$25K+H Fergana Challenger (Sunil, Karan in main draw)

Post by **jayakris** » Wed May 18, 2005 12:54 am

Just that it is better than he has done in many of his losses, that is all

.. He tends to be up and down - can win some matches against good players and can then go down quickly against some players too. At least that has been my impression and so I did notice when he took a middle set in a loss ..

Anyway, he had lost 26 26 to Smirnov just last week - so we have to be glad about a better match today!

So I checked his last few losses .. I was right - this was the first time in his last 15 losses that he did not lose two consecutive sets (he has 3 three-set losses but all were after winning the first set, which means the "fight" seemed to be absent in the next sets, at least based on the scoreboard). On the other hand, 13 of his last 15 wins have been in straight sets (except for a comeback he pulled on Mustafa after dropping a set a few months back, and that nice quality win 4 weeks back against Ti Chen after dropping the first set - again his wins are not "fighting" wins, but he just beat people!) ..

I suppose these are some of those things that go to the back of our minds as an impression of what a player is doing .. Anyway, I was glad that SKS did not go down easily today ..

Jay

jaydeep · Post by **jaydeep** » Wed May 18, 2005 4:11 am

Sunil's rollercoaster is continue ... I hope soon he find form that he regularly beat player below 400 ... So Sunil had lots of point to defend, so we will see little slum in his ranking.

Jaydeep.

Post by **jayakris** » Wed May 18, 2005 4:26 am

Well, he has made the draw next week at Busan and he is also in the Indian satellites for 4 weeks following that. So, in about 6 weeks he should be able to pick up at least 15-20 points (hopefully more) to get back most of the 19 points he will lose this coming monday (he had 24 last year at Fergana, 5 this year) and get right back to 350 range for challenger entries following that. So, Sunil Kumar is fine for now.

Prakash on the other hand lost 35 big points and will drop to 89 points and about 70 spots down to 365. He has used his current rank of 294 to enter the next two week's challengers at Busan and Yuba City on hard courts. He could have almost made the cut for one of the three clay challengers on June 6th which closed yesterday, but of course PA would not go anywhere near the dirt even if his life depended on it

.. I think after the next two weeks, he would try one of the grass ATP events' qualies, etc.

Jay

jaydeep · Post by **jaydeep** » Wed May 18, 2005 4:34 am

That means Prakash is in bigger soup ..

And have to perform in next two challengers ... Prakash should participate in Indian satellites and gain max valuable points which help to bring back in Top 300.

Jaydeep.

PKBasu · Post by **PKBasu** » Wed May 18, 2005 4:46 am

Fitness is obviously what Sunil needs to work on. The inability to win 3-setters is a common affliction that many of the Indian players suffer from. I think it has to do with fitness (endurance) rather than any want of effort. The earlier it's addressed the better.

Post by **jayakris** » Wed May 18, 2005 3:05 pm

[SF] (4) S.K.Sipaeya/ Dmitri Sitak (RUS) l. (1) Yen-Hsun Lu (TPE)/ Danai Udomchoke (THA) 26 67(3) ..

So, that finishes the Fergana challenger for us.

istomin has reached the semis against Udomchoke there. Lu and Ivanov in the other semi.

Jay

jaydeep · Post by **jaydeep** » Wed May 18, 2005 3:11 pm

So Fergana week is over for Indian players ... But I m really impressed with Uzbek guys Istomin and Ivanov ... Taking full advantage of depleted field.

Jaydeep.