ITF Team Juniors (u16 Davis/Fed Cup, u14 World Jun. Tennis)

[sameerph]

^^ Most of our top guys have played these under 14 team tournments- Ramk, Sumit, Yuki were all part of those teams ( go back and check this same thread).

Not sure about players from other countries but I am quite sure quite a few would have played these age group tournaments.

[jayakris]

Yeah, I think these junior events have been quite reasonable, and most of the top guys from other countries also have been in them. I don't think we have had too many players who did well in the u14 levels who did not pan out later (except for injury type reasons). There must have certainly been some age-questionable cases in the past, but not too many.

[Atithee]

Good. Improves my perspective. Thanks.

[sameerph]

And our under 14 boys beat Korea in the SF to reach the final. We have now also qualified for world group top 16.

Good work in beating China, Australia and Korea this week. For a long time have not seen any Indian tennis team beat these 3 teams in a week.

[jayakris]

Wow, fantastic! So Pahwa and Katakam are good players!!

[jayakris]

Here are the results so far:

Pool A vs. Singapore
TAVISH PAHWA d. JUSTIN KAI YI LIE, 62 62
HRUTHIK KATAKAM d. ANDRE LEE HARNADI, 61 61
FAZAL ALI MEER/ TAVISH PAHWA d. JUSTIN KAI YI LIE/ BRENNON, NG 62 62

Pool A vs. China
TAVISH PAHWA d. XIAOHAN JIANG, 60 63
HRUTHIK KATAKAM d. CHUAN DING, 36 63 61
FAZAL ALI MEER/ TAVISH PAHWAd. XIAOHAN JIANG/ SHUNDU YUAN, 64 64

Pool A vs. Japan
SHINTARO OGAKI d. TAVISH PAHWA, 60 67(5) 60
TAKAHIRO KAWAGUCHI d. HRUTHIK KATAKAM, 63 63
TAKAHIRO KAWAGUCHI/SHINTARO OGAKI vs HRUTHIK KATAKAM/ TAVISH PAHWA, not played

QF - vs Australia
TAVISH PAHWA d. LUCAS HAN, 64 64
HRUTHIK KATAKAM d. TAIKI TAIKIZAWA 64 60
HRUTHIK KATAKAM/ TAVISH PAHWA vs HEATON PANN/ TAIKI TAIKIZAWA, not played

SF - vs. Korea
TAVISH PAHWA d. JUNSEO JANG, 64 63
HRUTHIK KATAKAM d. DONGJAE KIM 67(4) 53 Ret.
HRUTHIK KATAKAM/ TAVISH PAHWA vs YUL HO JUNG/ DONGJAE KIM, not played.

Looks like we got a little but of help today, via a retirement by the Korean at the #2 spot. But Korea was trying to survive and we had an upper hand already. Seeing the scores of the pool matches against Japan, the final tomorrow may be tough.

But Japan also did not look that great against Thailand in the other SF. Kawaguchi lost to Dharma Pantaratorn in the second match, but in the decider, Thailand doubles team retired at 26 11.

By the way, I didn't know that Hruthik Katakam is playing the #1 spot for India. I thought Tavish Pahwa must be... But actually Hruthik is the India #1 now, with Tavish at #2 in AITA u14 rankings. Fazal Ali Meer is #3, but with less than half the AITA points of Hruthik and Tavish who are way ahead. Having two good players at a high level is the key in these junior team events.

[arjun2761]

