Sowjanya Bavisetti thread

[bujilover]

Sowjanya's R2 opponent Yixuan Li hasnt won a MD match since last August except today's R1 match. SO this should be a must win match for Sow.

[sameerph]

Easy win for Sowjanya.

At $10K ITF Women, Anning (Clay)

[R2] (6) Sowjanya BAVISETTI (IND,763) d. Yixuan LI (CHN,814) 62 60

She plays the top seed and last week's champion next.

Next,

[QF] (6) Sowjanya BAVISETTI (IND,763) vs. (1) Xinyu GAO (CHN,468)

[bujilover]

Pleasing to see Sowjanya living upto her seeding which is rarety among Indian girls. Go girl!

[bujilover]

Surprise!! Sowjanya defeated last week's winner , the top seed Xinyu GAO 6-2 3-6 6-3. Great win for Sow

Perfect revenge for her last week's straight sets loss.

[QF] (6) Sowjanya BAVISETTI (IND,675) 6-2 3-6 6-3 (1) Xinyu GAO (CHN,468)

She lost in the doubles QF yesterday.

[QF] Yihong LI (CHN) / Qianhui TANG (CHN) 7-5 3-6 [10-4] Sowjanya BAVISETTI (IND) / Ao GAI (CHN)

Up next ,

[SF] (6) Sowjanya BAVISETTI (IND,675) vs (7) Jia-Qi KANG (CHN,708)

Another 17 year old local player. Tough match again. Hope she comes out better one more time

[sameerph]

Great to see Sowjanya overturn last week's defeat into a win this week. Our women players are really beginning to do well abroad now.

[bujilover]

Wow! What a great week for us at ITF Women's circuit even when our top player is not playing.

Sowjanya is in the finals of $10K Anning.


[SF] (6) Sowjanya BAVISETTI (IND,675) 6-1 7-6 (7) Jia-Qi KANG (CHN,708)

She is really turning out to be a GOAT of clay courts for us.

Finals:


[SF] (6) Sowjanya BAVISETTI (IND,675) vs (5) Xiaodi YOU (CHN,637)

Battle between similar ranked players for the title. Lets get one more win Sow

[sameerph]

Very good week for Sowjanya so far. She can make it into a great one with a win tomorrow.

Indian players are getting more and more comfortable playing on clay. I guess this has come about due to a lot of these young players training in Germany and Spain. On the mens side, 2 of our best prospects - RamK and Sumit list clay as their favourite surface. Somdev is quite good on clay and others like VSP, Balaji , Jeevan too are not bad on the surface. Even someone like Yuki who has hardly played on clay made a clay challenger final in Uzbekistan. This really opens up a lot of options for our players as almost half of the tournaments these days are played on clay.

Now, grass is clearly the worst surface of our players. But, it is only a small 4 week season now. So, it does not hurt much.

[sameerph]

Sowjnaya could not continue her good work in China.

At $10K ITF Women, Anning (Clay)

[F] (6) Sowjanya BAVISETTI (IND,675) l. (5) Xiaodi YOU (CHN,637) 57 36

Still this was one of the better runs by an Indian player in China. 9 points from these 2 weeks will take Sowjanya inside top 600. She will play 1 more week in Anning, China and another run to the SF or better can take her past her previous career best ranking of 571.

[bujilover]

Sowjanya withdrew from next week. Still a great couple of weeks for her. Sad that she couldnt acheive the feat of winning a title in China

[bujilover]

Sowjanya is back on tour. She will be playing in Sharm El Sheikh for 3 weeks. Posting her matches here since she is the only one playing this week.

At $10,000 Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt (HArd)

Singles Main Draw

R1 [2] Sowjanya BAVISETTI (609) vs Alexandra WALTERS (AUS,NR)

Doubles Main Draw

R1 Natalie KALLMUNZEROVA / Natalie NOVOTNA vs [2] Sowjanya BAVISETTI / Alexandra RILEY

[Daniel]

Sowjanya started slowly, getting broken in the fifth game and then going down 2-4. She then bucked up and beat Alexandra Walters 64 64. Next up is the Irishwoman Jenny Claffey, 25, who has never been ranked in the top 900. She should win this one, too.


