European and Asian ATP / WTA tournaments Sept-Oct 2017

[sameerph]

Yuki wins the first set 6-2 in 25 mins.

Keep it up.

[sameerph]

Yuki gets the first break of the second set to lead 3-2. He had couple of breakpoint chances in the earlier game too which he could not convert.

Couple of holds for 4-3. Saifulin is getting the range on his serves now and fired 2 aces and 2 big serves in that last service game. Yuki has to be careful to hold on to his own service games.

Yuki holds at love for 5-3.

Saifiulin holds at 15 for 4-5. Now, Yuki has to keep his cool and serve out the match.

[prasen9]

5-3. Go Yuki! No choking now.

5-4. Serve it out! 40-15. Done. 6-4. 20 points. He should go up to around 138. Next up Damir Dzumhur, seeded sixth, if seedings hold. World #38 from Bosnia-Herzegovina. Or Thomas Fabbiano of Italy. World #75.

[sameerph]

And he does it easily in the end.

At $746K VTB Kremlin Cup 2017, Moscow, Russia

[R1] (Q) Yuki Bhambri (IND,152) d. (WC) Roman Safiullin (RUS,451) 62 64

Although second set was a bit closer, it never looked like Yuki was in a spot of bother. Frankly, Safiullin did not look as good as his junior exploits but thankfully, Yuki kept his composure and finished off the job.

[fabshab]

He will surely win a round here

Please.!!

...does it with ease

[bujilover]

138 in the live rankings. Good to see him winning comfortably

[Omkara]

He will surely win a round here

Please.!!

...does it with ease

You are lucky.

[arjun2761]

Nice run by Yuki to move to the 2nd round with 3 straight set wins so far!

Of course, he is lucky to meet a WC in round 1. If he competes hard, he has a shot at winning against either Dzumhur or Fabbiano. One day's rest should also help him after matches on 3 successive days.

[prasen9]

You are lucky.

I think he made the comment after knowing Yuki was playing a WC. I don't know for sure but I am guessing from the timing. In that case, the chances of Yuki winning was higher than his losing. So, I would not say he was luck per se. This was more expected than not. If he made the comment without knowing that Yuki drew a WC, then of course, he was lucky to draw a WC and then get a win.

[jayakris]

I think he was not saying that Yuki was lucky. It was about us getting lucky that the tennis Gods did not get upset at an early prediction of a win just because of getting a WC to play. More often that not tennis Gods do not take kindly to such things. That caused the initial "please!" from Omkara

[Y2K]

Nice victory by Yuki.Good thing is that he didn't faced any break points on his serve and won 93% of second serve points.

[bujilover]

If he competes hard, he has a shot at winning against either Dzumhur or Fabbiano. One day's rest should also help him after matches on 3 successive days.

Dzumhur is in the form of his career having won his first ATP 250 tour title in St. Petersburg (defeating Fognini in 3 sets) and also reaching the semifinal in more than 3 other 250 level tourneys (Hardcourt). This will be a tough match unless until Yuki plays with the same form when he beat Monfils. Fingers crossed!

[PKBasu]

Yuki will need to be at his best against Dzumhur, although I have seen him crush the same player in the SF of the Youth Olympiad in 2010. That should give Yuki a psychological edge, although 2017 has been the breakout year of Dzhumhur's career.

I like the fact that Yuki (at 139) is ahead of Tomic (143) for the first time in their pro careers.

[arjun2761]

If he competes hard, he has a shot at winning against either Dzumhur or Fabbiano. One day's rest should also help him after matches on 3 successive days.

Dzumhur is in the form of his career having won his first ATP 250 tour title in St. Petersburg (defeating Fognini in 3 sets) and also reaching the semifinal in more than 3 other 250 level tourneys (Hardcourt). This will be a tough match unless until Yuki plays with the same form when he beat Monfils. Fingers crossed!

Absolutely, you don't get to be top 40 without some nice wins with several in the past couple of months. However, he is a smaller guy who probably grinds out victories and has quite a few losses this year as well to players in the 60-200 range and one loss to #550, so an inform Yuki has a chance if he has the fitness and fortitude to slug it out. That is, I suspect Yuki's best game is not too far from Dzumhur's best game although Dzumhur is far more consistent and fitter than Yuki which partly explains their ranking gap.

[prasen9]

But, first, Ben Hur has to win his match.