the misfortune of running into Paradorn Srichaphan in the first round).
How much success Prakash has over the summer in the US (probably mainly on the Futures and Challenger circuit) will determine how quickly he walks into India's Davis Cup team. Although born and bred in the US, Prakash wears his patriotism (toward India) on his sleeve (and, often, on other parts of his clothing!).

[jayakris]

Here is an interview at the AITA site that Sunil Yajaman had with Prakash

http://www.aitatennis.com/article/int_prak.asp

Interesting read, but no big revelations in there.. PA is a cool guy for sure and his positive attitude comes through all the time.

Jay

[Dhruv]

Well as Prakash has a WC into the Newport championships he will get a minimum of 5 ATP points thus raising his points total to 66 and also moving into the top 400 next week. Another WC thanks to Vijay and he will be all set for challenger series pretty much in the same position as Harsh.

His match is set as match #4 on Centre Court. The first match on centre court is at 11 so I would assume an approximate 4 PM start time.

[gvhvhg]

Go Prakash now 404!!!!!!!

this is great Vijay is just giving him more and more oppurtunities. A long shot but mabye PA can join his father and lp as indian champs at newport!!

I have now said for the last three years that LP should request a WC at newport as a former champ, but that is a seperate issue.

GO PA!!!!!

[Dhruv]

Well things went pretty much to script in the match today.

(4) R. Ginepri(USA) d. (wc) P. Amritraj(IND) 61 64.

Nevertheless we can chalk up another 5 points to Vijay oops I meant Prakash

[gvhvhg]

I am infuriated!!!!!!!!!!!

GO to http://fantasy.atptennis.com/livescore/mid.html

and you will understand.

They have PA listed under Indonesia, somebody should sue ATP (besides Lleyton Hewitt

[jayakris]

Dhruv's tongue in cheek comment on Vijay made me curious about how many wildcard points Vijay has made for Prakash. Here is Prakash's record.

Code: Select all

Date       Event         Type Pts Round Enty
---------- ------------- ---- --- ----- ----
2003-07-07 IND S1         Sa   36   -   Rank
2003-07-14 Newport        WS    5   1   WC
2002-08-26 US Open        GS    5   1   WC (Earned)
2003-04-28 New Delhi      Ch    5   2   WC 
2002-12-30 Chennai        WS    5   1   WC 
2002-10-28 Tyler          Ch    5   2   WC 
2003-04-21 Bangalore      Ch    1   1   WC 
2003-03-10 Indian Wells   MS-Q  1   1   WC 
2002-11-25 USA F29        Fu    1   2   WC 
2002-10-21 San Antonio    Ch    1   1   WC 
2002-09-30 Fresno         Ch    1   1   WC 
2002-11-18 USA F28        Fu    0   1   Q  
2002-09-30 USA F24c       Fu    0   1   WC 
2002-09-23 USA F24b       Fu    0   1   Q

That is, 14 points out of his 66 have come completely from Vijay's connections, without him winning a round! .. He has earned one wildcard (US Open) and 5 points by winning the junior US nationals. He turned three of the 10 Vijay wildcards into earned points by winning a round each (2 challengers and a futures, for 11 points) ..

Interesting, eh? .. Gotta give it to VA for what he has done in bringing the guy along fast. I am not trying to make fun of Prakash or anything though. I am actually glad that Vijay has done the needful so far, and I think Prakash will take it from here.

Jay

[gvhvhg]

But most of those WC's were not neccasarily form VA, but simply born out of representing the US. Only Chennai and Newport, were because of VA, to my knowledge. ( also in past Tata open qualie WC's)

[jayakris]

Oh no.. There are so many upcoming US players; the US futures and challengers wildcards are handed out simply based on connections .. Those like USTA play no part in it. Vijay has at least made some phone calls to ask for wildcards at those US places for sure (especially all the California wildcards). By the way, the above do not count the wildcards he got to doubles in places like Indianapolis and SanJose ATPs, and also some qualifying singles wildcards at San Jose etc. Vijay has done a lot of work to get him to play as much of pro events as possible. More power to him!

Jay

[BSharma]

Prakash and Rajeev play their first round doubles match on July 8th against Julian Knowle and Jurgen Melzer of Austria. Let us see how well they play together.

[BSharma]

Julian Knowle(AUT)/Jurgen Melzer (AUT) d. Prakash Amritraj(IND)/Rajeev Ram (USA) 64 60

The Hall of Fame tournament has not turned out to be great for people with Indian connection.

[jayakris]

Welcome to the big leagues, as they say to baseball players when they break in! .. Give it time, Prakash will be fine .. Don't hurry, he has a long way to go and the journey is only a few months old!

Jay

[jayakris]

Or, another of my favorite (immortal) lines, from Chris Woodruff who went through the shock of hitting the ATP tour after college -- "One day you are the toast of college tennis; the next day you are toast on the tour"

Jay

[PKBasu]

Prakash should definitely be focusing on the Challenger circuit for now rather than rushing headlong into full tour events. The points are valuable nonetheless!
Why oh why does Leander never request a singles WC even at Newport, where he is bound to get one -- and probably gain a few more points by winning a round or two...

[jayakris]

Here is a very well-written and balanced article on Prakash's show in India, by Ravi Chakravarthi in yesterday's Deccan Herald:

http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/july09/ss1.asp

Take a look!

Jay