Rohan to play in Dubai Open qualies (Maybe not)

Post by **Dhruv** » Sun Jan 19, 2003 3:02 pm

Rohan and Harsh will skip the next leg at Johrat, Assam, and return to Bangalore, where he will begin his preparations for the Davis Cup tie against Japan from February 7 to 9.

"I am planning to play the Dubai Open qualifiers, and if I can get through the two rounds, it would help me get valuable ATP points," said Bopanna.

I guess he is doing what gvhvgh wanted him to do. I would have preferred him to play both Nigerian Futures events but maybe he should give the Dubai Open a shot. I know Fazaluddin tried to to qualify a couple of years ago as well falling in the final round of the qualifiers.

gvhvhg · Post by **gvhvhg** » Mon Jan 20, 2003 4:47 am

MY PRAYERS HAVE BEEN ANSWERED!!!!!!

Post by **Dhruv** » Wed Feb 19, 2003 10:11 pm

Well the Dubai Open is next week and I'd like to avoid duplication of topics

here I am bringing this old topic up again. Lets see if Rohan plays here. Hopefully he is in the qualy draw but we will know all that in the next couple of days.

Go RB

Post by **Dhruv** » Fri Feb 21, 2003 10:05 pm

Just got the quali draw from SteveG

(1)Ivo Heuberger (SUI) vs Maximilian Abel (GER)
(5)Bjorn Phau (GER) vs Tuomas Ketola (FIN)
(2)Christophe Rochus (BEL) vs (WC)Wayne Black (ZIM)
(8)Renzo Furlan (ITA) vs Yuri Schukin (RUS)
(3)Andrei Stoliarov (RUS) vs (WC)Karim Alami (MAR)
(6)Alex Calatrava (ESP) vs Razvan Sabau (ROM)
(4)Oliver Gross (GER) vs (WC)Mohamed Abdul Aziz Al Nuaimi (UAE)
(7)Vadim Kutsenko (UZB) vs Christopher Kas (GER)

no Rohan

. Where is he? I thought maybe he would play in Nigeria futures this week but he isn't there this week. Maybe next week. The last direct entry to the qualies seems to have been Razvan Sabau (ROM,275). This is bad luck as usually this event doesn't have a lot of entries in the qualies.

gvhvhg · Post by **gvhvhg** » Fri Feb 21, 2003 11:33 pm

that is very dissapointing. I thought that since rohan had said that he was going to Dubai some time back, that it meant that he knew he was going!!

Post by **Dhruv** » Sat Feb 22, 2003 12:33 pm

I think he must have tried to enter the qualies but his ranking was just too low to qualify. Like I said earlier the last direct entry was #275 and Rohan is still outside the top 300. The only way he could have gotten to play here was if he got a WC into the qualies like Sania did last week.

One of the reasons why some of us would like him to play some challengers , $15K events is to pick up points so that he can then enter qualies like this and be almost assured of atleast getting a spot in the qualies without hoping for a WC.

I hope he goes to Nigeria for the F2 next week and plays and gets some points. Ideally I would have liked him to play this weeks event in Nigeria and then if he lost before the semis he still would have had time to get to Dubai to shoot for the qualies. But I guess that would be cutting it very close so maybe it was not possible. But he should definetly play in a futures event next week.

Post by **Dhruv** » Sat Feb 22, 2003 3:59 pm

Main Draw for Dubai out as well

FEDERER - LABADZE
Q - HEUBERGER
ARAZI - VACEK
VAN LOTTUM - KAFELNIKOV
HENMAN - SAVOLT
Q - LJUBICIC
VOINEA - MIRNYI
KRAJAN - SCHUETTLER
SCHALKEN - YOUZHNY
SANTORO - KOUBEK
IVANISEVIC - Q
HRBATY - NOVAK
EL AYNAOUI -BAHROUZYAN
Q - LOPEZ
BJORKMAN - ROBREDO
WASKE - SAFIN

No sign of Rohan Bopanna in this either. I would imagine that he will now be at the Benin City $15K event. I hope so anyway

Post by **jayakris** » Sun Feb 23, 2003 3:57 am

Dhruv - I forgot to ask earlier where you had seen that RB might be going to Nigeria. He was never in the acceptance lists there. Not there for next week either. I suppose he is undergoing coaching and making sure that whatever shoulder/elbow problems he had were all healed...

I thought I saw him say that he would be in the Vietnam challenger in 3 weeks (and perhaps the Tokyo challenger before that too?). We will wait and see.

If he is training and getting coached by CGK and Sri, I have no problem with him taking time off.. I am sure he is. If he is goofing off, we will be after him soon

Jay

Post by **Dhruv** » Sun Feb 23, 2003 2:32 pm

Jay, here's a link to the article.

http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/jan01/sp6.asp

But I don't know if it is accurate. I thought/hoped it was but I don't know for sure. Sania is in Nigeria and both her and Rohan are managed by Globosport so maybe it was initially planned but then something else came up

??

Post by **jayakris** » Sun Feb 23, 2003 5:35 pm

Ah, that tells me why I didn't question you when you first wrote about Nigeria, because I too thought I had seen it somewhere. Wasn't sure later where, and I thought I must have first seen it from you. I guess they had planned for him to pay there..

Yeah, it would have been nice to seehim play somewhere, unless he is under some serious coaching/training. He still needs some serious polishing up on his game-time strategies and some technical details. I don't know who was there in India for him to practice with.

I wish RB, HM and SKS would travel together and hit to death against each other with some good coaches watching them, as they themselves are the best (cheapest?) top hitting partners for all three them with the variety of styles they have. But that never happens, for whatever reasons. Davis Cup practice tend to be different.

Jay