Karman Kaur Thandi

[Omkara]

Karman has entered W100+H in Dubai for the week starting December 5. After her 40 points drop off in 2 weeks time, Karman will drop to around 260 and will need a QF in Dubai it seems to try to make it top 240 for AO qualies.

Agreed. But a player playing in December is like a kid studying the night before exams. I still feel it was better for her to recover from the injury, train super hard and come back for new season.

[SaniaFan]

Why is Karman directly playing round of 16? She is playing against second seeded Kristina Mladenovic who lost her last 3 first round matches.And two of them incomplete. So she may also be recovering from some injury. It is a winnable match.

[jayakris]

^^ They are waiting for qualifiers to be placed in the main draw. She will play a Q/LL player (and so does Mladenovich) in the first round. Here is the draw... They will add the eight missing names after the Q3 today (Monday morning). It's odd that all 8 qualifiers will be in the lower half of the draw and all 4 wildcards in the upper half.

[jayakris]

At the W100+H in Dubai, UAE (Hard)

[R1] Karman Kaur Thandi (IND) vs (Q) Peangtarn Plipuech (THA,343), 10:30 am Tuesday (12 noon IST)

[SaniaFan]

KKT lost 6-2,2-6,2-6.

[jayakris]

Did anybody see the match. I saw her totally dominating the first set and went to sleep, not expecting a loss at all. Was making some unforced errors here and there but was playing well. Did some physical issue become obvious later?

A normal Karman has no business losing to Plipuech. But this is the story of Indian tennis these days. They all lose, whatever the reason is. If they win a title or something, then it is worse - months of losses start, with injuries or poor form.

[Omkara]

What an utter waste of resources

[jayakris]

^^^ What resources?

[sameerph]

Could not watch but sad to see her lose like that. Must be some physical issue. With that her chances of making AO qualies is pretty much gone.

I think she had to take a chance and play here. Grand slam qualies gives big money these days and she had to explore all opportunities to try to get in. Win in today's match would have taken her close to 250 and with outside chance of making it to AO qualies. 2 wins and she would have certainly made it.

[Omkara]

^^^ What resources?

Money time mental bandwidth.

She should have been in off season training

[jayakris]

Could not watch but sad to see her lose like that. Must be some physical issue. With that her chances of making AO qualies is pretty much gone.

I think she had to take a chance and play here. Grand slam qualies gives big money these days and she had to explore all opportunities to try to get in. Win in today's match would have taken her close to 250 and with outside chance of making it to AO qualies. 2 wins and she would have certainly made it.

Well, if that is so important, and she feels physically okay, just go get a wildcard to Solapur and play? I won't recommend it normally, but now that off-season plans are screwed up anyway, go get to SF or something and pick up some points in India? .... Again, only if there is no physical issue.

[sameerph]

Cut off date for AO qualies is 18 Dec and with 1 week delay in updation of points for W25's, Indian W25 would not count for AO qualies. That is why she did not enter there it seems but entered Dubai.

[arjun2761]

I'm fine with her taking a shot in Dubai although would have been happier if she had pulled out the win.

Karman, like many of our players not named Ramk, do not consistently play throughout the year likely due to financial and logistical reasons (and also in Karman's case due to injury). So unless she was part of a conditioning camp or something like that which she skipped, playing where she can optimize travel and points makes sense. Here the points could have gotten her into Australian Open and Dubai is basically extreme western India!

[jayakris]

I don't think Karman has financial issues though. Just physical issues. She plays the kind of game, where she needs her power and accuracy, and needs to be physically fit.

[jayakris]

Cut off date for AO qualies is 18 Dec and with 1 week delay in updation of points for W25's, Indian W25 would not count for AO qualies. That is why she did not enter there it seems but entered Dubai.

Oh yeah, W25 still has that one-week delay. When the hell will ATP and WTA drop this one-week delay business for ITF events? It is a remnant of the days of fax machines when there were possible delays on Sundays to get scores transmitted before the ranks were made. Horrible.