AITA Fenesta Nationals

[prashanthm]

Wonderful news Vatsal! Good luck for the rest of the tournament.....

[suresh]

Congratulations Vatsal. Have fun.

[vatsal323]

So turns out that Nitin was too good for me. He beat me 6-0 6-0 in a one-sided affair. He has got a decent serve and serves aces every now and then.He hit 6-8 aces in 6 service games. He is solid on both flanks, with a heavy topspin on the forehand side. He's very quick on his feet and was chipping and charging since it was grass.
I had a chat with him after the match. He trains under Saurav Sukul at South Club(where I used to train when I lived in Calcutta) and said that he was preparing for his class 10 boards alongside. He said he plans to go to Europe for training after a couple of years and until then will play whatever tournaments that take place here in India. He expects to be in the top 500 when the new rankings are released in January, with the 1996 born players moving out.

[sameerph]

Well done, Vatsal for qualifying for the main draw here. Hope you have more success in the future.

[vatsal323]

Thanks Sameer! I'll keep working hard.

[Varma]

Keep up the good work, Vatsal. Good luck and best wishes to you! We look forward to see you reach your goals and realize your dreams.

- Varma

[vatsal323]

Actually I started out pretty late. Picked up a racquet when I was 15. And being in a college like BITS Pilani, studies have to be one's priority. But our tennis team here, we practice every evening. Our team includes Rachith, a guy who used to train with Vasisht Cheruku until three years back, myself and a couple of more decent players. Let's see where I can end up.

[PKBasu]

Vatsal, if you are still in Calcutta, why don't we play tomorrow (24th) morning? I am playing around 9am at Tollygunge Club. Call me on local number 24405045 if you are keen!

[vatsal323]

I'm leaving for Raichak tomorrow morning with family for Christmas Eve. We can play on 27th/28th?

[jayakris]

Vatsal, if you are still in Calcutta, why don't we play tomorrow (24th) morning? I am playing around 9am at Tollygunge Club. Call me on local number 24405045 if you are keen!

vatsal, go easy on our friend. Allow him to at least do a ramK on you or something. That is if you end up playing him after managing to find this old place "Calcutta" that existed some decades back when our friend used to rule the tennis courts there. Age catches up, and our friend may not know it.

[Throwing flamesuit on, to ward off any PKB volleys at me...]

[knarayen]

Actually I started out pretty late. Picked up a racquet when I was 15. And being in a college like BITS Pilani, studies have to be one's priority. But our tennis team here, we practice every evening. Our team includes Rachith, a guy who used to train with Vasisht Cheruku until three years back, myself and a couple of more decent players. Let's see where I can end up.

Glad to hear..keep trying and work hard to keep your confidence high. Don't let a few bad scores get you down. I've been there before as well..it's hard combining academics with tennis but hard work, especially with endurance, foot speed, can make a huge difference, all else being equal. Let me know if you are coming to play in Texas futures..I can help with accommodation.

Prof

[vatsal323]

Actually I started out pretty late. Picked up a racquet when I was 15. And being in a college like BITS Pilani, studies have to be one's priority. But our tennis team here, we practice every evening. Our team includes Rachith, a guy who used to train with Vasisht Cheruku until three years back, myself and a couple of more decent players. Let's see where I can end up.

Glad to hear..keep trying and work hard to keep your confidence high. Don't let a few bad scores get you down. I've been there before as well..it's hard combining academics with tennis but hard work, especially with endurance, foot speed, can make a huge difference, all else being equal. Let me know if you are coming to play in Texas futures..I can help with accommodation.

Prof

Thanks for the tip there.
I think I'll take a while to get to playing Futures though. But I hope I'll get there

[vatsal323]

Vatsal, if you are still in Calcutta, why don't we play tomorrow (24th) morning? I am playing around 9am at Tollygunge Club. Call me on local number 24405045 if you are keen!

vatsal, go easy on our friend. Allow him to at least do a ramK on you or something. That is if you end up playing him after managing to find this old place "Calcutta" that existed some decades back when our friend used to rule the tennis courts there. Age catches up, and our friend may not know it.

[Throwing flamesuit on, to ward off any PKB volleys at me...]

Haha sure. All that if we find time to play together

[PKBasu]

Hey Jay, you scared off poor Vatsal, who never did phone me to set up our match!

As for volleys, they are still reasonable but the problem is speed in following the serve or strong return to the net. My most potent weapon at this age is actually the drop-shot...
Now, Calcutta continues to exist -- as you will know if you read the Telegraph (the city's newspaper of record). "Kolkata" was always the Bengali pronunciation for the city (formally "Kolikata"), but I refuse to use "Kolkata" as the English word for the city -- as I think it is a useless redundancy to try and marginally alter the name just to feel good about confusing foreigners about the identity of our cities!

[jayakris]

Oh, I didn't know that there was an "i" in the Bengali name for Calcutta. By the way, "Bengal" is a wrong spelling too, am I right? It should be closer to Bangal or Bongal or something? Like in the "Banga" in the national anthem (or "Vanga" as I had always seen in sanskrit works)