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Ah, the vagaries of the tennis circuit. One day, you look like you can beat even Federer, and the next day, you will lose 6 games in a row to a Karimov. Back to the drawing board for Sumit, I guess. I am sure the loss will give him all the motivation needed, to work even harder in the off-season.

Damn, how did he lose 6 straight games in the second set from 4-0 up ? Did he play that badly ? I could not watch any of the match today.

Anyway, somehow I did not have such a good feeling about this tournament. Looked difficult for Sumit to keep his focus for second straight week but did not think he will lose in the first round itself.

Bizarre loss. But Sumit does seem to be a rhythm player, who either paints the lines with his precision hitting (especially on his lethal forehand side), or just starts missing and then looks very ordinary. Today seems to have been one of the latter days. To lose to a guy ranked in the 600s is pretty shocking. But good that he found his form when it mattered to take the title last week. He will get another bite of the lemon at the AO qualifiers, starting 11th January 2018.

Yes, it does appear so about Sumit. That also explains as to when he gets into a rhythm he generally steamrolls the opponent and ends up bagling his opponent many a times.
I think on clay courts due to his retrieving abilities, he is able to fight better even on days when he is not in the best rhythm while on hard courts a decent level opposition can outhit him when he himself is missing a lot of balls. That is my reading of his game, I may be wrong.

sameerph wrote: ↑Thu Nov 30, 2017 9:11 am Yes, it does appear so about Sumit. That also explains as to when he gets into a rhythm he generally steamrolls the opponent and ends up bagling his opponent many a times.
I think on clay courts due to his retrieving abilities, he is able to fight better even on days when he is not in the best rhythm while on hard courts a decent level opposition can outhit him when he himself is missing a lot of balls. That is my reading of his game, I may be wrong.

I watched the first set and towards the end it became clear to me that this was not Sumit's day and i went to sleep. He was missing way too many rallies early - a far cry from his win over yuki. But there were some flashes that showed some good potential. Maybe taking the rest of the year off and coming back strong for the AO is what is needed here. Some training between now and then cant hurt.

Prof

Meanwhile our doubles pairs are still in the hunt. They will face each other in the semis, so we are assured of a Final spot. Hopefully one of them can of them can make the breakthrough to make it to AUS Open

[QF] Vishnu Vardhan (IND, 116) / Sriram Balaji (IND, 137) d Ye Du (CHN, UNR) / Qun Gao (CHN, UNR) 6-2 6-4
[QF] Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND, 102) / Christopher Rungkat (INA, 123) d Hiroki Moriya (JPN, 782) / Yusuke Takahashi (JPN, 414) 3-6 6-3 10-5

[SF]Vishnu Vardhan (IND, 116) / Sriram Balaji (IND, 137) Vs Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND, 102) / Christopher Rungkat (INA, 123)

Sumit loss almost made us forget that our Doubles interest is still alive.
Balaji/Vishnu v Jeevan/ Runngat will be too close to call and probably the winner would eventually go on to win the Final.

I watched most of Sumit's match. I haven't watched enough of Sumit to put this result in context. However, he was being outhit on both flanks by Karimov, and his serve was shorter, slower and less consistent than Karimov's. As a result he was often pushed back and on the defensive. His movement and forehand were impressive, but his serve and backhand had no sting. He was playing way behind the baseline, giving up a lot of time and space to his opponent. Sumit had a few chances, and he even took some of them, but then he'd hand the advantage right back. Sumit even had a close line call go in his favor at 5-6 serving in the first set, which really upset Karimov, but he didn't take advantage of that and lost the set soon after. Not sure if it was physical / mental fatigue on Nagal's part, but Karimov was the better player in this match. The court also seemed to be playing fast and low, which likely didn't help Nagal. I think Simit needs to improve his backhand and serve significantly if he wants to move up to and stay in the Top 100.

Let's not forget Vishnu is in the QR2 as well facing the top seed Korean.

Vishnu is actually in R2 of the singles main draw, not just the qualifiers.

jai_in_canada wrote: ↑Thu Nov 30, 2017 1:07 pm I watched most of Sumit's match. I haven't watched enough of Sumit to put this result in context. However, he was being outhit on both flanks by Karimov, and his serve was shorter, slower and less consistent than Karimov's. As a result he was often pushed back and on the defensive. His movement and forehand were impressive, but his serve and backhand had no sting. He was playing way behind the baseline, giving up a lot of time and space to his opponent. Sumit had a few chances, and he even took some of them, but then he'd hand the advantage right back. Sumit even had a close line call go in his favor at 5-6 serving in the first set, which really upset Karimov, but he didn't take advantage of that and lost the set soon after. Not sure if it was physical / mental fatigue on Nagal's part, but Karimov was the better player in this match. The court also seemed to be playing fast and low, which likely didn't help Nagal. I think Simit needs to improve his backhand and serve significantly if he wants to move up to and stay in the Top 100.

