ITF Men-Women Thailand 2023

[Omkara]

Shrivalli and Sahaja should win. And Vaidehi should also win, given she has been doing slightly better of late. Or else no one deserves to go higher in ranking

[jayakris]

At the W25 in Nakhon Si Thammarat, THA (Hard)

[R1] Vaidehi Chaudhari (IND,477) l. (4) Mananchaya Sawangkaew (THA,267), 46 46
[R1] Sahaja Yamalapalli (IND,425) d. (8) Polina Iatcenko (RUS,318), 62 64

Vaidehi actually played quite well in the loss to a really tough opponent in Mananchaya. Sahaja was all over Polina today. Probably the cleanest match I have seen Sahaja play. 5 aces and only 2 DFs. Very few mistakes. Every time she got broken, she seemed to get right back in it and break Polina back. The backhand down the line shots came out very nicely many times today. Her return game was also quite good, but maybe Polina served to her forehand side too many times. I was pleased to see the BH returns from Sahaja though. Generally, very smooth shotmaking and no drama. That is how she should play. Like she is capable of. The Russian had no answers to the Indian's power again, today!

[jayakris]

At the M15 in Nakhon Si Thammarat, THA (Hard)

[R1] (8) Siddharth Vishwakarma (IND,878) d. Jimmy Yang (GER,882), 61 63
[R1] Nitin Kumar Sinha (IND,929) l. Chukang Wang (CHN,885), 63 36 46
[R1] (1) Sidharth Rawat (IND,646) vs (Q) Natthasith Kunsuwan (THA,2004), Wednesday

A very nice R1 win today by Sid B over a German guy. Faisal Qamar was in the qualies as the 2nd seed, but got upset by the guy playing Sid R tomorrow. Dheeraj Sreenivasan and a Sammr Raina were also there but lost in the Q1.

Update: Nitin's match was also today. Score added above. He lost yet another 3-setter. He is 2-7 in three-setters against foreigners (mostly ranked around his level) and the 2 wins are against a Malaysian Indian and a Singapore guy. He has 3 or 4 three-set wins in that stretch against good Indian players like Karan Singh, by the way. It looks pretty clear that he just does not believe in himself when he runs into some foreign player and the match stretches to the third set. Often he starts well and then he folds in the end like when he lost 8 points in a row at 3-3 in the third. I have been watching these patterns. Come on Nitin. You are better than that. Trust yourself and beat these guys, dude!

[Omkara]

At the W25 in Nakhon Si Thammarat, THA (Hard)

[R1] Vaidehi Chaudhari (IND,477) l. (4) Mananchaya Sawangkaew (THA,267), 46 46
[R1] Sahaja Yamalapalli (IND,425) d. (8) Polina Iatcenko (RUS,318), 62 64

Vaidehi actually played quite well in the loss to a really tough opponent in Mananchaya. Sahaja was all over Polina today. Probably the cleanest match I have seen Sahaja play. 5 aces and only 2 DFs. Very few mistakes. Every time she got broken, she seemed to get right back in it and break Polina back. The backhand down the line shots came out very nicely many times today. Her return game was also quite good, but maybe Polina served to her forehand side too many times. I was pleased to see the BH returns from Sahaja though. Generally, very smooth shotmaking and no drama. That is how she should play. Like she is capable of. The Russian had no answers to the Indian's power again, today!

Yes. The score line for Vaidehi is not that bad. Good win by Sahaja. I hope rest two can spring a surprise.

[jayakris]

At the M15,

[R1] (1) Sidharth Rawat (IND,646) d. (Q) Natthasith Kunsuwan (THA,2004), 62 60

In the R2, he plays the guy who beat Nitin yesterday. Sid V's R2 opponent is TBD today.

[jayakris]

At the W25,

[R1] (Q) Zeel Desai (IND,691) l. (7) Sohyun Park (KOR,297), 26 26
[R1] (Q) Shrivalli Rashmikaa Bhamidipaty (IND,801) l. (Q) Fangzhou Liu (CHN,652), 46 67(6)

Shrivalli was fighting throughout the match, and was playing well in many patches but made crucial mistakes to lose the sets. She double-faulted at 6-6 in the TB to lose the match in the end. So, good efforts from Shrivalli and Vaidehi against higher ranked players but both lost. As expected, Sahaja with an upset of a seed is the only one in the R2 there.

[Omkara]

So Zeel proves she is playing ~700 level tennis. Shrivalli, we don't know but she payed well.

Difference in skill levels below 500 is not much. Maybe upto 700 odd. People may have better ranking just by playing more tournaments. Getting into 350-400 zone is first major hurdle. Top 300 is definitely way better than below 400.

[sameerph]

Yes, 3 of our players are knocking or have a chance to get to that top 300 if they push foward- Rutuja, Sahaja and Vaidehi. Hope they are able to do that in next year or so and better still go to top 250 to get a chance to play grand slam qualies which is a big boost financially in particular.

