ITF M25s Taiwan / M25- W40 Hong Kong (Aug-Sep 2023)

[jayakris]

Two M25s in Tainan, TPE (clay) in the Aug 14/21 weeks and two M25s in Hong Kong (hard) in the Aug 28/ Sep 4 weeks.

Digvijay Pratap Singh is the second seed in the Taiwan events, with Rishab Agarwal is a seed too. Both are in the HKG lists as well (closing this week)

Parth Aggarwal (4th seed), Atharva Sarma (12th seed) have qualified into the Tainan M25 this week. Sai Karteek Ganta was the 9th seed and Tushar Madan was also there.

[R1] (2) Digvijay Pratap Singh (IND,555) vs Kazuki Nishiwaki (JPN,900)
[R1] (7) Rishab Agarwal (IND,774) vs (Q) Bang Shuo Yin (TPE,1582)
[R1] (Q) Atharva Sharma (IND,ITF-917) vs (8) Taisei Ichikawa (JPN,794)
[R1] (Q) Parth Aggarwal (IND,1852) vs (Q) Ching-Mou Yu (TPE,ITF-1658)

[sameerph]

All of them lost.

[R1] (2) Digvijay Pratap Singh (IND,555) l.Kazuki Nishiwaki (JPN,900) 76(5) 46 36
[R1] (7) Rishab Agarwal (IND,774) l. (Q) Bang Shuo Yin (TPE,1582) 67(4) 67(7)
[R1] (Q) Atharva Sharma (IND,ITF-917) l. (8) Taisei Ichikawa (JPN,794) 36 16
[R1] (Q) Parth Aggarwal (IND,1852) l. (Q) Ching-Mou Yu (TPE,ITF-1658) 57 36

Digivijay has been in a slump now for last couple of months.

[Rajiv]

Tennis in Hong Kong and China has returned with a bang, not only a glut of 25k Futures are taking place since past 2 months, plus the biggies 500 and 1000's , 3 weeks of world class Tennis in Beijing and Shanghai , but starting from next week there are a string of Challengers for 6 weeks taking place in China, and sadly none of our guys will be there to exploit them.

Not a long while ago this used to be a fertile ground for our guys to take advantage, but now there is no one.At most the usual dbls suspects would show up.
If only Sumit could be brave to experiment but looks unlikely as he seems to be completely ensconced in a clay cocoon.

[sameerph]

^^^ Mukund is there in the qualies of both Zhangjiagang and Shangai challenger in the week 2 and 3 there. He is not there in the first week which is a lower level challenger. Fourth week comes in the week of davis cup. So, he will not be there.

Last 2 challengers in this series are in October. Hope Sumit tries out his hands at those as there are no clay challengers in Europe in those weeks. He of course can instead make a trek to South America if he wants to play only on clay.

[arjun2761]

^^^^^Agree with this (referring to Rajiv's post). Not only don't we have anyone (outside of Sumit on clay) that is a challenger quality player, our futures level players are mostly first round losers at the lowest level of futures played in the least competitive places and regions. I don't recall our men's tennis players being this poor in singles.

On the positive side, our mens doubles players look quite promising at most levels outside of the ATP level where Rohan looks like the only consistent winner. Yuki/Saketh have showed some promise at the ATP level but not sure what their current status is as partners (or with other consistent partners).

[sameerph]

This week Sai Karteek Reddy has reached the final. He seems to be another one coming up in our doubles bandwagon. Won a 25K title couple of weeks of back along with Siddhanth Banthia and now into final of another one.

On the womens tour, our top 2 ( Ankita and Karman ) will be at US Open qualies next week. But, our #3, 4 and 5 ( Rutuja, Sahaja and Vaidehi) will be in Hongkong for W40 tournament. Rutuja is in main draw, Sahaja and Vaidehi should be seeds in qualies. We can discuss that tournament here too instead of opening a thread for just 1 tournament.

[sameerph]

Sai Karteek Reddy Ganta won the 25K doubles title this week along with Taiwanese partner. He will get close to top 350 rankings and a few more titles like these and he will be another Indian to get into challenger main draws.

Sahaja and Vaidehi begin qualifying in W40 Hongkong tomorrow-

At W40 Hongkong

[Q1] (1) Sahaja Yamalapalli (IND,421) vs. Yanni Liu (CHN,1019)

[Q1] (7) Vaidehi Chadhari (IND,504) vs. Shiho Akita (JPN,857)

[sameerph]

Both of them won their matches in straight sets.