Yes I think the courts at Bangalore were slow hard courts which suited Sumit's style of play.

His game reminds me a lot of Somdev. He is a grinder like Somdev and his court speed is as good. Slight difference is Sumit goes a lot for lines unlike Somdev who made less errors but was more intent on keeping the ball in play.

jai_in_canada wrote: ↑Thu Nov 30, 2017 1:07 pm I watched most of Sumit's match. I haven't watched enough of Sumit to put this result in context. However, he was being outhit on both flanks by Karimov, and his serve was shorter, slower and less consistent than Karimov's. As a result he was often pushed back and on the defensive. His movement and forehand were impressive, but his serve and backhand had no sting. He was playing way behind the baseline, giving up a lot of time and space to his opponent. Sumit had a few chances, and he even took some of them, but then he'd hand the advantage right back. Sumit even had a close line call go in his favor at 5-6 serving in the first set, which really upset Karimov, but he didn't take advantage of that and lost the set soon after. Not sure if it was physical / mental fatigue on Nagal's part, but Karimov was the better player in this match. The court also seemed to be playing fast and low, which likely didn't help Nagal. I think Simit needs to improve his backhand and serve significantly if he wants to move up to and stay in the Top 100.

I wouldnt say he was "outhit" by Karimov. They were matching up very well in the first set - it came down to consistency on crucial points and Sumit's forehand and backhand not clicking like it did against Yuki - to me that was the difference. And Sumit went up 4-0 in the second which he couldn't capitalize on. Karimov was serving harder no doubt but Sumit's serve had good accuracy and consistency,and when he needed to he would turn it on - some of them were short and he needs to work on that.

Courtspeed was not that much of a factor...tactically he could have come up to the net at crucial times and he did not do that too often. Wonder why because he is quite good at finishing points at the net.

Prof

sameerph wrote: ↑Thu Nov 30, 2017 2:44 pmYes I think the courts at Bangalore were slow hard courts which suited Sumit's style of play.
His game reminds me a lot of Somdev. He is a grinder like Somdev and his court speed is as good. Slight difference is Sumit goes a lot for lines unlike Somdev who made less errors but was more intent on keeping the ball in play.

I think Somedev used to hit a bit more of loopy forehands than the flatter shots that Sumit hits, so he used to buy more time in the rallies. But Sumit tries to hit the ball deeper and more to the lines than SKD and generates more velocity. So the court speeds may affect Sumit more, I suppose? I haven't seen enough of Sumit to say for sure. Prof seems to think that court speed could be handled at this event , if he was willing to move up and win some points (I didn't watch the match). I too think he is not that bad at the net, though the transition to the net game doesn't seem to be smooth enough yet. These are all the kind of details he will improve with more match play and experience at the higher levels.

Playing more at the net is rarely just a function of ability. Confidence and mentality are just as important. Hopefully he has a coach pushing him.

I too was a bit surprised that he didn't come to the net as often as could have to shorten the points. There were instances when his deep forehand would have Karimov on the run or out of position, and he didn't sneak in to finish off the point. He did do it on occasion, just not as often as he could have.

Despite the loss I saw evidence of very good mental toughness, excellent foot speed, and an impressive forehand where he generates a lot of RPMs or can hit it flat/hard/low. The backhand is pretty good actually, especially when he has a target, as was evidenced by some pretty good passing shots he hit from difficult positions when Karimov tried to get to the net. The backhand didn't seem very potent during baseline rallies and service returns. He does seem to have decent accuracy on his serve, which he used to get out of some difficult situations, including saving a couple of set points in the first set on his serve at 4-5. And, yes, tactically he might need some guidance, but then again I don't want to judge based on this one match, because it could have been fatigue. Winning a first Challenger, traveling some way, and then gearing up again for a match in an empty stadium can be quite difficult for a young player.

I am therefore reasonably optimistic about Sumit's continued progress (knock on wood) if he can get good guidance, support, and can stay healthy. As I mentioned earlier, he seems to have spent a fair bit of time in the Toronto area training at the York University tennis centre, which is world class, and with the Canadian Davis Cup team. Also, watching some early YouTube videos of Sumit, it appeared that when he was 13 or 14 he was hitting his backhand one-handed, and it looked pretty good. Not sure at what point he switched to a two-hander or why.