ATP500 Dubai (14-21 March) 2021

[Sin Hombre]

sameer any chance of a LL here?

edit : Wawrinka has withdrawn so far so that's one LL. 1/6 chance for both of them to be in the MD. Hopefully we have a couple more withdrawals.

[Rajiv]

LL spots are for guys losing in FQR, not the first round losers.

[jayakris]

What a nice win for RamK. I couldn't see the match. Yuki's win doesn't surprise me. If injuries aren't stopping him (and they never were), he is the best singles player we have, and the best we have had since Somdev (or even since LP or RK). He is that good. I never thought I would see him back, but here he is! RamK versus Yuki will be a fun match.

[Atithee]

The one worrying thing about Ram’s win was two double faults when serving for the match. But, he backed himself and won that game and match on serve only as not even one serve was returnable. I happened to catch just that one game only. He was down 15-30 after those two consecutive double faults. Against better opponents, it would just be the opening you don’t want to give away in any match. But, his serve is a delight to watch.

[Rajiv]

Ram v Yuki 2nd match on court 1 around 12.30 in the afternoon Dubai time.

Meanwhile Yuki and Divij lost the dbls 67 57, in the first set they even had a break and also in TB had couple of MiniBreaks but miffed all of them and couldn't capitalise on them.

[Rajiv]

But, his serve is a delight to watch.

And I had the privilege to face it many times
when the ball hits the strings, the sound it creates is simply unbelievable...

[Atithee]

His strings or yours? It’s probably butterfly and bee sound and feeling, respectively?

[Rajiv]

Yes , of course the sound from his racquet , Most of the times I simply was a mute spectator watching it whiz by like a missile, but on rare occasions when i did manage to connect, it was like a sweet timed shot to a Bret Lee thunderbolt ..

[Omkara]

What a nice win for RamK. I couldn't see the match. Yuki's win doesn't surprise me. If injuries aren't stopping him (and they never were), he is the best singles player we have, and the best we have had since Somdev (or even since LP or RK). He is that good. I never thought I would see him back, but here he is! RamK versus Yuki will be a fun match.

We need a player with the fitness level of LP, skill level of RK, serve of RamK and tenacity of Somdev. And we are home!

[Sin Hombre]

LL spots are for guys losing in FQR, not the first round losers.

One of the two will lose in the FQR

[prasen9]

Yuki will be fine playing whatever he is playing. All I want is him not to get injured. I am comfortable him deciding to play the qualies of ATP tournaments. But, yes, at some point, if he has a bunch of 1st round losses (due to schedules, etc.) he can try to get some more matches under his belt by playing challengers. Or else, he should actually play doubles some of these weeks especially if he gets into very high level ATP tournaments so that he can get some match play and some money and not tax his body as much. I like the strategy of playing wherever he has the most points+money/match to gain. Keep your body fresh. Rest adequately.

[sameerph]

sameer any chance of a LL here?

edit : Wawrinka has withdrawn so far so that's one LL. 1/6 chance for both of them to be in the MD. Hopefully we have a couple more withdrawals.

I think lucky loser is drawn between no. of vacencies +1 highest ranked players. So, if there is 1 LL, 2 highest ranked players who lost in FQR. RamK and Yuki are the lowest ranked players left in final qualifying round. So, they will need 4-5 withdrawals to get in. So, almost no chance.

[sameerph]

Don’t understand why the organizers didn’t give at least 1 main draw wildcard to our boys. Just saw the main draw and their wild card selections are baffling.

Not that baffeling except one. Aslan Karartsev had to get one after his Australian open SF run, Australian Popyrin is one the right young talents being ranked at 82 at 21 and wild cards are usually given out to young ones. One goes to Jaziri from Tunisia, a player from fellow Arab country.

The only one which is surprising is 27 year old Austrian Novak who is ranked 98th. So, probably they could have given that one to one of the Indians. But, we do not have a young gun here vying for a wild card. If Sumit would have been here, he would have probably got it ahead of Novak.

[prasen9]

The Australian and the Austrian are both ranked in the top 100. Yes, there is a large Indian population in Dubai but by giving a wildcard to the Indian players who are significantly lower ranked, they would depreciate the quality of play. So, it makes sense to me. If they had given it to a bunch of yahoos then I would have been puzzled. Wildcards are charity. No point complaining about it. The only time I would complain is if we had a quid pro quo where we gave wildcards to some country's junior guys or guys who needed it and they did not give it to us.

[Sanjay]

Yes , of course the sound from his racquet , Most of the times I simply was a mute spectator watching it whiz by like a missile, but on rare occasions when i did manage to connect, it was like a sweet timed shot to a Bret Lee thunderbolt ..

Watched RR serving and his serves are great when he has it together. If you got this feeling from someone ranked 200, just imagine a Top 10 serve! I have watched Djokovic and Federer serve in person, Isner also.

One of Simona Halep's serve sent the ball flying to me, and I kept as a souvenir.