Even more historical update:  How we did in 2003 in the world finals

2003 Sep 19:  The going has been extremely tough for our u16 teams so far at the Junior u16 Fed & Davis Cup final-16 in Essen, Germany .. Both teams have gone winless in 4 ties each (first three in round robin, and today's tie to determine the 13th-16th positions) .. So both the boys team and the girls teams will fight tomorrow to avoid finishing last in their fields ... Junior Davis Cup: Tuesday: IND l. YUG (1) 1-2 ..#2 Jeevan Nedunchezian d. Bojan Bozovic, 64 60 .. #1 Rupesh Roy l. Novak Djokovic, 46 26 .. Sumit Prakash Gupta/ R.Roy l. N.Djokovic/ Slavko Bjelica, 06 26 .. Wednesday: IND l. FRA (7) 0-3 .. #2 Jeevan l. Mathieu Dehanie 36 16 .. #1 Rupesh l. Jeremy Chardy 36 46 .. Gupta/ Roy l. J.Chardy/ Jeremy Drean 76(4) 06 16.. Thursday: IND l. COL 1-2 .. #2 Jeevan l. Francisco Franco 75 46 36 .. #1 Rupesh d. Santiago Giraldo 16 61 75 .. Gupta/ Roy l. S.Giraldo/ F.Franco 64 36 36 .. India finished 4th in the group .. Friday: 13-16 playoff IND l. ECU 0-3 .. #2 Jeevan l. #1 Andres Arango 16 36 .. #1 Rupesh l. #1 David Gonzalez 63 26 46 .. Gupta/ Nedunchezian l. A.Arango/ Jose Zunino 57 46 .. Saturday 15-16 playoff IND vs MEX ... Junior Fed Cup: Tuesday: IND l. JPN (6) 0-3 .. #2 Kartiki Bhat l. Megumi Fukui 46 57 .. #1 Tara Iyer l. Mari Tanaka 57 61 36 .. K.Bhat/ T.Iyer l. Mika Kawamura/ M.Tanaka 36 26 .. Wednesday: IND l. POL (3) 0-3 .. #2 Sandhya Nagaraj l. Marta Lesniak 26 36 .. #1 Tara l. Magdalena Kiszczynska 26 26 .. Bhat/ Iyer l. Anna Korzeniak/ M.Lesniak 36 63 26 .. Thursday: IND l. RSA 0-3 ..#2 Kartiki l. Ghizela Schutte 36 46 .. #1 Tara l. Kate McDade 46 75 8-10 .. Bhat/ Iyer l. G.Schutte/ Sylvanie Spangenberg, 46 16 .. India finished 4th in the group .. Friday: 13-16 playoff: IND l. TPE 0-3 .. #2 Sandhya l. I-Hsuan Hwang  36 62 26 .. #1 #1 Tara Iyer l. Wen-Hsin Hsu 16 46 .. K.Bhat/ T.Iyer l. W-H.Hsu/ Yu-Ting Lin 36 36 .. Saturday 15-16 playoff IND vs BRA (8) .. Though I didn't expect either team to do all that well, in the absence of two key players, Sanaa Bhambri and Sanam Singh, I did not expect it to turn into this kind of a nightmare for our kids! .. The toughest tie must have been the boys' 3rd tie against unseeded Columbia in which they played three three-set matches and lost two of them .. Tara's loss yesterday looks to be a heartbreaker too .. The bottom line is that the boys are 2-10 in their matches and the girls are 0-12 in theirs .. Ouch!

Sep 21:  In the final placement ties at the u16 Junior Fed/Davis Cup at Essen, Germany, the Indian boys finished #15 and the girls finished #16 .. 2-1 win for the boys today and 1-2 loss for the girls in a heartbreaker, where we seemed to have the upperhand most of the way before losing out in the end .. Simon from the fanclub was there today and sent the scores -- 15-16 playoff IND d. MEX 2-1 ..#2 Jeevan Nedunchezian l. Johnny Hamui 36 06 .. #1 Rupesh Roy l. Miguel Angel Reyes Varela 61 61 .. Sumit Prakash Gupta/ R.Roy d. M.A.R.Varela/ Alberto Rojas, 64 63 .. 15-16 playoff IND l. BRA (8) 1-2 .. #2 Sandhya Nagaraj d. Bruna Paes 61 61 .. #1 Tara Iyer l. Teliana Pereira 75 46 46 .. K.Bhat/ T.Iyer l. T.Pereira/ B.Paes, 64 57 57 .. Ooh, poor Tara, who was pushed to #1 spot in Sanaa's absence seems to have had a nightmare of a tournament, seemingly playing her heart out but coming out on the wrong end of the scoreline in three 3-set singles matches and two 3-set doubles matchs in the 5 ties ..

