ITF M25/M15 New Delhi, Chandigarh - Mar 2024

[jayakris]

M15 Chandigarh

[R1] Manish Sureshkumar (IND,877) l. Khumoyun Sultanov (UZB,331) 26 36
[R1] Q-Hitesh Chauhan (IND, UNR) d. WC-Shanker Heisnam (IND, UNR) 62 36 75
[R1] JR-Yuvan Nandal (IND,NR) d. Adil Kalyanpur (IND,1474) 75 62
[R1] 6-Siddharth Vishwakarma (IND, 659) d. Shivank Bhatnagar (IND, 1687) 62 60
[R1] 3-Sasikumar Mukund (IND,427) d. WC-Kabir Hans (IND,1654) 76(2) 36 62
[R1] Madhwin Kamath (IND, 1192) d. Jang Yunseok (KOR, 876) 52 wo
[R1] Bang Shuo Yin (TPE,833) d. Kazuma Kawachi (JPN,1106) 62 62
[R1] Q-Dhruv Hirpara (IND,1265) d. 5-SD Prajwal Dev (IND,600) 75 wo
[R1] 7-Sidharth Rawat (IND,714) d. Yuichiro Inui (JPN,1180) 76(5) 46 61
[R1] Q-Rohan Mehra (IND,1618) l. Thanapet Chanta (IND,915) 26 46
[R1] Nitin Kumar Sinha (IND, 1022) d. Siddhant Banthia (IND, 1038) 64 63
[R1] Q-Raghav Jaisinghani (IND,1215) l. 4-Nam Hoang Ly (VIE,488) 06 26
[R1] 8-Karan Singh (IND,732) l. Mitsuki Wei Kang Leong (MAS,794) 67(7) 26
[R1] Chirag Duhan (IND, 1297) d. Wishaya Trongcharoenchaikul (THA, 792) 75 36 63
[R1] WC-Ajay Kundu (IND,NR) l. Woobin Shin (KOR,1043), 36 16
[R1] 2-Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND, 351) d. Manish Ganesh (IND, 1645) 63 62[/color][/i]]

Very nice upset win by Chirag Duhan... A good win for 16 year old Hitesh Chauhan, as he gets an ATP rank now! ... Unfortunate that Karan could not sustain his top form last week, but his loss is to a good player. SDPD gave a walkover. Hopefully not injured.

[PKBasu]

Sorry to see that Manish could not repeat his victory over the same player (top seed this week, second seed last week). Perhaps he has been playing too many matches -- and of course his opponent had a lot of time to regroup after losing in R1 to Manish last week.

[sameerph]

So, only Indian who lost to a lower ranked foreign player was Karan Singh while 2 Indians-Chirag Duhan and Madhvin Kamath beat higher ranked foreign players.

10 Indians in last 16. But, only 2 all Indian match-ups ( Mukund- Madhvin and SidV-Yuvan) and other 6 Indians are playing foreign players- of which RamK and SidR is playing a lower ranked player while other 4 are playing higher ranked foreign players.

[jayakris]

It would be nice if we got 5 or 6 in the QF, but I think we will only get 4 or 5... I don't know if we can expect more than 1 upset from among Hitesh, Nitin, Chirag and Hirpara. If only 3 or fewer Indians are in the QF, that will be bad.

[jayakris]

R2 Results, M15 Chandigarh

[R2] (Q) Hitesh Chauhan (IND, UNR) l. (1) Khumoyun Sultanov (UZB,331), 62 26 16
[R2] (6) Siddharth Vishwakarma (IND, 659) d. (JR) Yuvan Nandal (IND,NR), 76(3) 64
[R2] (3) Sasikumar Mukund (IND,427) d. Madhwin Kamath (IND, 1192), 62 46 60
[R2] (Q) Dhruv Hirpara (IND,1265) l. Bang Shuo Yin (TPE,833), 76(2) 36 16
[R2] (7) Sidharth Rawat (IND,714) l. Thanapet Chanta (IND,915), 36 46
[R2] Nitin Kumar Sinha (IND, 1022) l. (4) Nam Hoang Ly (VIE,488), 26 36
[R2] Chirag Duhan (IND, 1297) d. Mitsuki Wei Kang Leong (MAS,794), 64 64
[R2] (2) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND, 351) d. Woobin Shin (KOR,1043), 62 75

