American hardcourt Challengers 2017

[jaydeep]

This time almost 12 months Yuki avoided any injury but once again he got injured ... Feeling sad and angry with his injury/ fitness issues.

In the doubles, RamK-Prajnesh gave fighting performance against British pair in their straight sets loss.

Doubles
[R1] Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND)/ Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) l (2) Brydan Klein (GBR)/ Joe Salisbury (GBR) 57 57

[Atithee]

But, it's not Yuki's fault. He's so good.... I mean don't you know how good he is? I'm tellin y'all, he's definitely top 50 and he should be given a lifetime top 100 rank at minimum because he's so fine!!!! Why, he just beat Monfils a few weeks ago. He's that good!!!!!

Modi's "achche din" will be here long before Yuki does anything that establishes him as a serious tennis player, let alone a real top-100 player.
But it looks like "bhakts" have migrated here from Modiland. People rue that he's no sponsorships. Would you sponsor him out of your designated sponsorship budget?

[prasen9]

The lesson for all aspiring Indian tennis players is that they should learn from Leander Paes that the most important aspect of a tennis career is fitness. Focus on that early, laser-like!

Actually, Leander also used to get injured while playing singles. I recall an email communication between Jay and me when there was only the Sports India website that Jay maintained. We had observed that if LP played three weeks in a row, his chances of injury went up. I think he figured this out and withdrew from the third week if he had played a lot of matches in two consecutive weeks. And, then he was fine. His style of high-energy play resulted in a lot of injuries initially. However, he worked to figure out a way. Yuki's body is hopeless at this point. We should just move on.

Atithee, I think everyone here gets your point. It is but human to hope against hope. See: Wikipedia: Optimism bias
and Optimism bias article I understand in our case it is slightly different, but, I think the same psychological effects are in play. Neural mechanisms. We are hard-wired perhaps due to evolutionary reasons.

My point is that your "rational" arguments will not change anyone's neurons (there is research on this too). So, maybe at some point, you need to just let go. People will always hope against hope. It is in our dna.

[Atithee]

Ok Prasen. It's going, going, gone. Thanks.

[sameerph]

And we do not have too many players whom we can bank on to be at top 100 level at least at some stage. So, we tend to keep supporting those who at least have some chance. Sad that Yuki still struggling with his fitness. It does seem that after his run at Washington, he has never been fully fit. Just playing thru it. He is just not able to sort out these injury issues.

[PKBasu]

Leander used to have minor niggles, but never had to take major breaks (especially breaks that involved coming back with an injury-protected ranking after 6 months off, which Yuki has already taken twice or thrice). That is the key difference. The only real injury break in Leander's career was when he had the worms in his brain (and briefly it was suspected to be brain cancer). That was a scary illness, not strictly an injury.

[prashanthm]

I watched most of the match and Yuki was feeling his left thigh/groin area towards the end. He even took a medical time out after the 2nd set...
It may not be a serious injury (probably a precautionary retirement) - hope I'm right here...

His play in the 2nd half of the 2nd set was not good at all. He had match points that he couldn't convert......

one and half weeks break and hopefully he'll turn up in Taiwan...

[sameerph]

RamK lost the first set 2-6. Playing poorly at the moment. Will need to improve a lot to come back here.

[Varma]

Lost 2 & 1

- Varma

[sameerph]

Lost tamely.

[R2] (2) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,153) l. Filip Peliwo (CAN,267) 26 16

Was just going thru the motions in the end. No fight.

[Sin Hombre]

wow such a poor tournament for out lot.

[vatsal323]

This tournament had a really weak field as compared to the usual American Challengers. Was hoping our guys would cash in. But....

[sameerph]

Yes, having our guys as second and third seeds and then to see them lose in first 2 rounds is really bad.

I think davis cup takes a lot out of you physically and emotionally. It is tough to adjust back to the rigour of challenger tour immediately.

[Sin Hombre]

Both Ram and Prajnesh start against qualifiers

Main Draw
(1)Ruben Bemelmans v (wc)Tom Fawcett
Frank Dancevic v (wc)Alexander Sarkissian
Q v Prajnesh Gunneswaran
Q v (7)Felix Auger-Aliassime

(4)Michael Mmoh v Noah Rubin
Christian Garin v Tobias Kamke
Sam Groth v Mitchell Krueger
Elias Ymer v (8)Cameron Norrie

(6)Darian King v Mackenzie McDonald
Denis Kudla v Q
Alejandro Gonzalez v Alexander Ward
Q v (3)Quentin Halys

(5)Ramkumar Ramanathan v Q
(wc)Christian Harrison v Q
(wc)Wayne Montgomery v Brayden Schnur
Dennis Novikov v (2)Tennys Sandgren

[Varma]

RamK got the best possible deal here. His first 2 rounds are against a qualifier, followed by a qualifier or wild-card (if he meets expectations in crossing the first hurdle). That's not what you often see in a $100K Challenger in the US. He better make the most out of it and get to the quarter-final stage with no fuss. Prajnesh should win his R1 and see what he can possibly do against the upcoming Canadian in Auger-Aliassime (his potential R2 opponent).

- Varma