New Delhi, Bhilai M15, Indore, Mumbai M25 - Oct 31-Nov 27, 2022

[jayakris]

The qualies first round at the Indore M25 went sorta as expected... The only real upset was 22 year old Shivank Bhatnagar winning 64 67 [10-8] over last week's upset artist, second seeded Siddhart Vishwakarma. Glad to see 18 year old Chrag Duhan winning 63 63 over Guhan Rajan (who is not a bad player; he had qualified into some events abroad recently, iirc). 17 year old Aryan Shah had a tough draw against the 3rd seeded Ryotaro Matsumara - but he gave it a run in a comeback before falling in the STB, 46 64 [6-10]... I continue to be upbeat on Aryan. Getting these good matches at the pro level against experienced players will really help him next year - his final junior year. Among the rest of the under-22 youngsters, 19 year old Ajay Malik (10th seed) had a good 63 63 win over Sushant Dabas, showing again that he is the better one among 19 year olds, just as with their junior rankings (though that was all unreliable due to the pandemic). 20 year old Yash Chaurasia, and 21 year olds Anurag Agarwal, Manish Ganesh, Oges Theyjo Jayaprakash, and two wildcards with easy draws - Arthav Neema and Hans Kabir also advanced.

I hope at least 2 or 3 of these youngsters will make the main draw after the Q2 and Q3, but the Q-draw isn't particularly helpful for any of them now.

[jayakris]

As per the tournament page on ITF website.
Venue- Dr. G.A.Ranade Tennis Centre, 165, Maharshi Karve Road, Cooperage, Mumbai, 400 021, India

MSLTA courts. It is right next to the Cooperage football ground. Colaba.

[jayakris]

At the Indore M25 qualies, 18 year old Chirag Duhan upset the 9th seeded Korean Junhyun Lee 62 64 and made the final qualies. He and 21 year old Manish Ganesh are the only u22 players in the final Q from the names I mentioned above. 8 Indians, 2 Japanese and 2 Koreans in the final, but the 2 Koreans play the 2 Japanese will knock themselves out and 4 Indians will move on . I think there are 10 qualifier/LuckyLoser spots in the main draw, so guess most of them will make it in anyway.

The main draw is out. Last week's winner Florent Bax isn't playing, but top seed Oliver Crawford (USA) is there and two top-500 players have joined - 2nd seed Ben Patael (ISR,404) and 3rd seed Dominik Pelan (CZE,483). One more top-700 player, Bekhan Atlangeriev (RUS,663) joins as the 6th seed. Manish Sureshkumar is the 4th seed, Sid Rawat the 5th, Digvijay the 7th, and Nitin Kumar Sinha the 8th. Niki gets the worst draw, having to play the third seed, but the other Indians are all okay. Manish and Digvijay are in a favorable quarter and one of them should make the semis, barring surprises.

Glad to see there being not too many head-scratcher wildcards... Madhvin Kamath, Denim Yadav, Rishi Reddy and Raghav Jaisinghani.

[PKBasu]

The main draw is out. Last week's winner Florent Bax isn't playing, but top seed Oliver Crawford (USA) is there and two top-500 players have joined - 2nd seed Ben Patael (ISR,404) and 3rd seed Dominik Pelan (CZE,483).

Bax was last week's runner-up, of course, not winner . And titlist Digvijay urged him to play on during the next 3 weeks despite the injury he sustained in the final (but perhaps failed to persuade the Frenchman).

(My younger daughter fell ill on Friday evening, so I had to take her to the doctor on Saturday, and nurse her a bit on Sunday morning -- especially as my wife left on a business trip on Saturday night; I had planned to catch the second and third sets of the singles final, but that wasn't to be, as the match ended just as I was getting into my car to head to the NTC ).

Anyway, good luck to the Indian contingent this week and over the next 2. Slightly odd scheduling, to have an M15 in Delhi, followed by the M25 in Indore, then the M15 in relatively remote Bhilai, followed by the M25 in Mumbai. It would have been more logical to have the M25s one after the other.

[PKBasu]

Of the 6 FQR match-ups, 4 feature all-Indian matches, and the other 2 non-Indian-only matches.

The 4 Indian match-ups are: 37 year old VM Ranjeet vs 26 year old Dalwinder Singh (who should not be struggling in Futures qualifiers at this stage), 18 year old Chirag Duhan (who had a good win over the seeded Korean in Q2) vs 23 year old Faisal Qamar, the two 22 year olds Sai Karteek Reddy Ganta vs Shivank Bhatnagar (who made R2 in Delhi last week), and 21 year old Manish Ganesh vs 24 year old Bharath Nishok Kumaran.

[jayakris]

Bax was last week's runner-up, of course, not winner

Of course... I am an absent-minded-professor

[jayakris]

Faisal Qamar beat Chirag Duhan at the Indore Q3, so we won't have any u20 player qualify in, but 21 year old Manish Ganesh (technically) upset the 6th seed Bharath Kumaran and made the main draw from among the younger brigade in the qualies. Unfortunately, Chirag didn't get one of the four LL spots either.