Excellent upset win by 20 yr old Chirag. 6 of the 8 Indians except Nitin and Sid R had their moments in these matches but only four advanced. The way 16 yr old Hitesh started, jumping to a 5-1 lead and serving for the set, was impressive but he fizzled out after that. I hoped that Dhruv could pull an upset but that also did not work out, as he too fizzled out after the first set. Yuvan had led by a break 2 or 3 times in the match but Sid V kept turning the table on him. Sid R's loss was rather expected, seeing the form that he is in, these days. RamK keeps trucking.

One Indian in the semifinal is assured. Hope Mukund will get over the extreme inconsistency these days and beat the Taiwanese, but I seriously doubt if he will. The top seed has been inconsistent too, so maybe SidV can pull an upset from the upper half.

[PKBasu]

Wouldn't it be wonderful if 3 of the four singles semifinalists turn out to be Indians? I have a hunch they will be!

There are a couple of Indian pairs in the doubles SF too -- 2-Vishnu/Manish and 3-Siddhant/Karan -- and they play each other, so we are assured of one Indian pair being in the doubles final.

[PKBasu]

Really nice to see so many Indian youngsters (fresh ones particularly) coming through this week in Chandigarh. Humdinger going on between 20 year old Chirag Duhan and India #2 Ramkumar Ramanathan:

[QF] 2-Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND, 351) d. Chirag Duhan (IND, 1297) 46 62 64

It is currently on serve, 4-3 in the third set (Chirag having led 2-0 early in the set). Chirag serving 30-0, 30-15, 40-15, hold. 4-4
Update: Ramkumar holds easily for 5-4, then breaks Chirag to take the match.

[jayakris]

^^^ Yes, Karan (20), Chirag (20), Aryan (18), and Yuvan (18) have all had their moments this year at the pro levels already - with Manas (16) behind them... Even Hitesh Chauhan (16) ... They have all looked better than players who hit the circuit at their age over the last several years since Sumit and Mukund emerged 6 or 7 years years ago.

There is also Rushil Khosla (17) out there, and he was the Finesta junior national champion in singles and doubles last October. Currently studying to finish his academic work, he will be off to Cornell University for US college tennis later this year.

It is good to know that there are 6-7 talented guys in the 16 to 20 age range who have all shown promise. I am sure we will end up having at least 2 or 3 top-250 quality players out of them down the line. Not sure how soon. Maybe 3 to 7 years down the line.

[PKBasu]

The other two Indians are going in opposite directions:

[QF] 3-Sasikumar Mukund (IND, 427) d. Bang Shuo Yin (TWN, 973) 62 63
[QF] 1-Khumoyun Sultonov (UZB,331) d. Siddharth Vishwakarma (IND, 659) 76(4) 64

So Mukund plays Sultonov in the SF, Ramkumar plays Vietnam's Ly. Let's have an all-Indian final again!

[jayakris]

So the top 4 seeds make the SFs. It is not all that often that it happens!

[Rajiv]

Really nice to see so many Indian youngsters (fresh ones particularly) coming through this week in Chandigarh. Humdinger going on between 20 year old Chirag Duhan and India #2 Ramkumar Ramanathan:

[QF] 2-Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND, 351) d. Chirag Duhan (IND, 1297) 46 62 64

It is currently on serve, 4-3 in the third set (Chirag having led 2-0 early in the set). Chirag serving 30-0, 30-15, 40-15, hold. 4-4
Update: Ramkumar holds easily for 5-4, then breaks Chirag to take the match.

So this was the first ever stern test Ram has faced in his last 3/4 Futures, dropped the opening set and was quickly down an early break in the decider until his (Ram) experience prevailed.

