ITF W75s, Nonthaburi, Thailand, Jan 2025

[sameerph]

In the second round,

[R2] Sahaja Yamalapalli (IND,352) vs (3) Han Shi (CHN,214)

This will be a tough match. I know Han Shi got upset by Shrivalli back in Daegu last June but the 19 year old won a W50 right the next week, has later won a W35 also in China, and has been playing very well. She is at a career high ranking now and just took out Anna Rogers (USA,309) by a 64 60 score today. So she is in good form, and Sahaja will have to bring her best to pull an upset over her.

[By the way, I was there court-side in Daegu, Korea, cheering Shrivalli when she upset Han Shi, then ranked #361. Unfortunately, I am not there in Nonthaburi to cheer Sahaja, so she does not have the massive advantage Shrivalli had, with the best cheer-leader of Indian tennis around ]

Haha. Also Sahaja does not still appear to be in her top form. She will have to go up to that level to have any chance of upsetting Han.

There was no live stream available for Vaidehi's match till third set, so do not know if Vaidehi dropped her level or Lu raised it but in third set Vaidehi had her chances in almost every game but just could not clinch the crunch points and I thought Lu was playing at top 200 level in that third set which is bit tough for Vaidehi at this stage.

[jayakris]

No live stream from the court where Sahaja is playing ... Only the point updates at the stats page are available.

Sahaja really screwed it up in the first set where she was up a break at 5-2 and had a 30-40 set point, and then after getting broken back, she had 14-40 2SP on Shi's serve at 5-4 too. Wasted those three set points and dropped serve at a 30-40 BP on her serve to fall to 5-6. The first serve percentage dropping from 55 to 45% was the issue in the final few games where she missed many first serves. Shi served out the set... 57 00

Sahaja cam back with a vengeance in the second set though. Won 16 of 22 points and led 4-0. Shi fought a bit there and had two BPs on Sahaja's serve but SY held to 5-0. Then she took 4 straight points on Shi's serve to close out the set. All even in a jiffy. 57 60 00. Nice. Can she keep this up?

SY broke Shi in the second game and is up by that break at 4-1 in the third... She hit an ace to save the 30-40 BP and held... 4-2... Need to hold and close this out. Closing things out is always a problem for all out players though. No problem here. Sahaja hit an ace and held at 15, and then broke Shi once more, at love, to close it out. 57 60 62 ... Terrific upset win!!!

At the ITF W75 in Nonthaburi, Thailand (Hard):

[R2] Sahaja Yamalapalli (IND,352) d. (3) Han Shi (CHN,214), 57 60 62
so
[QF] Sahaja Yamalapalli (IND,352) vs Maria Mateas (USA,244)

[sameerph]

Wow, that is excellent comeback win by Sahaja. Except for that period in the first set where she lost 5 straight games Sahaja actually dominated this match totally.

Another tough match in the QF for Sahaja against 8th seed Mateas whom she lost to in straight sets in June in US.

[Omkara]

Sahaja proving that her run to 284 was not a fluke. Hope she does better from here.

[jayakris]

Here is ITF's live stream for Sahaja vs Mateas QF at the Nonthaburi W75

First set: Cleanest tennis I have seen from Sahaja since the Los Angeles W15 title 6 months ago, though this is against a much better opponent. Clean hitting with depth, and the cross court backhand re-appearing after a while. Mateas playing cleanly too but made a couple of unforced errors more than SY, who converted the first BP she got at 4-3... Was in some trouble with 2 DFs and an ace in the final game but saved a 30-40 BP and closed it out with clean serves. 63 00

Set 2: A delectable backhand down the line shot to finish a 10-shot rally gave Sahaja 0-40 3BP and she broke ahead for 1-0... Played a couple of loose shots and was down 15-40 but SY saved the BPs and held after 3 deuces, winning a great 16-stroke hotshot rally. 2-0... Sahaja got broken in the 4th game to 2-2. Sahaja again played great tennis in the next game to force 15-40 2BP and later break MM at AD out. 3-2 and serving. Broken again to 3-3, as Mateas is also playing very well. Both hold. 4-4 very even match now. SY clawed back from 40-0 on MM's serve to a BP in the next game but MM held after 3 deuces. 63 45. Sahaja held nicely, with an ace too. 63 55.... At 5-6, Sahaja played an utterly pathetic game with 4 forehand errors, all of them unnecessary. Rushed shots, with no purpose, and no spirit in her game. Sahaja had to get fired up, instead she looked like her mind was all blank. Gave away a game just like that. Maybe she was trying to be aggressive and trying to finish the points faster, but why?? Just had to play her normal game. Anyway, all even at 63 57 00 and we go to a third set.