Jenny Claffey (Pic courtesy Itftennis.com)

In doubles, she suffered a shock defeat in straight sets, but then again, she was partnering Xan Riley... not a smart choice

[Daniel]

The Hindu ran a nice article on the interaction between Martina Navratilova and some of our young players. Here are relevant excerpts:


Sowjanya (the tallest of the lot), flanked by Nidhi and Prarthana (Pic courtesy The Hindu)

The tall and athletic Sowjanya, winner of three singles and five ITF doubles titles, also believes that this kind of exposure can usher in a huge change in terms of attitude and setting long-term goals for any youngster. “I remember when Navratilova played in the 2004 WTA event in Hyderabad, I was a ball girl and played a few rallies with her. Being a leftie myself, the legend has a special place for me,” the 21-year-old future hope says with a big smile.

“I loved the way she moved towards the net and played those volleys, her approach to the game is fascinating. look at her fitness even at 58. She looked good enough to beat us,” says Sowjanya.

Read the full article here: http://www.thehindu.com/features/metrop ... 452636.ece

The fact that Sowjanya still cherishes the experience she had as a ball girl 11 years ago shows the impact that those WTA events really had. Unfortunately, there seems to be a lacuna now with no WTA tournament in India. Instead, a US college scholarship seems to be the main motivator for many of our talented juniors

Let's hope these occasional events will continue to inspire our young players to pursue their tennis goals.

[bujilover]

Sowjanya started slowly, getting broken in the fifth game and then going down 2-4. She then bucked up and beat Alexandra Walters 64 64. Next up is the Irishwoman Jenny Claffey, 25, who has never been ranked in the top 900. She should win this one, too.


Jenny Claffey (Pic courtesy Itftennis.com)

In doubles, she suffered a shock defeat in straight sets, but then again, she was partnering Xan Riley... not a smart choice

Even though Jenny is ranked bad , some of her recent results are quite convincing, Rishika beat her in 3 sets this year at same venue. Sow should win this one.

[gbelday]

The fact that Sowjanya still cherishes the experience she had as a ball girl 11 years ago shows the impact that those WTA events really had.
Let's hope these occasional events will continue to inspire our young players to pursue their tennis goals.

I totally agree with you on that, Daniel. Something's got to rub off when you meet and rally with a legend like Martina, right We should not underestimate the fillip it gives to the young kids. Over time, even if a few things stick with them, it's worth it.

Last weekend, Mats Wilander was at our local tennis club and he organized a 1.5 hour clinic for some of the young kids. I signed up both my boys and they really had a great time. It was so good to see Wilander spend all that time with the kids (and parents) and pass on some of his wisdom. Such a humble guy! There were 23 kids in the clinic on 4 courts and he remembered all the kids names. It was a pretty intense clinic and his message was to make it matter every time you step on the court.

[Daniel]

The fact that Sowjanya still cherishes the experience she had as a ball girl 11 years ago shows the impact that those WTA events really had.
Let's hope these occasional events will continue to inspire our young players to pursue their tennis goals.

I totally agree with you on that, Daniel. Something's got to rub off when you meet and rally with a legend like Martina, right We should not underestimate the fillip it gives to the young kids. Over time, even if a few things stick with them, it's worth it.

Last weekend, Mats Wilander was at our local tennis club and he organized a 1.5 hour clinic for some of the young kids. I signed up both my boys and they really had a great time. It was so good to see Wilander spend all that time with the kids (and parents) and pass on some of his wisdom. Such a humble guy! There were 23 kids in the clinic on 4 courts and he remembered all the kids names. It was a pretty intense clinic and his message was to make it matter every time you step on the court.

Thanks for sharing that, gbelday! I'm sure your kids will value the interaction with Mats W. All the best to them!

I find that when asked for tips, the tennis pros generally offer life lessons and not just technical advice. I once had the chance to talk to Tzipora Obziler after she won a 25K challenger in Bombay. She said that what she really values in a tennis player is how much heart he/she has. Sometime later, Obziler became the oldest player to crack the top 100 (at age 34!) and took a set off Justine Henin at the US Open, and I was reminded of her words. I guess drive and determination will take you further than raw talent will!