India Challengers February 2024

[Sanjay]

I see that Sumit's next is Indian Wells.

https://bnpparibasopen.com/players/detail/sumit-nagal

What is "MD"?

[Kumar]

Looks like Ramkumar Ramanathan list in straight sets

[prasen9]

Ram Ram lost 4-6, 4-6.

[arjun2761]

I see that Sumit's next is Indian Wells.

https://bnpparibasopen.com/players/detail/sumit-nagal

What is "MD"?

"MD" is main draw (versus qualifiers).

As you noted, he is in Indian Wells qualifiers...
https://www.dartsrankings.com/tennis/indian-wells

[arjun2761]

Looks like Mukund gave a walkover in the QF. Hope it isn’t a significant injury just as he was playing well….

[sameerph]

^^ It seems Mukund gave a walkover due to food poisoning. Sad as he looked in real great touch this week with 2 thumping wins.

And Niki had 2 match with 7th seed Sweeny serving at 2-5, 15-40 in third set but could not convert those and lost in the third set tie break 64 26 67(3).

Also, both our doubles pairs, Saketh/RamK and Arjun-Jeevan lost in the SF's.


So, all in all a disastrous day in Pune today.

[sameerph]

In New Delhi Challenger, 4 Indians were there in qualifying as wild cards. Parth Agarwal and Manish Ganesh lost in straight sets as expected. Niki Poonacha retired at 36 02. Looks like last week's efforts have taken a lot out of him.

Sid Vishwakarma got a good upset win in Q1.

[Q1] (WC) Siddharth Vishwakarma (IND,678) d. (11) Yun Seong Chun (KOR,376) 16 64 52 retd.

Next,

[Q2] (WC) Siddharth Vishwakarma (IND,678) vs. (3) Dan Added (FRA,303)

Main draw wild cards to RamK, Mukund and Karan,

[R1] (WC) Sasikumar Mukund (IND,421) vs. Coleman Wong (HKG,241)

[R1] (WC) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,406) vs. Tristian Schoolkate (AUS,237)

[R1] (WC) Karan Singh (IND,727) vs. Federico Gaio (ITA,215)

SidV, Karan and Mukund play their matches back to back on Monday.

[sameerph]

SidV had another good win to make it to main draw.

[Q2] (WC) Siddharth Vishwakarma (IND,678) d. (3) Dan Added (FRA,303) 76(4) 36 76(3)

So, like first and third week we have 4 Indians in main draw.

Karan and Mukund to play back to back today, Karan's match has just started.

[sameerph]

Karan Singh out up a very good fight before losing to 7th seed.

[R1] (WC) Karan Singh (IND,727) l. Federico Gaio (ITA,215) 63 36 46

Mukund is tied 1 set all, 46 64 against Wong.

[sameerph]

And Mukund too lost a close one.

[R1] (WC) Sasikumar Mukund (IND,421) l. Coleman Wong (HKG,241) 46 64 57

Mukund played a poor service game with 3 double faults to get broken in 5th game but than broke Wong as he served for the match at 5-4. But, got broken himself in next game. This time Wong served our for the match after saving a breakpoint.

Mukund with 4 aces and 8 doubles faults against 13 aces and 4 double faults by Wong, a difference of 13 points on serve and total difference of points was 12. So, he literally lost it on his serve.

So, only SidV and RamK left for us in singles.

[arjun2761]

Good to see Karan and Mukund put up a close fight against 200+ ranked opponents. Hopefully, this will give them confidence on the tour.

Good luck to RamK and SidV to go get some wins for India.

[Rajiv]

So Schoolkate , schools Ram 3 & 2 , and Mukund too falters which he could have won and show that he is ready for 200 + range , and last week the way Nikki let off a 5-1 lead in the decider was simply atrocious and with all of this , the 2nd singles slot looks completely thread bare where until couple of years ago we had # 1/2/3 of the same standard.

That is why the home back yard results I don't take them seriously & they just elicit momentary joy but doesn’t exudes long term confidence that the 2nd rung is ready to deliver the same standards internationally.

[sameerph]

And SidV lost in straight sets too against a fellow qualifier to end our singles campaign in first round itself this week.

[Sanjay]

We need some strategic thinking by the authorities here. They seem to be just taking things as they come. At this point, we just have Sumit in singles. He is playing at a Top 50-70 level IMO.

I think AITA has to create a time bound plan. A good one I think is:
2 players in Top 100.
2 players from 101-150.
1 player from 151 to 200

Do this in 3 years. It takes some effort to find the right bunch of kids, coach them up and unleash them. There is no reason why it cannot be done.

ONce we achieve this, we can think about grand slam progress. Let's focus on multiple players in the top 150 first.

[PKBasu]

Unfortunately all our momentum fizzled out in the third week, and the fourth and final week of Challengers (even in a lower-level one with slightly thinner field) proved catastrophic for our singles contingent.

And it hasn't been much better for the doubles either. Top seeded Ramkumar/Saketh (winners of the first two Challenger titles in this 4-week swing) were knocked out in the first round by Wallner/Schnaitter, the German pair that has caused a lot of trouble all month.
Niki/Rithwik also lost in R1, conceding the STB 9-11 to an Alternate pairing put together at the last minute.

Fortunately, however, second seeds Jeevan/Arjun beat a Korean pair 76 63 to make the QF, and Nitin/Manish seem to have received a walkover, so we have a second pair in the doubles QF.