Women’s ITF - Georgia (Europe) W40/W25/W25 - Apr/May 2023

[Dinesh]

Week 1- W40 Tbilisi - Ankita and Sahaja in Main Draw (size 32)
Week 2- W25 Kachreti - Ankita, Sahaja, Zeel in Main Draw (size 48)
Week 3 - W25 Kachreti - TBD (after official withdrawal deadline).

Good luck to Sahaja. She needs an easy opening round and not to make double faults.

[sameerph]

Ankita and Sahaja are in main draw at Georgia W40 this week.

At Tbilisi W40, Georgina (Hard)

[R1] Ankita Raina (IND,224) vs. Daria KHOMUTSIANSKAYA (RUS,653)

[R1] Sahaja Yamlapalli (IND,483) vs. (WC) Nino Natsvlishvili (GEO,1111)

Hope for successful week for the duo.

[jayakris]

I really want to see Sahaja start to win some matches. Come on Sahaja! You can do it !!!!

[sameerph]

Both Ankita and Sahaja started with wins in doubles, Sahaja with an upset against 4th seeds.

At Tbilisi W40, Georgia (Hard)

[R1] (1) Ankita Raina (IND) / Nino Natsvlishvili (GEO) d. Bakhmutkina, Polina (GEO) / Vinahradava, Hanna (GEO) 63 61

[R1] Sahaja Yamlapalli (IND) / Mert Aysegul (TUR) d. (4) Ovcharenko, Ekaterina (RUS) / Wei, Sijia (CHN) 64 67(5) 10-8

[Dinesh]

Ankita’s partner is Ekaterina Gorgodze (I watched them play at the Chicago WTA 125 couple years ago, IIRC they defeated the seeded team of Voracova/Lohoff in R1). Hope they win the title this week.

Rather surprised by the upset win from Sahaja (from what I observed, I didn’t find her as a quality doubles player). Keep going!!

[VReddy]

Rather surprised by the upset win from Sahaja (from what I observed, I didn’t find her as a quality doubles player). Keep going!!

Doubles is a function of whom one partners with as well, beyond a point. For some unknown reason, she appears to have played almost all her doubles with Soha Sadiq.

At the BJK Cup vs Japan, Vaidehi and Sahaja ran the World No. 8 and World No. 57 pretty close with a 3-6 4-6 scoreline.

[jayakris]

Sahaja won the first set 6-4... Got broken twice for no reasons with 5 doubles faults in the first 4 service games, but she broke 3 times too (though she missed a break in game 4 after seven BPs!)... The usual mistakes. Finally in the 10th game, she served beautifully and gave no chance Natsvlishvili. 6-4

Really windy there, and it is troubling both of them. Sahaja dropped serve with a DF and generally unfocused shots (may be the wind and not having ballkids or linesmen bothering her) to 1-3, but then Natsvlishvili also dropped serve to make it 2-3 on serve... Sahaja seemed to cut down on her errors a bit from there, except the forehand spraying a bit due to poor upper body rotation... She saved a couple of BPs to hold serve twice, and played well in the 9th game to get a break, also helped by a straight-up choke with a DF at AD out BP by Natsvlishvili. Servng for the match at 5-4, Sahaja made a couple of mistakes on shots and the the Georgian went for a couple of desperate shots that fell right. Broken back to 5-5... Helped with a DF and two good points, Sahaja had 0-40 3BPs but played 5 straight points like a schoolgirl, mishitting everything. Sahaja simply has not played enough tennis, and that is very very clear. She is not at all solid on handling a whole host of run-of-the-mill shots at her that she should have no problem with, so makes mistakes by the barrel. Worse still, it is on BPs that she has the worst problems. 5 of 19 at breakpoints so far.

[Dinesh]

Sahaja had a chance to finish the match at 5-4 but lost her service game and it’s 5-all. Looks tough out there with the wind.

[jayakris]

And Sahaja lost the second set after being 30-0 up at 5-6 but then losing 5 of the next 6 points, which included a DF on the set point BP at Ad out. Tells you all about where her tennis is now. She is not even playing top-1000 tennis. I am losing hope on Sahaja for the time being. Not in the long term, because I think she will come back eventually. She does have some strokes which are really good and are at the top level, but she doesn't know much of anything else well. So she is not going to stay in the top-500 for too long, and she doesn't deserve to be there now. She has to play a lot of tennis. Maybe for 2 or 3 years a lot of matches in the W15 levels and in W25 qualies. Her lack of quality match practice from not having played much juniors is clearly visible now. She will take a couple of years to get back up. That is if she has the determination. I hope she has.

Yeah, I am writing like I am pretty sure she is going to lose this match. If she doesn't, then I will be happy.

[jayakris]

Aha... Just as I say it above, Sahaja starts playing well! Three good games in a row, and she breaks twice to lead 3-0 in the third. The forehand retrieval shot is back, and she starts playing like she wants to hit some shots deep. Where was this tennis earlier?? Okay, keep it up, lady!!... And promptly she drops serve at 0-40... Haha... She is going to add a lot more grey hairs to my head... But just when you think she would let the Georgian back in again, she breaks once more, pulling out her backhand and forehand heat finally. 4-1 in the third. Holds serve at 30 for 5-1... She has made much fewer mistakes this set. Natsvlishvili holds... 5-2

And Sahaja serves for the match once more (after the 5-4 in the 2nd set)... This time she even has a match point at 40-30, but again gets broken, and again on a DF at BP. 3-5. My hair will be all white by the time this match ends

Her return game is good, and she gets to two more MPs at 15-40 at 3-5... Again, she loses 3 in a row with wild shots. Now three match pts gone. After three deuces, Sahaja gets her 4th match point. Thankfully, she didn't have to win the point this time, because I don't know if she would have, had the ball gotten into play. Natsvlishvili double-faulted instead. Game,set,match.

[R1] Sahaja Yamlapalli (IND,483) d. (WC) Nino Natsvlishvili (GEO,1111), 64 57 63

Finally, after 4.5 months since her win against Vaishnavi at Solapur in December, Sahaja has won a main draw match, after 7 losses. It was like she just didn't know how to win it, and had forgotten how to, but she won today anyway.

Thank you Sahaja. Now, start winning!

[jayakris]

Ankita is playing steady tennis. Has won the first set 6-3... I need to hit the bed; it is 1:30 am

[PKBasu]

[R1] Ankita Raina (IND, 224) vs. Daria Khomutsianskaya (BLR, 653) 63 55

[Omkara]

Good fight back by Sahaja! Make this win count...

[PKBasu]

Ankita dropped the second set to the young Belarus player, then stormed through the final set:

[R1] Ankita Raina (IND, 224) d. Daria Khomutsianskaya (BLR, 653) 63 57 61

Both Ankita (who is top-seeded with a Georgian partner) and Sahaja won their R1 doubles matches -- 61 63 for the top seeds, and 10-8 in the STB for Sahaja and her Turkish partner over the 4th seeded Sino-Russian pair.

[sameerph]

Thanks Jay for detailed match report. Glad that Sahaja finally made it thru to second round. Now needs a better performance in next rounds to progress further.

[R2] Sahaja Yamlapalli (IND,483) vs. (6) Anastasia Zolotareva (RUS,264)

[R2] (3) Ankita Raina (IND,224) vs. Anna Brogan (GBR,359)