Sahaja Yamalapalli thread

[jayakris]

Sahaja's QF against Daria Kudashova (RUS,503) at the W25 in Hua Hin (THA) starts at FRI 8:30 am IST. ITF's video feed link

[jayakris]

Match about to start. I just found that Daria had committed to play tennis as a freshman at the University of Oklahoma this year. That was in May. She doesn't seem to have enrolled at OU and is not in their roster for fall. I wonder if she gave up the plan.

Sahaja had of course spent 4 "quick years" at a slightly lower level college program at the Sam Houston state university in Texas. I am surprised that she graduated already with a degree. I thought she had left early. Good job. She seems to be a fast-mover! Was a good students too, reportedly.

[jayakris]

A quick start!... Held serve at 40-15, and then four straight strong points (almost entirely with two handed BH shots) that left Daria with no chance at all. 2-0 up. And here comes serve trouble. A DF and a strong BHCC from Daria, and it is 0-40. Quickly broken too. Daria holds after a deuce when SY sprayed two forehands out. 2-2.... Erratic shots from SY continue, and she is broken at love... Just like that she is down a break, 2-3... Settle down, Sahaja! She does exactly that, and decides to play "that extra shot" to extend the short rally exchanges. That is all she needs to do. Breaks Daria again. All even at 3-3... Holds serve after a deuce, 4-3 and now 4-4.... Again erratic play with a DF and two backhands hit too strong and so too wide; triple BPs. Saves all three of them, with a strong forehand winner, a nice 13-shot rally and a strong serve. Wins a 14-shot rally for AD in. Makes DK run left and right in a 11-shot rally and it is a hold for 5-4. Great job winning five points in a row there. Daria does well on a lob and serves well to hold too, for 5-5... Sahaja saves two more BPs from 15-40 with strong backhand play. Gets over aggressive too early on a forehand winner and is at a BP again. Saves a sixth BP in a row with a forehand winner. Deuce. An erratic forehand for no reasons, when she had control of the point, and finally Daria breaks with a backhand DTL shot. 5-6... Sahaja really gave this away by running herself into BP trouble. Not anything superlative that DK is doing. Simply hit-or-miss shots that Sahaja is hitting too aggressively. Just calm down and play, lady!... DK serves nicely and hits the ball cleanly to hold. 57 00

[Dinesh]

Does anything think that SY take some extra time between most of the points, walking to the towel and back? I noticed the Thai player watching it although she didn’t raise any concern, but I wonder if this is a mind game for SY (hey, whatever works!)

Phew! I really thought she was letting that one go - being 0-40 down and winning that crucial game to hold at 5-4 is phenomenal. This girl is a fighter! Keep it sensible, SY!

Those geese are annoying AF!!! I wonder how the players tolerate it.

SY really did this to herself awarding way too many quick & easy points at that crucial 11th game. Done watching this match. Hope she miraculously wins this match. She needs the points. Climb up the ladder and represent India next year, SY!

[jayakris]

Yeah, what is with the crazy geese noise? Is there some zoo or some park-lake or something nearby. So damn annoying. I am sure Daria is more bothered by that than any towel-trip by Sahaja!

But really, Sahaja is not playing well today. Very inaccurate on the shots when she gets aggressive. The forehand is constantly spraying wide right. Now it goes too wide left, then one into the net, and then another too wide left. Broken at 30-40 again, after being up 30-0... You are making me mad, Sahaja. Better start playing better!... She heard me, and broke DK back, though in a helter-skelter game from both. 57 11

Why can't she EVER let a ball bounce before going for her shots?? Just lost 2 points unnecessarily with over-aggressive play. And the erratic forehand again on a netted shot, 15-40. This isn't working today. A 13-shot rally saves one BP... And then, what?? The ump called that ball from DK in? SY complained, and I guess he said the previous shot from her was out? Anyway, it is a break. 1-2 down. Well, just as I get desperate, her forehand starts working on 3 points for winners and she breaks DK at 30-40... Now 2-2 even again. Holds serve for 57 32... A really good forehand winner there from SY but DK hold at 30... 57 33... Now, a really good lob from DK for a BP and a wild forehand 5 feet out from SY... Broken again, 57 34... A double fault and a return winner from SY made it 30-40 BP... Absolute HEAT on a forehand winner to the back chalk from SY at BP. She ain't going away that easily!! 4-4... But she is down again after her 6th DF and a BH winner out wide by an inch. Then she hits out a BH after a 14 shot rally. Come on... 0-40 triple BP. Now now!! ... Saves two with clean tennis and then her 174th unforced error of the match at the third BP. Broken and it is 57 45... need some magic now.... Saves the 40-15 match point but falls at 30-40 on a netted forehand. It is over, 57 46

[QF] (Q) Sahaja Yamlapalli(IND,562) l. Daria Kudashova (RUS,503), 57 46

[jayakris]

You could see all the good and bad in Sahaja's game today. She was an error machine on the shots, mostly out of over-aggressive hitting. I think she needs to play a lot more of the top-500 players, get used to the pace in their shots, and learn to control her own aggression a bit. I would say at least 30 of some 40 errors today were totally unforced. She goes for the deep shots and the shots to the line but it often went too long or too wide today because of the pace of the ball from the opponent (Daria is not too much of a big-hitter but hits at the pace the good Russian players typically hit at; quite different than the Thai veteran yesterday). A few hard-hit shots went into the net also today, probably from her misjudging the top spin.

