[Tennis] Misc. Results for Indians abroad...

[PKBasu]

What an astonishing win for LP/Rikl in the Dubai final, 63 60 over the 2001 US Open doubles champions, after having just beaten the great pairing of Woodbridge/Bjorkman in the semis. Perhaps the surface and weather really suited Leander, but this is the sort of result we were used to in the past, and it is wonderful to see LP on top of his game in right earnest again. Rikl doesn't make the Czech team as a doubles specialist any more, so it is Leander's ability to spot the right partner that has worked in his favour again -- just as it did with Mahesh years ago, when MB was little more than a promising college player with no more than a modest future. LP announced himself as a serious world-class doubles player at the US Open in 1993 (when he made the semi with Sebastian Lareau -- who recently retired) and probably gave up a couple of years of titles in order to hook up with MB. Now he's gone through about a year of struggle in order to find another partner after MB abruptly dropped him last year. Wondeful to finally see him find his feet again. Go LP GO!
We should expect one or two Slam doubles titles this year -- and perhaps even one or two more MxD titles (with Martina?).
Sania meanwhile continues to slice through the Futures/Satellite circuit, with yet another victory in west Africa. She is already playing like a top 200 player, but needs to accumulate more points at the sub-Challenger level before beginning to regularly play Challengers within a couple of months, and possibly try full tour events by about September (and the USO could be the one Slam she should realistically aim to qualify into; next year's AO wild card for an Asian player is definitely within reach for Sania).
And of course we had a wonderful victory over Pakistan at the World Cup, after an epic batting performance by Tendulkar (possibly the greatest World Cup innings, given the quality of the opposition bowling). All this following Arjun Atwal's second title on the European (and 5th on the Asian) PGA tour last month. Quite a sensational fortnight for Indian sport.

[Dhruv]

Warrnambool, Australia. $10K leg-1 of 4-week satellite circuit

5. CHAKRAVARTI Rushmi (IND,385) vs GERS Ilke (NZL,505)
Q. MCGANN Carolyn (AUS) vs WANG I-Ting (TPE,558)
Q. SWART Gisalle (RSA) vs WC PICONE Lara (AUS)
Q. DE BEER Surina (RSA,934) vs 4. VAN ELDEN Kristen (AUS,364)

I guess no other Indian women showed up. Oh well.. Didn't Rushmi just lose to Ilke Gers last week or is it my imagination.

[jayakris]

At the Cairo $10K satellite,

Megha Vakharia (IND,579) vs (3) Amanda Hopmans (NED,350)

Tough matchup .. 23 yr old Amanda was in the top-75 four years back, though quite down now.

In doubles,
(3) Daniela Bercek (YUG)/ Megha Vakharia (IND) vs Yomna farid (EGY)/ Amany Khalifa (EGY)

Megs moved up 109 spots in the ranking this week.

Jay

[jayakris]

At the NZL F2 futures in Christchurch, the Indians are all in the upper quarter of the draw.

(1) Federico Browne (ARG) vs Ajay Ramaswami (IND)
Jun Kato (JPN) vs Mustafa Ghouse(IND)
Sunil Kumar Sipaeya (IND) vs (WC) G.D. Jones (AUS)
(8) Diego Veronelli (ARG) vs Konstantin Gruber (AUT)

Ajay has a tough match. GD Jones is quite a talented young kid - so SKS needs to be careful. As for Mustafa, who knows? ..

In doubles, SKS is not playing with Rishi. I don't know why.

(1) Federico Browne (ARG)/ Mark Nielsen (NZL) vs Sonchat Ratiwatana (THA)/ Sunil Kumar Sipaeya (IND)

(4) Mustafa Ghouse/ Ajay Ramaswami (IND) vs (WC) Adam McNeil/ Adam Thompson (NZL)

Jay

[jayakris]

Nice revenge by Rushmi
(5) Rushmi Chakravarthi d. Ilke Gers, 62 16 63
She plays I-Ting Wang next in R2.

Doubles:
(2) R.Chakravarthi/ Ryoko Takemura (JPN) d. Arpi Kojian (USA)/ Napaporn Tongsalee (THA), 63 62

Jay

[Dhruv]

All three Indians lost in the first round in NZ yet again. The Indian mens players don't seem to be faring as well as of late in the singles department.

(1) Federico Browne (ARG) bt Ajay Ramaswami (IND) 63 62
Jun Kato (JPN) bt Mustafa Ghouse(IND) 63 63
(WC) G.D. Jones (AUS) bt Sunil Kumar Sipaeya (IND) 46 64 62

[jayakris]

I am terribly distressed at how poorly Sunil Kumar has played since last September. I don't know what is up. GD Jones is talented, but he is still a 16 year old you know ..

Here is what the NZL federation website says,

".. drawn out but well fought match by the Aucklander ... His success in the first round came courtesy of his power which had the wristy Indian stranded on several occasions. Another factor in Jones favour was his patience .."

I have had enough. I don't want hear of all this wristy stuff and impatience anymore about ANY Indian. Ground strokes, ground strokes, and more hard ground strokes - that's the name of the game. I thought Sunil was well-exposed to the futility of the writsy stuff in world tennis these days (except as an ocasional surprise element). Come on! .. May be I am overstating it and I am badly ignorant of tennis, but this has got to change in Indian tennis till we see results.

Come on Sunil - get it together and do well next week.

Frustrated as hell ..

Jay

PS: I guess I was hoping for a lot from SKS at NZL .. Harsh Mankad was recently telling me about how much SKS has improved physically in recent months, after seeing him at the Davis Cup. But it looks like the results are still not coming. Let us hope it will come soon.

