Sahaja Yamalapalli thread

[jayakris]

She is in the list for the W50 in Austin, TX, starting on Nov 11th. I think it gets finalized by tomorrow, but she is comfortably in.

Sahaja has withdrawn from Austin W50 too. After a few days of rest that the WTA trainer suggested, she has just gone to Minnesota to train with Harsh Mankad. It looks to me like they have basically decided to make this off-season training, as she will be off the tour for 4 or 5 weeks now. Sahaja has seen the Univ. Minnesota and US Olympics strength & conditioning coach Cal Dietz, who is affiliated to Harsh Mankad's Tenicity program. Will do some fitness training in Cal's gym and ease back into tennis hitting soon.

I am unsure where she will play next. I believe she has made the qualies for the Charleston WTA 125 for the Nov 18th week. I don't think she has decided to play there though.

[sameerph]

I also see Sahaja in the entry list of W35 in Dominican Republic in the week of Nov 18. So, she may decide to play one of those events.

With her chances of making it to Australian open qualies almost gone, it is good to take a training/off season block now especially coming to India for W35/W50 in December and than stay over for ITF's and WTA 125 till February 2025.

[Dinesh]

Kinda frustrating to see Sahaja withdrawing from tournaments whilst seemingly practicing every day with Harsh. She made the Charleston WTA125 tournament qualifying cut-off but struck her name out of that, as well. I hope that Harsh’s mentorship is working/will work to her benefit.

[Omkara]

Such is pain in the ass called injury. Harsh knows it better. Get fit and start afresh next year. That's what I would say...

[jayakris]

I believe the shoulder pain issue needed only a 2 to 3 week break. She could have played this week or the next two, but chose to make this basically an off-season training break of 40 days.

I think the ITF W100 in Dubai (Nov 2nd) is the next event for her. Will quite surely need qualies there.

[jayakris]

Just an update. Sahaja had 6 weeks of injury rehab and off-season training in Minnesota under Harsh Mankad's Tenicity program. Was rusty at the Dubai W100 qualies (results here), reached the SF at the Solapur W35 last week, and is playing the Navi Mumbai W50 this week (results in the Indian ITF series thread)

Sahaja will go back up to around 290 or higher next Monday Dec 23rd, but has 57 points dropping off on Dec 30, so her ranking will drop to somewhere in the 300-350 range depending on what she does from QF onward at Navi Mumbai this week.

Sahaja is expected at the two Thailand W75s (Dec 30, Jan 6th) and then will probably skip the Delhi W50 and continue with the Bengaluru W100 (Jan20), Pune W75 (Jan 27th) and the Mubai WTA 125 (Feb 3rd).

As of now Sahaja is 6th out in the entry list for the Nonthaburi W75 on Dec 30th. Doubtful if she will make the main draw by the end of the next week, but she should be among the top couple of seeds in the qualies based on next Monday's ranks.

[jayakris]

The Nonthaburi W75 cut has dropped a bit by 4-5 spots in the last two days, and Sahaja is now next-in for the main draw. Hopefully will make it in bby the weekend.

[jayakris]

ITF shows one "available spot" in the main draw now. Looks like there was some withdrawal; so I think Sahaja just made the main draw at the Nonthaburi W75 next week. The qualies start on Monday and the Main Draw on Tuesday. No big expectations, as the entry list is pretty tough.

She is second out for the subsequent W75 in Nonthaburi on Jan 6th, with 2 SE spots to clear. She will definitely make direct entry for that too. With nothing to defend in January, Sahaja can look at these two events in Thailand and then the W100 (Bengaluru) and W75 (Pune) in India to pick up some points and raise her ranking from #352 next week to back inside 300. But all 4 will be tough events.

[ericcw]

[PKBasu]

Excellent start for Sahaja with two significant upsets in the big W100 tournament in Bengaluru:

[R1] W-Sahaja Yamalapalli (IND, 315) d. Yoriko Lily Yamazaki (GBR, 184) 63 36 60
[R2] W-Sahaja Yamlapalli (IND,315) d. 4-Maria Timofeeva (RUS,134), 61 36 61
so
[QF] W-Sahaja Yamlapalli (IND,315) vs 8-Sara Bejlek (CZE,155)


[Sahaja's match discussions at Blr, with PKB's comments are at the ITF India WTFs Jan/Feb page, from this post onward... Mod, Jay]

[jayakris]

So, I finally went and joined the UTR site, to check player UTR ratings. But why is it that I can find everybody else's UTR ratings but Sahaja is listed as 11.xx

[Dinesh]

^^^ Unsure for SY but for some players when there are fewer rated professional matches or new player accounts, that happens. Anyway, you can follow her and after that go to your Following list to see her absolute rating.

[jayakris]

Trying to find where to "follow" her. Can't find it. So what is her UTR now?

[Dinesh]

^^^ I forgot you don’t use apps. I only use UTR app and that’s where I know how to follow players.

11.10

[jayakris]

^^^ Yeah, I do all these things on the laptop. I hate working on apps on the phone, and I am not an apple guy for tablets and stuff. Kinda becoming a dinosaur, that is

Why is she so low rated, despite all the wins she has had the past year? It is not like she has been picking up cheap wins in Africa or anything (or even in Australia where the events were actually not too high in player quality). But Shreevalli (11.23) and Vaidehi (11.11) are rated above her. I can kinda see Shrivalli's rating, and she beat Sahaja last month after all. But even Vaidehi is rated above her? A bit strange.

EDIT: I guess her Bangalore wins have not gone into the calculation yet. Okay then. She lost to a 10.70 and a 11.23 last month but then has beaten a a 11.39 and a 11.43 (losing to 11.59 and 11.66) at Nonthaburi, and beaten a 11.36 and a 11.65 at Bangalore (losing to a 11.95). I suppose the Bangalore wins will raise her rating a bit.