This young fellow appears good to stretch a experienced campaigner when it should have been a routine normal match for Ram.
Only thing i vaguely remember hearing about Chirag when he was playing the junior ranks took out the top seed Japanese or Korean in one of the tourneys's

[jayakris]

So this was the first ever stern test Ram has faced in his last 3/4 Futures, dropped the opening set and was quickly down an early break in the decider until his (Ram) experience prevailed.

This young fellow appears good to stretch a experienced campaigner when it should have been a routine normal match for Ram.
Only thing i vaguely remember hearing about Chirag when he was playing the junior ranks took out the top seed Japanese or Korean in one of the tourneys

Well, Chirag was ranked #75 in the juniors in early 2022 when he stopped playing juniors. He has a Jan 1, 2004 DOB, which I thought might have been adjusted... but he stopped playing juniors soon, though he was eligible all year - so I felt he was not trying to milk any age advantage.

Just before reaching top-75, he had beaten the Korean Woobin Shin (the guy RamK just beat in the QF) at the J300 at Pune at the end of 2021. I think it was the JB1 Asian Juniors... Woobin soon went to #43 in the juniors which means he was pretty good too. I think Woobin was the top seed you might be remembering!

Anyway, Chirag had lost the whole year when he was 16 due to COVID. That was a key junior year too. But on return in 2021, he had won 3 of the four J60's in India then, with a 16-1 run... He beat Karan, Aryan, Yuvan, Dhruv Hirpara, Ajay Malik, etc, then (also Aman Dahiya and Nishant Dabas who were ranked high; but I had not taken them seriously due to "profile data" suspicions )... Basically, everybody who is becoming good now lost to Chirag then, in fact. His only loss was to Yuvan the week before he beat Yuvan in a final.

So, yeah, he was pretty good and was the best junior in 2022, with Aryan and Yuvan becoming the best in 2023. I am glad that he is right on track in the climb up the ATP ladder.

[Rajiv]

^^^ Thanks Jay for a lucid write up and info about our players which is unabated since 1998.(the time i got to know you )

[sameerph]

^^^ Yes, Karan (20), Chirag (20), Aryan (18), and Yuvan (18) have all had their moments this year at the pro levels already - with Manas (16) behind them... Even Hitesh Chauhan (16) ... They have all looked better than players who hit the circuit at their age over the last several years since Sumit and Mukund emerged 6 or 7 years years ago.

There is also Rushil Khosla (17) out there, and he was the Finesta junior national champion in singles and doubles last October. Currently studying to finish his academic work, he will be off to Cornell University for US college tennis later this year.

It is good to know that there are 6-7 talented guys in the 16 to 20 age range who have all shown promise. I am sure we will end up having at least 2 or 3 top-250 quality players out of them down the line. Not sure how soon. Maybe 3 to 7 years down the line.

They are all still a lot behind our best talents in last few years ( except Manas who is still very young) - Sumit, Yuki, RamK who were inside or close to top 200 when they were below 21 ( same age where Karan,Chirag are right now). Even Mukund had gone upto inside top 300 before 21. They may want to emulate the likes of Prajnesh or Saketh who were late bloomers but they only started their pro careers very late. Still hoping that as you said 2-3 of these hit at least top 200 level.

[jayakris]

ITF M15 Chandigarh (Hard). Saturday scores:

[SF] (3) Sasikumar Mukund (IND,427) l. (1) Khumoyun Sultanov (UZB,331), 26 16
[SF] (2) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND, 351) d. (4) Nam Hoang Ly (VIE,488), 63 62

[F] (3) Siddhant Banthia (IND)/ Karan Singh (IND) l. (4) Yunseok Jang (KOR)/ Woobin Shin (KOR), 46 67(11)

RamK was in full flow today, serving strongly with 12 aces and finishing the first set with an ace, and then the second set with 2 aces in a row. This was his 8th win in a row, starting from last week. It was also his 28th win in the last 29 matches he has played in India at the M15/M25 levels. In fact he has dropped only one set (to Chirag yesterday) in the last 12 matches in India at this level. Quite a dominant streak.