[jayakris]

Difference in skill levels below 500 is not much. Maybe upto 700 odd. People may have better ranking just by playing more tournaments. Getting into 350-400 zone is first major hurdle. Top 300 is definitely way better than below 400.

Actually there is fairly good gradation all the way down to 1000 in WTA rankings and maybe 1500 in ATP rankings too, these days. At least 3 or 3.5 times out of 5, the seeds ranked around 700 or 800 in these W15 and M15 events beat those who are even just 100 or 200 spots below them.

You may be right that "skill level" difference below top-500 to say top-1000 is not much. Or it may not look like it is not much, when we see them play. But some are better at winning and that is reflected in their rankings, and often it is the ability to stay focused and keep confidence to win the key points. UTR rating will show some anomalies based on number of events played etc, but by and large, I get surprised at how the higher ranked player wins much more often that I would think when we see them play.

[jayakris]

At the M15 in Nakhon Si Thammarat, THA (Hard):

[R2] (8) Siddharth Vishwakarma (IND,878) l. (Q) Pruchya Isaro (THA,1382), 46 67(2)
[R2] (1) Sidharth Rawat (IND,646) d. Chukang Wang (CHN,885), 63 57 63

Sid could have finished this off faster, as he had a BP to go up a break at 5-5 in the second set, but instead he lost 7 of 9 points, got broken and lost the set 5-7. But he took care of business in the third set.

[QF] (1) Sidharth Rawat (IND,646) vs Moerani Bouzige (AUS,902)

The QF will be tough, as Moerani had beaten Sid R easily in the R2 last week and has again upset a seed this week - so he is playing well.

[jayakris]

At the W25 in Nakhon Si Thammarat, THA (Hard)

[R2] Sahaja Yamalapalli (IND,425) l. Daria Lodikova (RUS,402), 36 63 46

Sahaja had made a very good comeback, and was playing relatively error-free and in control till late in the 3rd set, up 4-3, when she had Lodikova serving at deuce. But out of nowhere, she lost focus, started hitting some short moonballs for no reason, allowing DL to take control of points, and then she hit 2 or 3 lazy forehands too long too. She lost 10 points in a row from there, as she got broken and Lodikova served a love game with Sahaja hitting some useless returns with no plan.

I was beginning to get very impressed with the improvement in her game over the last several months. Clearly a notch above, and the earlier double fault issues and general tendency to lose focus had reduced a lot. That BH DTL shot had become a strength, and the return game had improved by leaps and bounds. But just at the worst time today at the end, she suddenly lost her mind and focus. Oh boy. So we wait more to see Sahaja break out and go into the top-200 some day, like she is bound to. But wait we must.

[jayakris]

At the M15,

[QF] (1) Sidharth Rawat (IND,646) l. Moerani Bouzige (AUS,902), 67(6) 76(1) 36.

Moerani had beaten Sid 36 36 last week, and Sid played much better today. A close match all along, and it was a pleasure to see so much of smart tennis from Sid, in terms of ball placement, shot selection, and right level of aggression in taking some shots on the rise and hitting winners. Great tennis, actually, in some patches. In fact, Sid faced 2 match points at 3-5 in the second set, but played terrific tennis to save them and break Moerani. He was mistake free in the second set TB as well, when Moerani got impatient and hit several shots out. Again in the third set, Sid continued to play quite well, and some close line calls going against him proved trouble. He still saved another match point at 3-5, but finally fell after a deuce. In the whole match, there were only 2 breaks by Moerani and 1 by Sid. 23 aces(!) by the Aussie, but Sid also pumped in 14 aces. We really can't complain much. He tried hard, played good tennis, and did not look stupid on court with mental fragility. That is all we can ask of our players. It was not his day in the end. Keep going, Sid. Don't think you are too old. You still have some good tennis in you.

[sameerph]

2 weeks of W15 series is now taking place in Thailand. Only 1 of the top 10 Indian players is playing here - Shirvalli Rashmika Bhamidipatti but lot of lower ranked players.

At least 3 Indian players- Soha Sadique and qualifiers Priyanshi Bhandari and Abhaya Vemuri won against higher ranked players and reached second round. They all lost in second round though against seeds.

4th seeded Shrivalli ranked 768 has won 2 matches in straight sets and is in QF where she will meet 5th seed Russian Valery Gynia who is ranked 986.

[jayakris]

A good win by the third seed #751 Shrivalli... 62 63 over the 5th seeded Valery Gynina (RUS,986)... Up next in the semis is the top seed Patcharin Cheapchandej (THA,574) who has been in good form this week with 3 dominating wins, where she lost 9 games total while winning 36 games. So, the SF may be tough for Shrivalli.

[sameerph]

Shrivalli has taken the first set 76(5) against top seed after saving 3 setpoints serving at 56 0-40 down.

Hope she pulls off an upset now.