A couple of main draw singles matches were there today. Nice to see 21 year old wildcard Madhvin Kamath, our Finesta u18 national champion 3 years ago, win in (again, technically) an upset over Abhinav Shanmugam, 67 63 62 to make the final 16. Eshaq Iqbal beat 18 year old junior wildcard Denim Yadav, who has basically had a forgettable year. Wildcard 19 year old Karan Singh will play tomorrow against a lucky loser Korean. I am rooting for Karan, Manish Ganesh and Madhvin, the youngest three in the main draw! Of course, Digvijay after them

[sameerph]

Anyway, good luck to the Indian contingent this week and over the next 2. Slightly odd scheduling, to have an M15 in Delhi, followed by the M25 in Indore, then the M15 in relatively remote Bhilai, followed by the M25 in Mumbai. It would have been more logical to have the M25s one after the other.

Mumbai M25 is next week and Bhilai 15 week after that.

[jayakris]

Oh boy, what a wretched day. Everybody and his uncle lost. Actually the uncle won, which only made me sadder, so to say.

Everyone that I wanted to win, lost, except Sid Rawat. Mostly to some so-so foreigners who were Qs, lucky losers etc. Digvijay, Niki, Manish Sureshkumar, Adil Kalyanpur, Karan Singh, Nitin Sinha, and Manish Ganesh. Losses by the first three and Karan were particularly depressing.

We went 2-9 in eleven matches against foreigners. Lucky loser Dalwinder Singh upset the 6th seeded Russian, and 35 year old evergreen Vishnu Vardhan (the uncle) beat a qualifier. That is that. From the two 4-player groups without any foreigners, we have 4 Indians make the R2, so 2 of them will be in the QFs. We may get a third player in the QF and that will be the end of it. Except for Sid, who faces Madhvin Kamath and then can perhaps upset the 2nd seeded Israeli, I don't see anybody else even in the SFs.

See the mayhem in the main draw page.... and weep.

[jayakris]

PQF results from Indore. 5th seed Sid didn't give any chance to Madhvin today to try an upset in a 60 63 win... Vishnu Vardhan took out Boris Butulija. We have three lucky losers in the QFs! Dalwinder Singh and the two Koreans. Give them kudos for the run. Jang Yunseok took out the 2nd seed Ben Patael of Israel and faces Sid next. 24 year old Ishaq Eqbal went down 36 57 to the top seed Crawford, but gave him a good fight, breaking 3 times while getting broken 5 times. Cutting down on his six DFs might have made an upset bid a bit more possible for Ishaq, I think. We have,

(1) Oliver Crawford (USA) vs (Q) Kazuki Nishiwaki (JPN)
Vishnu Vardhan (IND) vs (LL) Woobin Shin (KOR)
(3) Dominik Palan (CZE) vs (LL) Dalwinder Singh (IND)
(5) Sidharth Rawat (IND) vs (LL) Yunseok Jang (KOR)

[PKBasu]

Dalwinder lost to another uncle, 37 year old VM Ranjeet, in FQR, but then the latter retired in R1 at 36 02 against Ryuki Matsuda, who lost to 3rd seeded Palan in R2. Meanwhile LL Dalwinder upset the 6th seed Bekhan Atlangeriev (RUS, 661) in R1, thrashed WC-Jaisinghani in R2 and will play Palan in the QF. Sid Rawat is the only Indian to have lived up to his seeding this week. I hope he can go further.

35 year old Vishnu Vardhan hasn't dropped a set in Indore yet, beating Q-Matsumura (JPN, 1167) in R1 and Boris Butulija (SRB, 836) in R2. The latter had beaten Manish Sureshkumar in R1. Vishnu is also partnering the Serb in doubles; they are top-seeded and are in the SF. In fact, all four top seeds are in the doubles SF. Manish/Parikshat play Ritwik/Niki, and Vishnu/Boris play Kalyanpur/Bybel(US).

[jayakris]

(1) Oliver Crawford (USA) d. (Q) Kazuki Nishiwaki (JPN), 63 26 16
Vishnu Vardhan (IND) l. (LL) Woobin Shin (KOR), 16 57
(LL) Dalwinder Singh (IND) l. (3) Dominik Palan (CZE), 36 36
(5) Sidharth Rawat (IND) l. (LL) Yunseok Jang (KOR), 63 57 06

I don't even know what to say. Not even a semifinalist. Two lucky losers from Korea beat our payers. Sid was on the verge of winning and I don't know what happened to him in the third set.

Nikki and Rithvik are in their third straight doubles finals and 4th final in the last 5 events they played. They have won the previous 3 finals too. Vishnu and Serbian Butulija take them on.

[PKBasu]

Just horrible. Sid Rawat basically folded after the first set. He was down 1-3, and never fully recovered, and he totally collapsed in the final set. He looks fit, but perhaps has the affliction of most Indian players -- not being able to sustain form and fitness after taking the early lead (especially the first set). For Vishnu and Sid to lose to LLs is absolutely shocking.

[sameerph]

Horrible results. Our players fold up even when the field is a slight bit tougher even at home.

[sameerph]

Nikki and Rithvik are in their third straight doubles finals and 4th final in the last 5 events they played. They have won the previous 3 finals too. Vishnu and Serbian Butulija take them on.

Nikki and Rithwik beat Vishnu and his partner in final. Third title in as many weeks for this pair I think. They seem to be on a tear.