ITF M25 Mandya,Bhopal, Chennai- Jan 2024

[sameerph]

3 weeks of M25 tournaments begin next Monday on Mandya which will be followed by Bhopal and Chennai M25's.

These tournaments act as pre-cursor for big challenger tournaments in February.

This is the entry list for Mandya next week-

1. Kris VAN WYK (RSA)
2. Giles HUSSEY (GBR)
3. Sasikumar MUKUND (IND)
4. Orel KIMHI (ISR)
5. Nam Hoang LY (VIE)
6. M Rifqi FITRIADI (INA)
7. Tsung-Hao HUANG (TPE)
8. S D Prajwal DEV (IND)
9. David PICHLER (AUT)
10. Rishab AGARWAL (IND)
11. Jelle SELS (NED)
12. Siddharth VISHWAKARMA (IND)
13. Karan SINGH (IND)
14. Grigoriy LOMAKIN (KAZ)
15. Mitsuki Wei Kang LEONG (MAS)
16. Ishaque EQBAL (IND)
17. Ofek SHIMANOV (ISR)
18. Yunseok JANG (KOR)
19. Manish SURESHKUMAR (IND)
20. Siddhant BANTHIA (IND)
21 (Q)
22 (Q)
23 (Q)
24 (Q)
25 (Q)
26 (Q)
27 (Q)
28 (Q)
29 (wc)
30 (wc)
31 (wc)
32 (wc)

So, we have 8 Indians in main draw and Mukund/SDPD should be seeded. With 4 wild cards likely to be Indians and hope 4-5 Indians should qualify in which would mean around 16-18 Indians in main draw.

It gets tougher from second week though with no Indian likely to be seeded and as of now only 3 Indian players in main draw entry list - Mukund, SDPD and Rishab and none will be seeded. Have never seen a tougher entry list for futures level tournament in India. Maybe players coming in early for challengers.

[Dinesh]

This is a tough entry list. I would be surprised if we see one Indian semifinalist.

[PKBasu]

The entry list is befitting of a M25. Hopefully Mukund can win this.

Qualifying action started today, and 11 of the 16 players who made Q2 are Indians -- among whom there are 3 pairs of all-Indian match-ups, assuring us of at least 3 Indian qualifiers. The other 5 (veteran Vishnu Vardhan, young Aryan Shah, Faisal Qamar, surprise package Jagmeet Singh -- who beat 5th seeded Brit Mattias Southcombe in Q1 -- and Shivank Bhatnagar) will have to beat foreigners to make the main draw.

[PKBasu]

36 year old Vishnu Vardhan, 23 year old Shivank Bhatnagar and Faisal Qamar beat seeded foreigners (2-Woobin Shin of Korea, 5-Aaron Cohen of Israel and 8-Dong Jiayong of Australia via China respectively), but 2-Aaryan Shah and Jagmeet Singh lost in FQR. The all-India battles were won by 38 year old Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan, Kabir Hans, and 7-Madhvin Kamath. So 6 of the 8 qualifiers are Indians.

[PKBasu]

[R1] Manish Ganesh (IND, 2022) d. Neeraj Yashpaul (IND, UNR; 2290ITF) 61 61
[R1] Siddharth Vishwakarma (IND, 749) d. Adil Kalyanpur (IND, 1995) 63 61

[PKBasu]

All the R1 doubles matches were played today. Just 2 pure-Indian pairs made the QF (Vishnu/SaiKarteek, and 4-Manish/Parikshat) alongside one half-Indian pair. 2nd seeded Prajwal/Nitin gave a walkover at 4-5 down in the first set to Woobin Shin/Karan Singh.

[PKBasu]

Today's R1 singles results:

Karan Singh bt 7-Tsung-Hao Huang (TWN) 3-6, 6-3, 6-2
Yunseok Jang (KOR) bt 8-SD Prajwal Dev 6-2, 5-7, 7-5
5-Nam Hoang Ly (VIE) bt Q-Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan 6-2, 6-3
4-Mukund Sasikumar bt Kabir Hans 6-3, 6-4
Mitsuki Wei Kang Leong (MAS) bt Q-Rishi Reddy 4-6, 6-3, 7-5
Ofek Shimanov (ISR) bt Q-Shivank Bhatnagar 6-2, 6-4
1-Kris Van Wyk (RSA) bt Q-Faisal Qamar 6-1, 7-6(2)
Thijmen Loof (NED) bt 6-M Rifqi Fitriadi (INA) 7-6(5), 1-6, 6-1
3-Orel Kimhi (ISR) bt Rishab Agarwal 6-3, 4-6, 6-2
Q-Vishnu Vardhan bt David Pichler (AUT) 6-3, 3-6, 6-4
Q-Madhwin Kamath bt Grigoriy Lomakin (KAZ) 6-3, 7-6(6)

Not a good day, with the reds overwhelming the greens
Kudos to 36 year old Vishnu.

[Dinesh]

Manish Sureshkumar sends the 2nd seed packing
8 Indians in R2.

[sameerph]

Yes, nice upset by Manish but he lost in second round against Sid Vishwakarma. Karan Singh continued on his upset win in first round by beating Ishaque Eqbal in second round and qualifier Madhvin Kamath against a Kazak and a Korean who had upset 8th seed SDPD in first round. 4th seed Mukund got upset in 3 sets against Dutch player Julie Sels.

So, 3 Indians in QF.

[QF] Karan Singh (IND,794) vs. (1) Kris Van Wyk (RSA,422)

[QF] (Q) Madhwin Kamath (IND,1425) vs. (3) Orel Kimhi (ISR,553)

[QF] Siddharth Vishwakarma (IND,749) vs. (5) Nam Hoang Ly (VIE,561)

All 3 Indians will be underdogs in the QF against seeds. Lets hope for couple of upsets.

[PKBasu]

Particularly disappointing to see Mukund, the highest ranked Indian (seeded 4), crash out in R2. Karan and Siddharth seem to be in good form, and Madhwin has been the surprise package. May their good form continue to bear fruit!

[Dinesh]

Karan Singh upsets the top seeded South African in straight sets. 6-3 6-3

[Dinesh]

And Sid VISHWAKARMA upsets former top-250 player Ly Nam 6-1 6-4 to become the second Indian semifinalist . Can Madhwin make it a clean sweep for us?

[sameerph]

Madhvin lost against third seed in straight sets. But, excellent wins by Karan and Sid.

Next,

[SF] Karan Singh (IND,794) vs. Jelle Sels (NED,712)

[SF] Siddharth Vishwakarma (IND,749) vs. (3) Orel Kimhi (ISR,553)

[jayakris]

Terrific to see Karan starting the year well. Same with Sid V and Madhvin (whom I had noted earlier last year as a player making a small move though he kinda disappeared later in the year).

[PKBasu]

20 year old Karan has steadily progressed over the past year, and the victory over the top seed (ranked 422) is just reward. Just the right age at which to make a breakthrough too!
Sid V of course has been the standout performer among this tier of Indian players over the past year. The only bummer is that he is already 29. For him, the February Challengers will be extremely important.