[jayakris]

Doubles from Christchurch

(1)Federico Browne/Mark Nielsen (ARG/NZL) d.
Sonchat Ratiwatana/Sunil Kumar Sipaeya (THA/IND), 62 63

Domenic Marafiote (AUS)/ Dirk Stegman (RSA) d.
Toshiaki Sakai (JPN)/ Rishi Sridhar (IND) 64 63

(4)Mustafa Ghouse/Ajay Ramaswami (IND)
d. (wc) Adam McNeil/Adam Thompson (NZL), 36 61 63
(4)Mustafa Ghouse/Ajay Ramaswami (IND)
vs Matt Klinger (CAN)/ Ryan Russell (JAM)

Jay

[jayakris]

At Cairo $10K, Megs lost in singles, won in doubles.

(3) Amanda Hopmans (NED) d. Megha Vakharia (IND), 46 61 61

(3) Daniela Bercek (YUG)/ Megha Vakharia (IND)
d. Heidi El Tabakh (EGY)/ Simona Matei (ROM), 76(2) 62
(3) Daniela Bercek (YUG)/ Megha Vakharia (IND)
vs Amanda Hopmans (NED)/ Elise Tamaela (NED)

Jay

[nkoth]

At the Indian Wells ATP tourney, Prakash lost today in the first round of qualies after getting a wildcard into the tournament.

Robby Ginepri USA (8) d. Prakash Amritraj USA 63 63

-neil

[Dhruv]

Thanks niel, Hopefully more people will post updates and stuff like that making life a little easier for the much harried Jay.

At the NZ F3 tournament in the qualifying round our players Jaco Mathew and Rishi Sridhar won their second round matches to advance to the final and qualifying round.

Jaco Mathew(IND,958) d. Dane Fernandez(AUS,NR) 63 76(7)
Rishi Sridhar(IND,852) d. Anuwat Dalodom(THA,1333) 62 61

In the qualifying round the matchups are:'

Jaco Mathew(IND,958) vs Sanchai Ratiwatana(THA,886)
Rishi Sridhar(IND,852) vs Vince Mellino(AUS,NR)

The other Indians are already in the main draw and atleast one of them maybe two will be seeded this time around as the entry list for this event is weaker than the rest.

[Dhruv]

Rushmi's quarter in the draw at Benalla

Code: Select all

6.CHAKRAVARTHI Rushmi (IND,392)  vs   CHUANG Chia-Jung (TPE,434)
  TONGSALEE Napaporn (THA,417)  vs   TAKEMURA Ryoko (JPN,491) 
  MATIC Antonia (GER,441)       vs   CHEUNG Lauren (AUS,509)
  VAN DEN HURK Andrea (NED,469) vs 2.SEKULOVSKI Beti (AUS,308)

Doubles R1

SZILI Adriana/VAN ELDEN Kristen (AUS) vs #2 CHAKRAVARTHI Rushmi/TAKEMURA Ryoko (IND/JPN)

[jayakris]

According to a news item at the NZL federation site, Ratiwatana and Vince Mellino are playing NZL guys in the main draw. That means Rishi and Jaco got upset in the final round of qualies. Oh brother - I thought the qualies had a weaker field this time .. still no cigar.

Awaiting the main draw, but Sunil Kumar gets the 4th seed Dan Willman (NZL) - that's what we know so far.

Jay

[Dhruv]

Well so yet again at the NZ futures the Indian contingent lost. :-?

Jaco Mathew(IND,958) lost to Sanchai Ratiwatana(THA,886) 57 36
Rishi Sridhar(IND,852) lost to Vince Mellino(AUS,NR) 57 06

In the main draw everything seems set for another Indian wipeout in the first round
MD Macthups

4 WILLMAN Dan (NZL,449) vs SIPAEYA Sunil-Kumar (IND,536)
5 BOHLI Stephane (SUI,463) vs RAMASWAMI Ajay (IND,617)

Mustafa has an easy match path to the quarters compared to the other two but ....
7 GHOUSE Mustafa (IND,518) Q. PRAMONO Hendri Susilo (INA,958)
Q MELLINO Vince (AUS,NR) vs WC CHEYNE Rob (NZL,1038)

So there it is. It is about time that one of these players won atleast a match. Otherwise this will have been a trip of 3 $10K future events, 5 Indian players in each, and by the looks of it so far ZERO POINTS and ZERO MD WINS so far which means.... pardon me my math is not what it used to be ..... an average of ZERO POINTS and ZERO MD WINS per player Is one MD win too much to ask. Come on guys you must have acclimitised by now.

I guess good news in the doubles
QR1
MATHEW Jaco/SRIDHAR Rishi (IND) bt BAYER Markus/HORNYA Philip (GER/SUI) 76(5) 60
QLFR Round
MATHEW Jaco/SRIDHAR Rishi (IND) vs FURUKAWA Hayato/HUNG Brian (JPN/HKG)

In the doubles main draw:
GHOUSE Mustafa/RAMASWAMI Ajay(IND) vs WC HUNT Alistair/SHORTALL James (NZL)
SIPAEYA Sunil Kumar/WILLINSKY Scott (IND/JAM) vs SUN Peng/WANG JR Yu (CHN)

[nkoth]

Sunitha Rao, our highest ranked woman of Indian descent, is at the Women's $50k Usta Challenger Of Arizona in Mesa this week.

So far, she's won her first round qualie in a mild upset:

(177) Sunitha Rao d. (149) 4-Maria Goloviznina RUS 6-4 3-6 6-3

Congrats! Next up is (179) Christina Wheeler of Australia in Q2...

-neil