ITF W25 Solapur, W40 Navi Mumbai- December 18-31 2023

[jayakris]

She played a lot of tournaments in US this year, did not get great results. But, I think those matches against tough competition must have improved her game which reflected on her results this week.

Apparently she received some coaching tips (technical) in the US too... That also must be helping. She only had 18 DFs in ten sets this week, which is a significant improvement over the 3 to 5 DFs per set she was making earlier. So glad to see that!!

[PKBasu]

Terrific week of tennis from Sahaja Yamalapalli, crowned with a most well-deserved title, beating the favourite Ekaterina Makarova (who, at 186, is pretty close to her career-high ranking of 168 from a month ago; prior to that, her CH was actually 185). Sahaja has had a brilliant year (actually, brilliant couple of years) and it would be wonderful if she can make the SF or better next week to surge into the top-300.

[Dinesh]

Pretty brutal draw this week for Sahaja who’s playing Shrivalli in the first round. 2 Indians pitting each other in the first round of an Indian ITF - Atithee will find it hard to believe.

Anyway, Zeel Desai is in a slump again. Losing to a player that’s 200 spots below her.

Only good news of the day so far - Vaidehi/Shrivalli beat the top seeds in easy straight sets

[jayakris]

Tremendous gritty match by Sahaja against Shrivalli, who was playing quite well and going for her shots today. Sahaja was up 5-3 with triple set points on Shrivalli's serve but hit a bunch of balls into the net or too long, lost 15 of the next 18 points and called the trainers. They did some massage of her left side (waist), and it looked like she was having trouble twisting. Anyway, lost 4 games in a row and lost the set 57, as Shrivalli smelled blood and hit some screamers of her own too. The trainers were back a couple of games later once more, and Sahaja kept rubbing her left side, flexing and all that... but she kept winning points ... She must have hit at least 7 or 8 backhand down the line heat-winners that Shrivalli just could not handle. I think it was because she couldn't twist enough. But who cares... In the end, she won 57 61 62. The serve didn't seem to et affected much. 6 aces and 5 DFs.

Looks like Rutuja withdrew and was replaced by a Japanese LL.

Vaishnavi flashed well for two sets against #414 Kulambayeva in a 64 57 36 loss. She had some chances late in the second set to close the deal, and played well in some rallies there too, but just could not do it, and Kulambayeva took over.

Vaidehi had no trouble against the qualifier #963 Kazionova (who is no easy foe, as she was ranked #280 just a year ago). Vaidehi won 60 64. Humera and others who played today didn't do much. 18 year old Lakshmi Prabha Arunkumar, a surprise qualifier, actually didn't look too bad against the 6th seed Marcinkevica. She even went up a break 2-0 to start the match before losing 36 26. Looked good and athletic on some of the points.

Vaidehi is up against the top-seed #185 Makarova next. Sahaja against #479 Naho Sato. Only two Indians in the final-16

[prasen9]

Sahaja was seeded and held her own. Good. Now, I hope the injuries or whatever are not that bad and she is fit for the next match.

[jayakris]

And with Rutuja withdrawing from this week, Sahaja is already the India #3 just behind Karman and just ahead of Rutuja.

[Dinesh]

Both the ladies lost today. Clearly, Indian players can’t consistently perform, especially when there are bigger stakes up for grabs.

[sameerph]

Both the ladies lost today. Clearly, Indian players can’t consistently perform, especially when there are bigger stakes up for grabs.

To be fair, top 3 ranked Indians before this week (Ankita, Karman and Rutuja) were missing due to injuries and #4 Sahaja has also been struggling due to injury in last 2 days. Other Indian were much lower ranked than the foreign players.

[arjun2761]

Our doubles teams also wiped out in the QFs. The Japanese are having a lot of success here with 4 of the 8 QFs in singles, and 2 of the 4 SF pairs in doubles.

[PKBasu]

A pity that Sahaja peaked in the previous week, and got injured this week (when there are points available).