Harsh Mankad thread (archive-1)

SaniaFan · Post by **SaniaFan** » Mon Feb 17, 2003 7:56 pm

Yeah I mean if tomorrow Leander decides to play singles do you expect Harsh to beat him?? Rankings are often deceptive.

gvhvhg · Post by **gvhvhg** » Mon Feb 17, 2003 11:19 pm

Yeah I mean if tomorrow Leander decides to play singles do you expect Harsh to beat him??

Is Luke Shields Leander Paes?

I am a little confused :-? :-? about your post Saniafan because it seems like you think that Jay said that Shields was world # 73 in the world and then dropped in the rankings because of a doubles career!!!!!! Jay did NOT say that! He said he was a goood Us youngster.

Read the post more carefully!!!!!!!!1

SaniaFan · Post by **SaniaFan** » Tue Feb 18, 2003 12:12 am

Okay. I am sorry gv(I'll call you that 'cse its difficilt to remember whether v is before h or after h. oh!! its both

).

I am sorry not for what I said but for the way I said it. Did you find it disrespectful? I didn't mean it to be.

Luke is no Leander Peas. Not yet any way. But what Jay was try to say here was (correct me Jay if I am wrong) that often Junior players are much better than their rankings. Specially those who were constantly in Top 10s or 20s in the Junior ranks(in Lukes case top 5 in the US junior ranks). So if Luke has a ranking of 13xx it does not mean that he is such a bad player as much the same way as leander who has a ranking of 1000 but he is much better than that.

In fact that is why many of us here beleive that Sania should probably play the Top juniors rather than playing meaning less future(like in Nigeria). if she plays top 20 juniors she'll still be playing different set of players, maybe a better set of different players. But that is pbly for a different thread...

PKBasu · Post by **PKBasu** » Fri Feb 28, 2003 4:52 pm

Harsh came through a tough qualifier (actually a very competitive knock-out playoff contest for a Wild card into the tournament) and is now in the QF of the Futures in Texas (where Jay says the winds, etc, do not suit his game at all). Harsh's hard work is paying off. Hopefully he'll pull-off a win over his next opponent (ranked in the top 300), or otherwise come home to Mumbai and do well at his hometown futures.
Go Harsh!

Post by **jayakris** » Sat Mar 01, 2003 2:24 am

Actually, more than the wind, what was the problem during his upset of Klaasen was that the temperature was just at zero celsius or less. It can get quite cold down in Texas too - though not this late usually. It was snowing down in some part of Texas earlier this week..

Tamer El Sawy of Egypt, who was as high as around #110 in the world about 5 or 6 years back, has been giving Harsh some coaching advice down there. Tamer got interested in Harsh last week and has apparently invited him to go to his academy in Tampa to train for a few days before leaving for India.

Waiting to see if he won the QF today or not. Second seed Pedroso - it would have been a tough match.

Jay

Post by **jayakris** » Sat Mar 01, 2003 3:15 am

HM couldn't pull another upset today and fell 26 57 in a rain delayed match under the lights. Pedroso is a tough customer, I guess. HM said he still needs to find a way to get over the cramp problems he seems to still get. He has mostly been working only on fitness for a while, from what he says. Says he feels completely fit to go but cramps affect his legs late in some of the matches. Doesn't know exactly why it happens yet and whether he should make some changes in his diet and all that now. Will see if any expert in Tampa can help him next week on that ...

Not a hugely successful trip to the US but he did pull off a good top-400 win and three points to move up to around 460 or so. Also, good that he is getting 10 days of coaching/training too from a decent pro (El Sawy).

Looking forward to the two $15K futures, Davis Cup and the two challengers in India over the next two months. Will schedule things after april according to how many points he makes from those. May probably head to Europe then.

I hope he makes some 15+ from the futures and 15+ from the challengers. Tall order but he can move to the 350-375 range by then if he pulls it off. He will definitely be inside top-400 and looking for challenger qualies by then though.

That's the update on Harsh.

