Challengers in Asia and Australia, Jan-Feb 2024

[PKBasu]

We can include the India Challengers in February in this thread as well.

At Nonthaburi II:
[Q1] Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND, 440) d. 9-Akira Santillan (AUS, 392; CH 144) 61 61
Having beaten a Japanese-Australian, he next plays Makoto Ochi (JPN, 487)

Ramkumar/Saketh are second seeds in doubles, and play Japan's Matsui/Uesugi in R1.
Niki/Rithvik play Santillan/DNovak in R1.

[prasen9]

Hopefully, no let up in the Q2. Qualify in Ramk.

[sameerph]

Yes, he qualified thru with another straight sets win.

At Nothanburi Challenger 2, Thailand (Hard)

[Q2] Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,475) d. Makoto Ochi (JPN,487) 64 62

Next,

[R1] Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,475) vs. Valendtin Vacherot (MON,219)

That is a tough draw as Vacherot won the title last week dropping just 1 set on the way and coming thru as a qualifier.

[prasen9]

Is it R1? Tough match. Good luck!

[PKBasu]

Tennys Sandgren and Bernard Tomic are among the luminaries in the singles main draw. Tomic (former world #17, now ranked in the 280s) apparently didn't merit an AO wildcard (even for the qualifying rounds) -- on the women's side, the Australian #1 Rodionova (WTA 105) was denied one as well (which drew quite a stink from many commentators).

[sameerph]

Is it R1? Tough match. Good luck!

Yes, R1 match. I changed it above. Touge one for RamK and it will show how much his game is back to it's old self.

[sameerph]

RamK lost in straight sets.

At Nothanburi Challenger 2, Thailand (Hard)

[R1] Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,475) l. Valendtin Vacherot (MON,219) 46 36

[prasen9]

Not yet at the 300+ level it seems ...

[PKBasu]

Vacherot was on a hot streak, having won the Nonthaburi I Challenger last week. But RamK too is on a streak, and should have put up more of a fight.

[PKBasu]

Saketh/Ramkumar bt Matsui/Uesugi of Japan 63 75.
Rithvik/Niki beat Santillan/Novak 62 64

[PKBasu]

Both Indian pairs lost in the next round (QF)

[sameerph]

Pair of Niki Poonacha and Rithvik Choudary Bollipalli upset second seeds and have reached the SF at Thailand Challenger. RamK amd Saketh got upset in first round though. This pair has had a bad series here.

At Nothanburi Challenger 3, Thailand (Hard)

[R1] Rithvik Choudary Bollipalli (IND) / Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha (IND) d. (2) Manuel Guinard (FRA)/ Gregoire Jacq (FRA) 63 64
[R1] Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) / Saketh Myneni (IND) l. Ray Ho (TPE) / Kaichi Uchida (JPN) 76(5) 57 7-10

[QF] Rithvik Choudary Bollipalli (IND) / Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha (IND) d. Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) / Christopher Rungkat (INA) 64 67(4) 10-5

Next,

[SF] Rithvik Choudary Bollipalli (IND) / Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha (IND) vs. Billy Harris (GBR) / Akira Santillan (AUS)

[sameerph]

Niki and Rithvik are thru to the finals.

[SF] Rithvik Choudary Bollipalli (IND) / Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha (IND) d. Billy Harris (GBR) / Akira Santillan (AUS) 76(3) 64


They play top seeds in the final.

Next,

[F] Rithvik Choudary Bollipalli (IND) / Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha (IND) vs. (1) Luke Johnson (GBR) / Skander Mansouri (TUN)

[prasen9]

Topple the top seeds!

[sameerph]

They started well against top seed going up 5-2 in first set but lost the next 5 games and than lost the second set with 1 break of serve.

[F] Rithvik Choudary Bollipalli (IND) / Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha (IND) l. (1) Luke Johnson (GBR) / Skander Mansouri (TUN) 57 46

Anyway, good run by this pair and in live rankings both Niki and Rithvik are new career highs of 136 and 151 respectively.