Sahaja Yamalapalli thread

[sameerph]

21 year old Sahaja Yamlapalli won her first ITF singles title when she won the title today in Nagpur. She beat fourth seeded Thai player, sixth seeded Jeniffer Luikham, second seeded Russian and fourth seeded German in back to back matches. Her Russian and German opponents in semi final and final retired mid way thru the match. But, still a breakthrough week for Sahaja.

She is currently ranked 1293 and this title will get her close to top 1000 and close to India top 10. But, hopefully it will give her confidence to move up much higher.

This is an earlier article on her from Kamesh in Hindu-

A budding talent with promise

[suresh]

Here are Sahaja's results (via ITD) on her way to her first title. She did benefit from a couple of retirements but also beat the fourth seeded Thai who won a couple of tournaments here.

[R32] d Sravya Shivani : 6-1 6-0
[R16] d (4)Punnin Kovapitukted : 6-2 6-1
[QF] d (6)Jennifer Luikham : 6-4 6-4
[SF] d (2)Anna Ureke : 6-0 3-0(rtd)
[F] d (3)Emily Seibold : 6-5(rtd)

[jayakris]

She got a bit lucky too here, but you need pluck to go with luck to get a title. Go Sahaja!!

[Omkara]

Beating 4th and 6th seed was no luck. In PKB standards that would have earned her a thread. And yes, what's wrong with being lucky.

[jayakris]

^^ Yes, that was the pluck part, the upsets of the 4th and 6th seeds. I mean, she beat them in straight sets! Also, I have seen many cases where players freeze and can't handle the top players who are injured and start playing differently, and in the end even lose the match rather than get a retirement from the top seeds. That also needs some mental focus and a belief and confidence that you are good enough to make use of the chance to win, and get that upset. She was in top form and did not give anybody a chance this week to stop her from winning the title. Fortune favors the focused.

I am going to watch for Sahaja for sure.

[sameerph]

Yes, this another article about her win and plans -

Sahaja delighted with maiden ITF title

[sameerph]

Sahaja continued her great progress this year following her earlier W15 title with a W25 title this week in Gurugram this week.

These are her results this week-

[R1] Sahaja Yamalapalli (IND.989) d. (8) Karman Kaur Thandi (IND,494) 61 62
[R2] Sahaja Yamalapalli (IND.989) d. Sowjanya Bavisetti (IND,560) 62 64
[QF] Sahaja Yamalapalli (IND,989) d. Saki Imamura (JPN.840) 67(5) 60 63
[SF] Sahaja Yamalapalli (IND,989) d. (4) Ekaterina Yashina (RUS,488) 60 61
[F] Sahaja Yamalapalli (IND,989) d. (3) Viktoria Morvayova (SVK,411) 63 76(5)

She did not drop a set full week against such good quality opposition. With 50 points from this title, Sahaja will make a big move of more than 400 places to around 570 in WTA rankings and to India #6.

[Atithee]

Congrats. These are great results.

[suresh]

Sahaja has arrived. Congratulations.

[suresh]

She did not drop a set full week against such good quality opposition. With 50 points from this title, Sahaja will make a big move of more than 400 places to around 570 in WTA rankings and to India #6.

Sorry to nitpick. She dropped a set in the QF. It was a dominating win in any case.

[jayakris]

Phew. We have another top class player. Was waiting for a while... Sahaja!

[arjun2761]

Good win for Sahaja! Looks like she had a similar good run earlier in the year (as documented in this thread). So, here's hoping for more similar results.

Looks like she dominated a low level NCAA conference in her college tennis career, so she has a track record of winning.

[PKBasu]

She is a very serious talent. The previous week, she lost a very tight 3-setter to Karman in R1 -- the closest match Karman played on the way to the title. Then, this past week, she beat Karman 2 and 1 in the first round. That is mighty impressive. This was a very tough W25 field (especially by India's normal standards) with Ankita seeded only third in singles this week. To have come through such a field with a couple of spectacular straight-sets wins in the SF and final was very impressive indeed. In the SF she beat former world #335 Ekaterina Yashin 61 60!! Full marks to Kamesh Srinivasan for having discovered and promoted her potential early. We have a serious talent here for sure!!

[sameerph]

Sahaja is playing $25K tournament in Kazakhstan and started with a win.

At ITF W25 Ust-Kamenogorsk, Kazakhstan (Hard)

[R1] Sahaja Yamalapalli (IND,573) d, Kira Pavlova (RUS,847) 64 75

Next,

[R2] Sahaja Yamalapalli (IND,573) vs. (5) Daria Kudashova (RUS,559)

[jayakris]

Go Sahaja, Go! You are all we have. Seriously. We need you!