ITF Junior circuit 2023 India

[Kumar]

Maaya should go to around #465 next, as among the youngest 5 or 10 players in the ITF junior top-500. BIg jump for her from near #1200 from just two events. Well-deserved ranking, as she seems to indeed be one of the super talented players that has emerged lately.

Is it possible that youngest in her age group has not been a great predictor of future success. There was this indian origin girl Natasha Subhash who got wild card toplay at US open junior at age 13 , but she is now not playing professionally due to chronic injuries. I read somewhere that indian kids attained puberty almost a year earlier than White kids. Could it just be that some of the success are because, our kids are physically maturing earlier giving them an early advantage that disappears as they get older?

[sameerph]

I do not really recall too many cases where our kids have done well at very young age and than have disappeared. Natasha Subhash may be a one off case or one of the few where I think there were certain injury issues.

The dominance with which Maaya won her matches in these 2 weeks almost against older players is a clear indication that she is probably most talented player to emerge among girls in last few years. Will be interesting to see how she does in next year or so.

[jayakris]

The dominance with which Maaya won her matches in these 2 weeks almost against older players is a clear indication that she is probably most talented player to emerge among girls in last few years. Will be interesting to see how she does in next year or so.

Agree. It has been quite a long while (maybe since Sania and Tara Iyer?) that I have felt this positive about a girl who just turned 14. Hope she stays injury free and keeps going up.

Also, Sehaj Singh Pawar will now move up some 160 spots to inside top-450, and will be part of the good group of 2007 that includes Manas Dhamne (#76), Kriish Tyagi (#201), Hitesh Chauhan (#303), Ryan Koothrat (#435) - who will all hopefully be inside top-200 and some inside top-100 next year. They all have 2 more years of junior eligibility left. Kandhavel Mahalingam, Aarjun Pandit, Vraj Gohil, Gandharv Kothapalli, etc are others who are below from that cohort, who may rise high during the coming year.

[sameerph]

This week J30 tournament was held in Bengaluru.

Boys title went to 14 year old Aradhya Kshitij who beat 18 year Chandan Shivraj in the final. Good for a 14 year old to win a title.

Girls title went to 16 year Laxmisiri Dandu who beat 17 year old Amodini Naik in the final.

[jayakris]

Last week's Bangalore J30 draws and results from ITF - Boys' singles and doubles ... Girls' singles and doubles.

Not too exciting there, as we had a few of the better players skip the event. But losses by Sehaj singh, Gandharv Kothapally, Sreesyleshwari etc were disappointing. None of them showing the extra spark to sustain winning streaks, indicating that they are ready for higher levels (like Maaya in the first two events). Maybe Saumya Ronde has been a bit of a revelation in two events. Laxmisiri this week too. But I was looking for 13 and 14 year olds to make some noise. Not too much of it. But on the other hand, a few more players got some wins and points which will help them enter and pay more events abroad and some may emerge as stronger players later. The points have got spread out among a lot of Indians in the three events so far. Nice.

[jayakris]

This week's Ahmedabad J30 draws/results from ITF - Boys' singles and doubles ... Girls' singles and doubles.

A bit more exciting this time, as a talented top young player, Prisha Nikhil Shinde joined. As expected, she has made a run to the final so far too. She was stretched to the brink by Priyanka Rana of USA yesterday but came through after dropping the first set and winning 7-5 in a 3rd set tiebreaker. 14 year old Samarth Sahita is in the boys's final, which I think is his first junior final. He has played a lot of events in his first year of junior eligibility and picked up a lot of wins but he also has generally lost to some good player or other in many QFs and SFs and thus failed to create much of a buzz. Nice to see him in a final.

[sameerph]

14 year old Samarth Sahita won the boys title while fellow 14 year old Prisha Shinde won the girls title winning a close final 64 36 64 against 17 year Ruma Gaikwaiwari. Prisha does appear to be talented, this is her second ITF title, first one was in March at Bhilai J30.

Also need to keep an eye couple of 14 year olds in boys who won titles in last 2 weeks- Samarth Sahita and Aradhya Kshitij . These 2 have still not shown results on consistent basis, so will have to see if they continue performing.

Also another notable performance this week from a talented 13 year old Tavish Pahwa who reached SF in his only third ITF event.

[sameerph]

3 weeks of ITF junior circuit began this week- Couple of weeks of J60's in Guwahati and New Delhi and than J100 in Pune.

This week, boys title went to top seed Rethin Pranav who beat third seeded Sehaj Singh Pawar in the final. Rethin won all his matches in straight sets and only in 1 of the sets someone took more than 2 games off him was by Sehaj in the final. Rethin is really too good for this J60 level and should be competing at higher level. Hope he starts doing at J100/J200 levels now.