At W40 Hongkong

[Q1] (1) Sahaja Yamalapalli (IND,421) d. Yanni Liu (CHN,1019) 61 63

[Q1] (7) Vaidehi Chaudhari (IND,504) d. Shiho Akita (JPN,857) 75 61

Next,

[Q2] (1) Sahaja Yamalapalli (IND,421) vs. (9) Xinxin Yao (CHN,558)

[Q2] (7) Vaidehi Chaudhari (IND,504) vs. Meiqi Guo (CHN,996)

[jayakris]

At W40 Hongkong (Hard)

[Q2] (1) Sahaja Yamalapalli (IND,426) l. (9) Xinxin Yao (CHN,568), 36 16
[Q2] (7) Vaidehi Chaudhari (IND,512) d. Meiqi Guo (CHN,995), 60 67(5) 61

Good job from Vaidehi in stopping Guo's comeback which followed a long rain delay after the first set. Sahaja's DF problems just won't go away, though they happen a bit less often these days. Up 3-1, 40-15, in the first set, SY proceeded to lose 12 of the next 13 points (three of them on DFs) to drop serve twice. She never recovered. 6 DFs in the final 6 service games (2 of them at BPs and 1 that caused a BP) when she dropped serve 5 times.

In the main draw,

[R1] Rutuja Bhosle (IND,333) vs (Q) Daria Kudashova (RUS,496)
[R1] (Q) Vaidehi Chaudhari (IND,512) vs (Q) Hanyu Guo (CHN,563)

[jayakris]

At the M25 in Tainan, Taiwan (Clay)

[R1] (2) Digvijay Pratap Singh (IND,552) vs (Q) Ke Hau Hung (TPE,NR)
[R1] (6) Rishab Agarwal (IND,764) vs (WC) Ching-Mou Yu (TPE,ITF-1658)
[R1] Rishi Reddy (IND,1358) vs (Q) Jesse Delaney (AUS,1493)

Parth Aggarwal, Sai Karteek Ganta, Atharva Sharma, Tushar Madan were in the qualies. Tushar and Atharva reached secodn and final Q but both fell in 10-12 STBs.

[sameerph]

Sahaja's DF problems just won't go away, though they happen a bit less often these days. Up 3-1, 40-15, in the first set, SY proceeded to lose 12 of the next 13 points (three of them on DFs) to drop serve twice. She never recovered. 6 DFs in the final 6 service games (2 of them at BPs and 1 that caused a BP) when she dropped serve 5 times.

That is a bad loss for Sahaja. Even accounting for 7 doubles faults ( none by Chinese), in the points in play Chinese won 15 more points than Sahaja. That is quite a lot of difference in a 2 set match. So, either Chinese was in a zone or Sahaja was not close to her best level which does happen in quite a few matches.

[jayakris]

Yes, Sahaja is very inconsistent. Sometimes it is part of the learning process, when one has not had enough match play over the years to figure out counter strategies against certain styles of play... So I assume.

[jayakris]

At the M25 in Tainan, Taiwan (Clay)

[R1] (2) Digvijay Pratap Singh (IND,552) d. (Q) Ke Hau Hung (TPE,NR), 64 62

[jayakris]

At the Tainan M25,

[R1] (6) Rishab Agarwal (IND,764) l. (WC) Ching-Mou Yu (TPE,ITF-1658), 26 61 64
[R1] Rishi Reddy (IND,1358) l. (Q) Jesse Delaney (AUS,1493), 46 36
so,
[R2] (2) Digvijay Pratap Singh (IND,552) vs Lucio Carnevalle (ARG,1168)
[R2] (6) Rishab Agarwal (IND,764) vs (Q) Jesse Delaney (AUS,1493)

[jayakris]

At W40 Hongkong (Hard)

[R1] (Q) Vaidehi Chaudhari (IND,512) d. (Q) Hanyu Guo (CHN,563), 46 61 40 RET.

Actually, Guo had her shoulder (and a knee too) heavily taped and was serving underhand almost all match. It was rather embarrassing that Vaidehi lost the first set, though it was mostly because she had to adjust to the unpredictable game from Guo and Vaidehi had to get a hang of what to do with the underhand serve, especially when Guo was slapping the ball like a ton of bricks on her shots. But after the first set, Vaidehi had no trouble. She played quite a few points very well, because Guo had her ground shots and a lot of guile, despite the serve issue. A weird match, but a nice win for Vaidehi.

[R1] Rutuja Bhosle (IND,333) d. (Q) Daria Kudashova (RUS,496), 76(4) 63

Kudashova, a Univ.of Oklahoma player earlier iirc, has had a couple of wins over Sahaja last year and a loss to Karman, so a she is good player. Rutuja was a bit erratic (often on the forehand, hitting some shots long) but seemed to get past her errors and play good tennis, not falling into any prolonged streaks of errors. She was really focused all through the match and wanted to win it, which was pretty clear. Good job in the match. A second serve ace to the line at 4-4 which was not called out, helped Rutu in the TB. Kudasova complained, but the ump (who looked like an Indian) was unmoved. Rutu took both the points off DK's serve and took the set. After that she was in firm control, though KD broke her after several deuces and two match pts at 76 52... But Rutu broke her again and won the match.

Two tough PQF matches await our ladies.

[R2] (Q) Vaidehi Chaudhari (IND,512) vs (3) En Shuo Liang (TPE,284)
[R2] Rutuja Bhosle (IND,333) vs (6) Kyoka Okamura (JPN,286)