With Sanaa and Sanam missing, we got eaten up in the final-16s of bth boys and girls in 2003.

Jay

Quite the gem from page 17 of this topic. Rupesh was competitive with the Djoker.

[Atithee]

^^In a quick scan, only Novak and Jeremy Chardy seem recognizable names to me. None in the girls (or ladies?) side.

[jayakris]

None in the girls (or ladies?) side.

"Girls" is absolutely fine, as is "boys" if they are u18 and in the ITF junior levels. Just don't call anybody over 18 as a boy or girl

[sameerph]

Our boys lost the final against Japan 0-2. Hruthik Katakam played a very good match against Japan #1 - lost 61 46 46.

Anyway, these boys Hruthik Katakam and Tanish Pahwa look good which is good news after a drought in these events in recent years. Now, they will get some good exposure against the best in the world towards later part of the year.

[jayakris]

A good article in The Hindu about the trials for the u16 Billie Jean Cup team. Maaya and who else, is the question. Looks like Diya Ramesh.
Maaya and Diya on course to qualify for BJK Cup World Group

How tall *is* Maaya? Looks quite tall in the picture. Looks like she has been getting taller, which is good news.

[sameerph]

Yes, she looks much taller than everyone else in the picture. With Maaya in this team, team should stand a good chance of qualifying for world group.

[jayakris]

Here are the players undergoing trials in Delhi. Girls this week (for May 13-18 Asian qualifiers final-16 in Shymket, UZB) and boys next week (for 20-25, also at Shymket).

u16 Girls: Maaya Rajeshwaran, Diya Ramesh, Sohini Mohanty, Yashika Shokeen, Aakruti Sonkusare, Hirva Rangani
u16 Boys: Aradhya Kshitij, Samarth Sahita, V Thirumurugan, Prateek Sheoran, Kanishk Kathuria, Ranvir Singh

Barring surprises, I expect the first three to make the team in each group.

On the girls' side, it is the top-6 in AITA's u16 rankings. But I am really shocked that Rishitha Reddy Basireddy, ranked ITF 311 as the third Indian u18 player (behind #151 Krisha and #157 Maaya and well ahead of #481 Sohini and #539 Diya Ramesh) is missing from the group. It is really a horrible omission. I guess she has not played enough domestic events, and is just below the top 6 now in ranking. Also, it is quite disappointing that Prisha Shinde and Harithasree Vankatesh have not done well lately and have fallen in rankings.

The first three on the boys side are the top-3 in Indian u16 rankings. Shockingly, the best of the lot (Arnav Paparkar) is missing. He is ranked just below #402 Samarth and #457 Aradhya in ITF rankings (way ahead of everybody else from 2008/2009, except #687 Praneel Sharma), and I think Arnav should have been playing #1 or #2 for us, but he is missing for some reason. I think Praneel Sharma also deserved to be in the list of 6, maybe over Kanshik Kathuria. Praneel is in good form too, having reached the final of the ITF J5 last week in Raipur (but I don't know if there were any other reasons known to AITA why he was not picked).

Basically we need to have two good players at a top level to have any chance to advance from the regionals. If Rishitha and Arnav were also there, I would have put our chances much better. Hopefully Diya and Aaradhya are good enough to support Maaya and Samarth. Or maybe Thirumurugan is really good like his domestic ranking shows (he has not played any ITF junior events, I believe)

[sameerph]

Yes, Arnav Papakar should absolutely have been there. Previously they used to just select the team based on top 3 in AITA rankings, this time they had trials with 6 being called for trials. So, that is a welcome change. But, while doing this they should have called all those who are good in ITF rankings but not so much in AITA rankings due to playing lower number of AITA events.

I am hopeful of girls team due to Maaya but not so much on boys side .

[sameerph]

Under 16 girls team is selected as Maaya Rajeshwaran, Diya Ramesh and Yashika Shokeen. Maaya and Diya are expected, Yashika Shokeen is rather unexpected choice as third player.