As we knew, she has some ways to go and needs to play a lot more. The US college tennis stint (in a lower-level college conference where she won 80+ percent of her matches) has taught her enough of attitude, aggression, fight and the winner's mentality, but has not given her match practice against top-level players. She needs to get that now. And she definitely needs to work on her service accuracy and placement. I didn't notice a single serve that was not to the middle today (there were a couple yesterday to the corner) and she had 6 DFs to add to the 10 yesterday. Way too many. You need to get the second serve in; period. No need to win the point on a second serve. Just get the damn ball in. That is not too hard, and most good players learn how to do it. She should spend the December break working with a good service coach and serve all day till her arms hurt (figuratively speaking). You cannot give 5 to 10 freebies to the other player and be under pressure in your service games that easily.

There is plenty of scope for improvement and she has some really good tools to work with. But it will take some time. Let us see where she is in a year or two. I would imagine top-250, at least.

[sameerph]

She needs to play a lot more tournaments too. Maybe she has funding issues. But, after she won that title in Gurgram in early July, she was just playing her 4th tournament this week in 3+ months ( 2 in Kazakhstan, 2 in Thailand), 4 in 13 -14 weeks are too few and I do not see her in entry list anywhere in next 2-3 weeks.Hope she gets sponsorship to travel to Europe or US to play. As of now she is playing only in Asia where tournaments are fewer these days.

[VReddy]

I come from a middle class family and I wasn’t able to afford tennis. Dad thought that there’s free coaching, free degree, so why not take this opportunity.

I’ve always wanted to play professional tennis despite going to college. So I thought even after college the whole point of going to college was to build my tennis to play professionally. However there were no funds. I wasn’t able to afford anything even after college and then I called Jain Sir from Sinner Tennis Academy. He loves me and knows that I have passion, so we called him and explained the situation about playing professionally, about the issue of not having help financially. So he said, ‘you go play i’ll help you.’ He’s the main person who helped me start my professional career. He’s still supporting me, he’s been supporting me since day one.

In between all of this, there’s been my dad and mom’s sacrifices and hard work. I don’t want to get into all that now. My dad gave up many jobs for me.

This quote is from a few months back. I believe Vaidehee Chaudhary falls into the same bucket - if we look at her career as well, Vaidehi was running top-300 players close from age 18 but due to paucity of funds, hasnt really progressed much.

So Jay probably needs to adjust his expectations keeping in tourneys happening in low-cost destinations closer to India in mind.

[jayakris]

Thanks, Vishnu. Actually I was suspecting money issues with Sahaja. This is where we need a national federation that cares. I guess AITA won't come through for her, even when it is pretty clear that she is among the mere 2 or 3 young players we have, of top-200 potential. It took me 5 minutes of watching her play to feel that. By the way, where is our tennis fraternity, especially coaches? Don't any of them see the potential in her, to help her out (for pure personal interests)? If I were a coach in India, I would move heaven and earth to find her sponsorship and get her under my watch, for my own selfish interests!

Also, I wonder if Sania can help. The two latest good ones we have had (the two "pallis" - Yadla and Yamala) are both from Sania's place, Hyderabad. Maybe Sania can take credit and blunt the general feeling that she did not inspire a generation of women players to emerge from India (or even from Hyderbad). Sania probably isn't the type who think along those lines though.

Heck, maybe we can raise some small funds for her to travel here. But something must be done to push Sahaja along and support her to play a good bunch of matches and get going.

[Sin Hombre]

^ I have said this before here - I would be interested to get involved both financially and time, if SI decides to launch something similar to OGQ to help Indian athletes. Overall, we have a pretty good perspective of who has potential and needs help.

[sameerph]

Sahaja is 1 spot away from main draw of W60 in Sydney next week with 2 special exempt spots to clear. Hope she makes the main draw. After that she is going to continue in Australia and play couple of W25's in Traralgon after a week's break.

Kudos to Vishnu for taking the lead and coordinating for stay of Sehaja in Australia.

[jayakris]

^^ I think Sahaja did not have a visa for Australia as of last week, as per Vishnu, so she may not be able to go? (unless she got the visa in quick order.)

Update: Vishnu PM'ed that she has got the visa to Australia. Phew! She gets to play some good events now!

[Atithee]

I’m curious—do the pro players not have multi-year visas to major countries like many ordinary people do?
Is it that their visa category (sportsperson) doesn’t normally grant long term visas? This visa issue is odd to me. Please shed some light if you know more. Thanks.

[jayakris]

^^^ Many of the regulars typically have multi-year visas for the US, UK and Schengen countries, but for other countries they have to go get the visas like everybody else. Sahaja's issue may be that she was on a student visa earlier in the US but needs a regular multi-year visa now, as graduated from college. But the delay to get an appointment at the US consulates in India are now 1 or 2 years! Everybody who did not have a multi-year visa to the US before Covid seem to be facing the same issue. It is a very tough time for the younger players, after Covid

Anyway, I just saw the qualifying draw at the Sydney W60 and the top seed is somebody ranked near 700, who was several spots below Sahaja (who as first in the Q entry list with a ranking near 500). So I assume she made the main draw list comfortably and will be playing this coming week. The main draw is not out yet.

[jayakris]

At the W60 in Sydney, Australia (Hard),

[R1] Sahaja Yamalpalli (IND,508) vs (5) Kimberly Birrell (AUS,240)

Indians' great luck in the draws continues! We just have to upset some of these Aussie seeds.