Sahaja Yamalapalli thread

[jayakris]

Sahaja is also in the doubles draw at the W60 in Sydney.

[R1] Renee McBryde (AUS)/ Sahaja Yamalapalli (IND) vs Anchisa Chanta (THA)/ Luksika Kumkhum (THA)

[jayakris]

At the W60 in Sydney, Australia (Hard)

Sahaja got broken in the 7th game. Down 3-4 against 5th seed Kimberly Birrell (AUS,190).... Not serving very well today. No zip on the first serve and generally missing it too. Otherwise, she is playing quite fine. Saved 4 BPs in games 5 and 7 but finally dropped game 7. She got her first two BPs against Birelli in the 8th game with some trademark heated returns, but KB held. 3-5... Her serving problems continue. Maybe the wind out there is giving her trouble? Maybe not. She somehow saved two more BPs but Birrell converted the third with a good forehand. 3-6 down

By the way, Birrell is in great form, having won the Playford W60 just this past week and moving up from 240 to 190 in ranking. Sahaja is not being dominated by her or anything, but nothing less than Sahaja's best will do. She needs to serve better, that is!

Second set. Down 0-2 ... A couple of unforced shot-errors from SY who looks a bit out of spirits now. 0-3 after KB's serve. Now 6 games lost in a row. Broken again, at love. Not even winning a point now. Kinda looking lost out there, and now she is indeed getting schooled by Birrell. SY forced a deuce in the next game, but she keeps getting wrong-footed by Burrell who has hit some nice winners by taking the ball early on the rise. KB holds. 0-5.... Sahaja finally holds serve to avoid a bagel. She got to hit her backhand a couple of times. Burrell can't handle that but SY has hardly had much of a chance to hit it. 1-5... Well, just when I thought she had given up, she comes up with a couple of good points and Birrell gets a bit lazy. SY converts the second BP there on an error from KB. 2-5... And she hits 6 first serves in a row (finally!) to hold in the next game 3-5... SY saved one match point in the next game but fell at the next. 3-6

[R1] Sahaja Yamalpalli (IND,498) l. (5) Kimberly Birrell (AUS,190), 36 36

Expected loss, but I would have liked to see her play a bit more error-free than she played. The serve needs to improve. At least improve from how it looked today. I think we have seen her serve better.

[jayakris]

Doubles also didn't work out at the Sydney W60

[R1] Renee McBryde (AUS)/ Sahaja Yamalapalli (IND) l. Anchisa Chanta (THA)/ Luksika Kumkhum (THA), 26 16

[sameerph]

3 decent weeks for Sahaja in Georgia with couple of QF's and a second round finish. Will help her move up about 50 spots up from around 480 where she was before this swing to around 430.

Next week she is in entry list of W25 in Tunisia ( Sharmada and Tanisha in qualies there), there is a W25 the week after followed by W40 in third week. For the second week, Rutuja too will be joining a per entry list.

[jayakris]

Good to see Sahaja picking up some points and beginning to play well again. She has some 5-6 weeks left before 50 big points (Gurugram W25 title last year) will drop off her point total of around 115 and drop her by about 150 spots to near-600... Hope she will pick up some good points in Monastir and stay in the top-500.

[jayakris]

8th seed Sahaja is playing a wildcard, Elizaveta Shebekina (RUS,1239) in the first round at the Monastir W25... Sahaja has started very badly, with a DF on her first serve. Dropped serve in the first game and faced a couple of DPs in the third game too. 3 DFs already. 1-3 down. Come on Sahaja, stop having such on-and-off days (mostly on service).

[Dinesh]

Sahaja won the first set 6-3. Phew!

[jayakris]

Sahaja heard me... Only one more DF in the first set, as she won the next 5 games to lead 63 00
Update: Up a break in the second, but she is serving DFs again. 6 total now. 63 31
Update: Had one more DF for seven total (with no aces), but she won 63 62

At the W25 in Monastir, Tunisia (hard):

[R1] (8) Sahaja Yamlapalli (IND,452) d. (WC) Elizaveta Shebekina (SVK,1239), 63 62

[Dinesh]

Plays 834 ranked Maria Vittoria Viviani next. Winnable!

[sameerph]

Sahaja thru to yet another QF with an easy win.

At the W25 in Monastir, Tunisia (hard):

[R2] (8) Sahaja Yamlapalli (IND,452) d. (Q) Maria Vittoria Viviani (ITA,834) 62 63

Next,

[QF] (8) Sahaja Yamlapalli (IND,452) vs. (4) Gabriela Knutson (CZE,302)


26 year old Knutson is on quite a run in last couple of months- winning couple of W25 titles including one last week and reaching final of W60 in US. Will be very tough for Sahaja.

[jayakris]

As expected,

[QF] (8) Sahaja Yamlapalli (IND,452) l. (4) Gabriela Knutson (CZE,302), 36 26

ITF gives no stats for the match, so we don't know if DFs were also a problem that added to her loss.

[Dinesh]

^^^ You can look at the Point by Point stats for DFs and break points. She had 4 DFs. 1 in the first set, and 3 in the next.

[PKBasu]

With another QF in Tunisia (to be played later today), Sahaja is at a new career high of 393. Congrats on breaking into the top-400 in short order!

[sameerph]

Sahaja lost in SF to Rutuja today in Tunisia. So, she has played 5 consecutive points in this stint so far- QF,PQF, QF, QF and SF in 5 weeks so far.54 points earned in 5 weeks which compensates well for 50 points which are falling off for her at the start of July. So, she would be at least inside top 500 even after these points fall off. And she can earn more till that time. Still there is 1 more week in this series in Tunisia- W40 next week and hopefully she will play somewhere at the end of the month later.

[jayakris]

So glad to see Sahaja getting things back on track. I had resigned to seeing her drop out of top-650 once the 50 points go off. But she put points back in just in the nick of time. More importantly, she seems to have got her game and some confidence back. Still a work in progress... Go Sahaja, Go!!