Somdev Dev Varman ...

[PKBasu]

By making the semifinals of the ONGC ITF Futures event at the Saturday Club in Kolkata, Somdev has announced his arrival on the pro circuit. His victory over top-seeded Todor Enev (who had beaten the 2002 Asian junior champion 60 60 in the previous round) outlined his talent most clearly. The report from the local Statesman newspaper this morning clearly didn't expect this result:
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.p ... last~eight

[suresh]

PKB,
You beat me to it. My first thought when I saw that Somdev beat Enev was that he
earned a separate thread on this forum. I would like to see this thread about 25
pages long.

Suresh

Good luck Somdev.

[nkoth]

Wow... impressive stuff from the youngster -- congratulations! I wholeheartedly agree that a thread is definitely in order after such a win!

-neil

[PKBasu]

The Statesman of Kolkata did a bit of prayaschitta, expiating for their sin from yesterday by making the Somdev story the lead item on the sports section of their web-paper. The quality of the story remained pretty putrid though (why can't they get Jaidip, Chiradip, Akhtar Ali, Piperno, anyone to write a more descriptive report?):
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.p ... s~top~seed

[PKBasu]

There was a slightly better report (if one is willing to overlook the grammar!) in the Hindu:
http://www.hindu.com/2004/03/13/stories ... 872200.htm

[nkoth]

There was a slightly better report (if one is willing to overlook the grammar!) in the Hindu:
http://www.hindu.com/2004/03/13/stories ... 872200.htm

Hmm, hadn't seen a picture of Somdev before... interesting hair!

-neil

[PKBasu]

Somdev is in the final, with an easy 62 63 win in the semifinal.
I think a title beckons at the Saturday Club tomorrow. MAGNIFICENT STUFF

[BSharma]

Outstanding, Somdev!

PKB, I would take any sort of press coverage about Indian tennis over proper grammar. However, what is wrong with The Hindu? I have always been an admirer of The Hindu but it seems that the quality of the reports is slipping.

[jayakris]

I agree about the quality slipping at The Hindu. Their tennis coverage is still way ahead of everybody else's, but it is not what it used to be. We need Kamesh at more events.

Go Somdev Go !!!

Jay

[PKBasu]

The exciting thing about Somdev is that his preferred surface is clay -- a rarity in the entire history of Indian tennis. Clearly, he has played absolutely outstanding tennis this week. If this week is representative of his abilities (and I don't see why not!) he is set for a meteoric rise up the ranking computer (to at least match the rise of Bopanna two years ago). But if Somdev now plans his progress to capitalise on his clay-court abilities (and his fitness level, which all reports have remarked upon) then he could be a very exciting prospect indeed.
With Karan as the hardcourt player, Somdev as the clay-courter and ArunPrakash as the grass player, we could have the nucleus of a very well-rounded Davis Cup team 3-4 years down the road...And Karan-Somdev and ArunPrakash-Divij would be competing hard to fill the doubles slot on that team...! (OK, let me stop dreaming: there is still lots of work to do before this vision is realised!).

[PKBasu]

As for the Hindu, the quality of the paper has slipped as the editor (N. Ram) has turned into a quasi-Marxist, and is skewing the coverage (and especially editorials) accordingly. This is a really surprising turn for this newspaper, which was a bastion of the conservative Chennai establishment -- pro-Rajagopalachari when he was the flag-bearer of conservative social mores and liberal economics.

[PKBasu]

An astonishingly easy win for Somdev in the final today, 64 62, over the fourth seed. Considering the way he has been playing this week, Somdev needs to quickly hit the European clay circuit -- because he is already looking like a Challenger-level player on clay, after walloping Europeans ranked 297 and 430 in straight sets on the clay courts of the Saturday Club.

[jayakris]

Incredible!! .. that's all I can say. Wow!! and wowwowwow!!

.. The oints will go into his ranking only by 22nd which means he is OK for $10K events which start from April 5th onwards. I am not sure which European events he can play in, but I believe there are some $10K events in Italy (near Milan) which might fit. He does have to get back to in India soon after for the satellite circuit and he probably needs some time to figure out the details fo going abroad. Let us see what he does.

Well, NTA in Gurgaoin must be doing some things right, because the players who have been there, have all shown some improvement lately.

Jay

[PKBasu]

By my calculations, the 12 points that Somdev won this week will vault his ranking to about 690 (with a total of 19 ATP points). But he also won a point from reaching the second round in the Futures last week in Chennai, which means his points total will go up by 13 points to 20 two weeks from now. So he will jump to around 685. He is employed by ONGC, who must be delighted that their employee won a tournament sponsored by the company (which has just raised a stupendous US$2.5bn from the sale on the stock-market of the government's 10% stake in it). Surely ONGC will now have the vision to hire a coach/scheduler to manage the next stages of this promising kid's career.