Indian Wells/Miami ATP 1000, March 2019

[sameerph]

It will be great if Prajnesh achieves it this year. Incidently, Radu Albot is just a day older than Prajnesh and broke into top 50for the first time this week.

[RohitG]

Munar takes the first set 7-6 (3)

[knarayen]

Munar takes the first Seth 7-6. Somehow Gunner is not serving well as today (50% first serve). Lots of unforced errors on forehand which is unusual for him. Hope he recovers in set 2. Munar is tough on the baseline as can be expected from a clay courter. So gunner has to do something different in set 2 to force errors.

Very disappointing set 2 start from gunner. 3 doubles (!!) in game 3 to go down 1-2. Not looking good at all.
Two breaks down to 1-4. This match is sliding downhill very fast. Gunner is not 100% today, in fact not even 50%. Expect to be done in the next 10 minutes. Pulls back to 2-5 with a few net approaches almost casually as an afterthought. He has not internalized a net game as part of his overall strategy, - this is what is holding him back. Plus, he doesn’t seem to have an overhead. Shades of Krishnan? Never mind - this is not ok at this level.

Gunner breaks to 3-5 with some good shot speed variations. Comeback? Gunner holds to 4-5 with a serve volley point in-between! Ok so he can do it if he so chooses. So at 5-4 30-15 Munar serving, gunner gets a routine forehand that he blows deep, this tells me that his mind was not on winning today for whatever reason.

Gunner loses 6-7,4-6. Score looks close but gunner blew this match.

On to the next one.

Prof

[knarayen]

I did notice that some of his playing fingers were taped. Don’t know if this had something to do with his poor showing today.

Prof

[PKBasu]

Unfortunate end to the tournament for Gunner, after a good showing in the qualifiers. He gets an enforced one-week break now, unless he chooses to rush off to play a Challenger somewhere (which, I hope he doesn't do).

[RohitG]

Yes, a win here would have sealed a Wimbledon spot and a R2 matchup with Kevin who is coming back from injury and not 100% in his zone. Prajnesh appears in the Taipei challenger starting 2nd week of April and he features as an alternate (7th) in the Estoril (ATP 250) entry list which starts on 29th April. He doesn't feature anywhere in the other April entry lists and neither has he signed up for a 2nd week challenger post Miami. So it seems he won't be in action for 2 weeks and probably will have a couple of challengers in China (Nanchang and Anning) after Taipei to defend those 140 points and take that trip to Europe in May; unless of course he decides to play the qualies at Monte Carlo and Barcelona

[arjun2761]

Good to see the fight in the second set after he went down 1-5 even though he lost. He went 2-2 in IW/Miami main draws and should now have the confidence that he can win at the main draw of ATP level events.

If he can string together a couple of good weeks in ATP events, he could get close to the top 50 although his immediate challenge is to defend the points he is losing and perhaps he would be better served by playing challengers to defend those points.

[jaydeep]

Rohan and Shapo r in the second round with the match tie-break win over Krajicek and Sitak ... Next, they r facing the 7th seeds Mektic and Granollers.

At $9.3M Miami Open 2019, Florida, USA (ATP Masters 1000)

[R1] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Denis Shapovalov (CAN) bt Austin Krajicek (USA)/ Artem Sitak (NZL) 75 26 10-6

[R2] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Denis Shapovalov (CAN) vs (7) Marcel Granollers (ESP)/ Nikola Mektic (CRO)

[Ullhas]

Good win for Bops and Shapo.

[R2] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Denis Shapovalov (CAN) bt (7) Marcel Granollers (ESP)/ Nikola Mektic (CRO) 61 62

Next is possibility to face defending champs "The Bryans"

[jayakris]

That was a pretty nice win there. Go Bops.

[jaydeep]

Rohan and Shapo lost in straight sets against Bryans.

At $9.3M Miami Open 2019, Florida, USA (ATP Masters 1000)

[QF] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Denis Shapovalov (CAN) l (3) Bob Bryan (USA)/ Mike Bryan (USA) 36 46

[PKBasu]

Shapovalov and Auger-Aliassame, the two young Canadians, are in the SF of the Miami Masters singles -- and will play the veterans Federer and Isner respectively for a place in the final. Huge for Canada!

[arjun2761]

Shapovalov and Auger-Aliassame, the two young Canadians, are in the SF of the Miami Masters singles -- and will play the veterans Federer and Isner respectively for a place in the final. Huge for Canada!

Heard the Tennischannel commentators note that the last set of teenagers who made Masters semifinals pretty much all went on to win grand slams. So, perhaps Canada has two future GS champs making the transition towards becoming great players. They are both very exciting players to watch...

[Varma]

Agassi, Djokovic, Hewitt, Murray, Nadal - those are the only teenagers that made it to the semis of Miami before Felix and Shapovalov. Three of them (Agassi, Djokovic, Nadal) went on to become legends of the game with the other two making their own mark in the history of the game. Shapovalov hasn't shown enough consistency in the long run even though he is still playing like a Top-20 player. I like how mature Auger-Aliassame acts. I think he is a complete package. To me, he seems to be next one to make it big. I am expecting him and Tsitsipas to break out of the #NextGen league to challenge the aging champions and take over the mantle.

- Varma

[prasen9]

People do not like Sasha Zverev anymore? He is just 21. I think he, Tsitsipas, Shapovalov, and Auger-Alliasime are all candidates for being the next great. There is a young German guy Rudolph Molleker. How good or bad is he? Canada also perhaps has the best 18 and under talent in the women's side. Andreescu.