Manas Dhamne thread

[jayakris]

At the M25 in Santa Margherita di Paula, Italy (Clay):

[R2] (Q) Manas Dhamne (IND,777) l. Giovanni Oradini (ITA,562), 46 57

Oradini had taken out the 6th seed ranked #393 by a 60 62 score in R1, so I guess that guy is in really good form this week. On to the next week for Manas, staying at the same place for another M25.

[sameerph]

In first set, Manas was 2-4 down, came back to level it at 4-4 and was 0-40, 3 breakpoints to go 5-4 up, could not convert and than got broken in the next game to lose the set 4-6.

In the second set, Manas was 5-2 double break up but lost 5 straight games after that.

So, he creates so many opportunities but is not able to convert them against these level players. Getting up 2 breaks and still losing a set is bad.

[jayakris]

I haven't seen the matches (no live coverage from those courts, I think)... but I have to speculate that Manas' issue might be that his serve is still improving, and not at the level needed to close out service games when the other player gets desperate and attacks his serve. He is still only 17 and 3 months old. It is quite amazing that he is able to get ahead of all these experienced pros. Oradini is a 27 year old who was ranked ~350 a couple of years ago.

[deekshith_ttr]

^^ On the brighter side Manas got to play four matches this week compared to just one match last week and also got 1 ATP point, would have been nice if he had won today's match , that would have helped him to get to Main draw entry for Junior Roland Garros.

[arjun2761]

I haven't seen the matches (no live coverage from those courts, I think)... but I have to speculate that Manas' issue might be that his serve is still improving, and not at the level needed to close out service games when the other player gets desperate and attacks his serve. He is still only 17 and 3 months old. It is quite amazing that he is able to get ahead of all these experienced pros. Oradini is a 27 year old who was ranked ~350 a couple of years ago.

But these are clay courts, where most of the points are won from the ground, so a weaker serve is likely only a part of the answer. Perhaps, he doesn't have the confidence or the consistency to win in these situations yet. Hopefully, the confidence and consistency should get better as he plays more of these competitive matches. Absolutely, he should work on his serve but that will make a bigger difference on the hard or other faster courts.

[jayakris]

^^ True. The serve is often a bigger weapon on hard courts than on clay courts, and one can win games at 15 or 30 to the opponent. But on clay courts, it may be 30 or 40 at which you win service games. A strong serve still helps in holding serve, while under attack. A weaker serve can be attacked more by an opponent who becomes aggressive after he falls behind and goes for winners off second serves and all that. That is what I was guessing might be happening to him. The opponent plays safe and engages in rallies without attacking the serve first, which means Manas would win points and get ahead with a break. Then they would become less cautious and attack his serve, and he would lose advantage.

All are just my uninformed speculation. He is coming along just fine, and staying with his cohort of top-10 or top-20 players in his age range. Not falling behind so far.

[sameerph]

Manas is again playing qualifying at Santa Margherita di Paula. This time he is the top seed and won his Q1 against Nicola Senn (SUI,ITF431) 63 60.

He plays 11th seed Simone Agostini (TA,1372) in Q2.

[jayakris]

At the ITF M25 in Santa Margherita di Paula, Italy (Clay), Manas qualified into the main draw with another walk-in-the-park win. Qualifiers are yet to be placed in the main draw, to know whom he is playing in the R1. Two wins in the main draw would allow Manas to avoid two qualifying rounds at the FO juniors with a top-750 ranking, but it is not a big deal.

[Q2] (1) Manas Dhamne (IND,775) d. (11) Simone Augostini (ITA,1374), 62 60

[arjun2761]

^^^Just based on score line, Manas looks to be finding his form on clay!

[jayakris]

In the main draw at ITF W25 Santa Margherita di Paula -2, Italy (clay),

[R1] (Q) Manas Dhamne (IND,775) vs Raul Brancaccio (ITA,402)

This will be a very tough match. 27 yr old Brancaccio was ranked #121 two years ago, and has been playing well in his last four M25 and M15 events, with two finals and a title. He is probably playing at a top-300 level in those events, and is the highest ranked unseeded player. No luck of the draw for Manas. He will need to do his best, to get even a paltry one point. If he does that, he will run into the 6th seed #376 Fonio. Tough life on the tour for the boy.

[sameerph]

Rain has badly affected the play at this tournament and there was no play for 2 days from Tuesday to Thursday at all. It seems there was no rain today but it rained so hard on earlier 2 days that they could not get the courts ready today.

I don't how they are going to get the tournament done now.

[jayakris]

^^^ FRI/SAT for two rounds each. Or possibly the SF and F on Sunday. Tough, but there will be some withdrawals and all that (mostly from doubles) and it will get done ... If it rains for one more day, they will have to cancel the event altogether. Since the next week event is also at the same venue, maybe they can manage to push a final to Monday (if the players are both not entered elsewhere).

[sameerph]

Manas starts with an excellent win over much higher ranked player.

At ITF W25 Santa Margherita di Paula -2, Italy (clay),

[R1] (Q) Manas Dhamne (IND,775) d. Raul Brancaccio (ITA,402) 62 76(3)

I think in terms of rankings of the opponent this is one of the best win of his career thus far.

[jayakris]

With last week's 1 extra point, Manas will be around 760 next Monday. Today's win takes it to 33 a week later on April 28th, which as of now looks like just a couple of spots inside top-750, based on current live rankings that include last week's ITF points. But it could also fall a spot or two just below 750, which we will know only after some players' ITF points from this week go into the live rankings next Monday. One more win today to make the QF will be very nice, to avoid playing 2 qualifying rounds at the junior FO.

Two more wins here will take care of avoiding Wimbledon junior qualies too, as he has 3 points dropping off by mid May.

But one match at a time. The R2 against the 6th seed will be very tough. Comin up at W25 Santa Marherita Di Paula today itself, soon...

[Sanjay]

I would love to see one of our players in Jr GSs again. So long since we had people who actually won them.