Girls title went to 15 year old Rishitha Reddy Basireddy who too won all her matches in straight sets including wins over top 3 seeds- fellow Indians Sohini Mohanty and Aishwarya Jadhav and a Russian girl.

[sameerph]

This week a lot more competitive field at J60 in New Delhi with lot of foreign players probably due J100 coming up next week.

On boys side, of the 8 seeds 3 were foreigners. Nice upset win by 15 year old Samarth Sahita against second seeded Japanese but 4th seeded Indian Debashish Sahu got upset. So, overall 5 Indians in QF- top seed Kriish Tyagi against 8th seed Aarjun Pandit and 5th seed Rethin Pranav against Samarth Sahita. Third seed Cahir Warik plays Korean sixth seed.

On girls side, 5 seeded girls were foreigners. But, top 2 seeds from Kazakhstan and Slovakia were upset by Indians- 16 year old Laxmisiri Dandu and 14 year Aishi Bisht respectively. Also another 14 year old Indian Aradhyaa Verma upset 4th seeded Russua, So, 6 Indians left in QF there.

[sameerph]

At New Delhi J60, boys final is between 5th seed Rethin Pranav and Japanese unseeded Hiromasa Koyama. Rethin sort of upset 3rd seed Cahir Warik in the SF but Japanese upset top seeded Indian Kriish Tyagi.

Girls final is an all Indian one between 16 year old Laxmisiri Dandu and 14 year Aishi Bisht. Aishi Bisht who it seems is from California, US has upset 2nd seed, 3rd seed and 5th seed here to reach the final.

[jayakris]

Yes, Aishi is from San Jose, California, but an Indian citizen. She was the runner-up to Rishitha Basireddy at the Fenesta Nationals u16 in September, too. Rishitha lost to Laxmisiri in the other semi this week.

[sameerph]

Rethin completes back to back title wins beating Japanese Hiromasa Koyama 63 63 in the final. Rethin dropped only 1 set against Samarth Sahita in winning titles in these 2 weeks. He is clearly too good at this J60 level and hope he has played last of those now and will start getting title wins at higher level. Also these do not gain him too much in terms of rankings too.

14 year Aishi Bisht continued her excellent run with a title beating Laxmisiri Dandu 75 75 in the final.

[sameerph]

This week J100 tournament taking place in Pune with bigger draws of 64.

2 rounds are done and thing have moved on to last 16.

Among boys, 8 Indians were seeded in top 16 seeds. Among them 3 Indian seeds- Sehaj Singh Pawar, Cahir Warik and Debashish Sahu got upset by fellow Indians Kandhvel Mahalingam, Arnav Paparkar and Bushan Haobam respectively and another Indian seed Rayan SajjidKoothrat got upset by an Indian American player. One Indian Dhiraj Reddy upset a Serbian seed.
So, Kandhvel, Arnav ,Bushan and Dhiraj join Indian seeds Kriish Tyagi (2), Rethin Pranav (3), Hitesh Chauhan (6) and Aarjun Pandit (11) to make it 8 Indian in last 16.

Among girls, again 8 Indians were seeded in last 16. Aishvarya Jadhav, Durganshi Kumar and Prisha Shinde got upset by fellow Indians Snigdha Kanta , Diya Ramesh and Harshini Nagraj respectively. And 4 Indians Aishi Bisht, Aakruti Sonkusare, Sreenidhi Balaji and Laxmisiri Dandu upset foreign seeds. So, there are as many as 13 Indians in last 16.

[jayakris]

Maaya's R16 match against Aishi is the most interesting one for me on Wednesday!

[sameerph]

Maaya won 75 64 against Aishi. 5 Indian girls in QF. Maaya against Slovalkian 7th seed Vavrova, 16 year old Harshini Nagraj against 11th seed Kazakh Gogulina, 14 year old Diya Ramesh against 16 year old Laxmisiri Dandu and 17 year old Amodini Naik against 2nd seed Iranian Farzami.

In boys, last 2 weeks champion Rethin Pranav lost in 3 sets against French boy, I think Rethin made a mistake both J60 tournaments in last 2 weeks, must have got tired after playing so many matches in 3 weeks. Again 5 Indians in QF- 2nd seed Kriish Tyagi against Bushan Haobam, 15 year old Arnav Paparkar against 4th seeded Japanese Kazumu Kimara, 11th seed Aarjun Pandit against 15th seed Frenchman Moise Kouame who beat Rethin and 15 year old Kandhavel Mahalingam against 16th seed Japanese Hiromasa Koyama.