Jay

PS: Changing the thread title from "CMON HARSH" to "Harsh Mankad Thread" .. We will go after him when he has his next bad loss - which is not very often; he is one of the guys who rarely loses to people he shouldn't lose to ..

gvhvhg · Post by **gvhvhg** » Tue Mar 04, 2003 2:50 am

Just wondering, how far did luke shields go after beating harsh?

Post by **jayakris** » Tue Mar 04, 2003 4:31 am

Shields won the next round to make the main draw and then lost, I think. No, he is not a super-talent or anything, I don't think - but a good player. Harsh messed that up and should have won it. On the other hand, I think he had won something like 15 qualifying matches against lower ranked player since hitting the tour last summer - so he finally had a bad day in the qualies. Generally HM is probably the most consistent among Indian players in avoiding losses to lower ranked players ...

Jay

Post by **Dhruv** » Sat Apr 26, 2003 2:11 pm

I thought after Harsh's performance a Harsh thread was in order.

PKBasu · Post by **PKBasu** » Sun Apr 27, 2003 7:47 am

I agree. Perhaps it's worth recalling that, at the Bangalore Challenger, he beat third-seeded Jean-Francois Bachelot in the first round (63 64), the Russian Vlasov in the second (75 63) and the Dutchman Fred Hemmes (67 63 63) in the Quarterfinal. All three were ranked well above the 457 ranked Harsh (Bachelot around 155, Vlasov 180 and Hemmes 299). Harsh lost a heart-breaker of a semifinal to eventual winner Gregory Carraz of France (ranked 150 but someone who has been ranked closer to 100 in his decade-long career; the man is 28 years old now and this was his first Challenger title!).
Son of former Mumbai cricket captain and India test player Ashok (which makes him the grandson of India's greatest cricketing allrounder Vinoo Mankad), and former Asian women's tennis champion Nirupama (nee Vasant), the 23-year-old Harsh has gradually begun to realise the potential he displayed as a junior. He won a Futures title in Canada two years ago and one in India earlier this year, so his progression has been steady. After his heroics at Bangalore, Harsh will likely be ranked 350-360, still India's second-ranked player (just behind Rohan, who is ranked around 340). He spent two fruitful years studying Economics at the University of Minnesota (where the Economics faculty is among the top 10 in the US) and was, for about a month during his sophomore year, ranked #1 in the NCAA two years ago (although he lost in the quarters of the annual NCAA championship).
This may be the year in which Harsh breaks from the pack to make his breakthrough into the world's top 200. All the best to him over the next few months, especially next week at the Delhi Challenger.

BSharma · Post by **BSharma** » Sun Apr 27, 2003 9:25 pm

Harsh deserves a thread and I am hoping that by the end of the year he can have his own page in this web site. Rohan and Harsh are the 2nd and 3rd best singles players in India now and it is fun to see them rising up the ranks even though they have taken different routes.

Here is a question for people who have seen his game or those who know him well. Is his game better suited for the clay court, hard court or grass court? Since he is already 23 years old and does not have many years to reach the peak, should he concentrate to become a better player for a particular court surface (kind of like the Spaniards)?

Best of luck to Harsh at the Delhi Challenger.

nkoth · Post by **nkoth** » Sun Apr 27, 2003 11:29 pm

Aha! I knew we already had a Harsh thread going!

Actually, this one's pretty negative so let's stick to the other one.

Go Harsh!

-neil

Post by **Dhruv** » Mon Apr 28, 2003 12:53 pm

Well, I thought there was an old thread but was too lazy to go search. I agree with you the the old one is negative so I'll lock this one and we'll stick to the new re-incarnated positive Harsh thread.

gvhvhg · Post by **gvhvhg** » Mon Apr 28, 2003 8:34 pm

Well done harsh, now in the top 400 for the first time....it think.

I am hoping that either harsh or rohan can compete in gs qualifyers by wimbledon and the us open.

nkoth · Post by **nkoth** » Mon Apr 28, 2003 10:06 pm

He's now officially ranked 370 in this week's rankings (up a nice 87 spots) and has 69 ATP points.

Woohoo!

-neil

The Sports-India Community