Set 3: SY playing spirited tennis again. Broke MM at 15-40 to 1-0... Came back from 15-40 down in the next game, but SY got broken on a tough fault call for DF at Ad out, which Sahaja argued to no avail. 1-1... She won a terrific exchange at the net and then hit a BH winner to get 15-40 BP, which she converted to go up a break yet again to 2-1. With two strong points after 30-30 with FH and BH winners, SY held to go up 3-1, as the match went past 2.5 hours... In the 6th game Mateas came up with a series of 3-4 retrieval shots to win a point and then hit the line barely for another. Then SY again got a bad second serve call for DF, again at BP. 3-3 even once again.... Sahaja didn't stop and went back to more of her big game, hitting precision shots and putting pressure on MM to be great in her retrieval - and she could not keep up. Broke her again on the second BP from 15-40... SY serving at 4-3. Can she hold? Yes, she can, despite a DF... 5-3

The final game was simply unbelievable. Maybe the best tennis I have seen any Indian play since Sania. I am serious. I have no idea what spirit possessed Sahaja in that game. Hope the ITF site will have an archive file of this match for all of you to see (the same link as above should work). I will say that the final winner at match point made my day. The BHCC EAS to finish the match. Reminded me of Sania's winners with that shot. 63 57 63

Take a bow, Sahaja!

At the ITF W75 in Nonthaburi, Thailand (Hard):

[QF] Sahaja Yamalapalli (IND,352) d. (8) Maria Mateas (USA,244), 63 57 63

I think this is Sahaja's first SF in a W75 event. She was the last direct entry, so it is against a very tough field too. 29 points for that, which will bring her back up to inside #315 again.

Up nest,

[SF] Sahaja Yamalapalli (IND,352) vs (1) Kathinka von Deichmann (LIE,173)

[sameerph]

Another very good win. Will watch the key last few games later. Up against top seed next. Her toughest match this week but I looked at the UTR's and Kathinka von Deichmann's UTR at 11.50 is only slightly better than Mateas (11.45) whom Sahaja beat today. Sahaja's QF Chinese opponent had UTR of 11.38. So, not impossible for Sahaja to win if she plays like she has on last 2 days.

[Dinesh]

Impressive win. I stopped watching when she let go of the lead in the second set and when both players kept breaking each other, happy she came back to finish with a win again. I
wonder if Harsh is present at these matches, but his mentorship already seems to have an impact. Good luck for the next

[jayakris]

^^^ Dinesh, the match recording is there at the link above. You can watch the final few games. I was stunned at the reserves she had at the end of a 3 hour match to be moving around as well as she was (better than she usually moves) and the instinctive shot-making. Normally our players only become more error prone at such points. Here she kicked her game into a higher gear and hit some shots that we wouldn't expect at all. Was playing "in a zone," like a woman possessed who was going to do whatever it took to win the match. Mateas is no Serena Williams or anything but she was top-200 just a few months ago and had beaten SY in straight sets in June, won a 75K+H in Canada in August, etc. A really solid all-around player, who was probably bothered by an ankle or something in the end but was not making too many mistakes.

I wonder if Harsh is present at these matches, but his mentorship already seems to have an impact. Good luck for the next

Yes, it has. She is much more comfortable at the net now, and retrieval shots have improved. The physical work under a top-notch guy (US Olympics trainer) that Harsh's Tenicity program has, is also quite evident. You can actually see her core improvement. Sahaja always had a good trainer in Bengaluru too, but she could hardly go and train under him in person because of the weekly travel grind.

Harsh Mankad is not at Nonthaburi, but is remotely advising SY and prepping her for her opponents (which has become a bit easier now, as more videos are available online). He was with her for the 2 events in Maharashtra because he is on family vacation in Mumbai, with wife Anjali and his kids joining for the Christmas break. Sahaja still needs higher sponsorship to afford taking a traveling coach with her, especially somebody who loses income when he is away from his base. Harsh needs to get back to his tennis work in Minnesota. I guess he might delay his return from India till after the Mumbai WTA, but it is doubtful. Financial constraints...

We need some help from some quarters on sponsorship for Sahaja, Shrivalli, Vaidehi, and Vaishnavi to make it to top-225 that they are capable of. Once they are in the grandslam qualies range, they all make some good extra money to be able to afford traveling coaches for a few more weeks just from prize money.

Vishnu and I were whatsapp-chatting just today about this. He was wishing that we had a "WTA dream" program like the "Doubles dream" program by Bops and party that helps our top doubles players in sharing coaches and physios during the travels. Making it to grand slam qualies could be a first goal for instance. But it is a little easier for doubles, as the coaching is not individualized like in singles. Unlike the doubles players, all the singles players have some primary coaches they go to, and none of those coaches can travel much abroad with their wards due to sponsorship issues.

[jayakris]

There seems to be no live stream at the ITF site today for Sahajas match. ITF is still testing and fixing the new live stream utilities, I guess.

[sameerph]

Top seed proved too strong for Sahaja.

[SF] Sahaja Yamalapalli (IND,352) l. (1) Kathinka von Deichmann (LIE,173) 06 36

Still, probably the best quality week for Sahaja in her career or at least one of the best.

[jayakris]

^^^ There was no live stream, so I was only following the stats and point updates. Kathinka gave Sahaja only TWO second serves to return the whole match, in 7 service games. She must have played very well to take out Sahaja like that. It looked like she was going to be double-bageled at 06 03, but Sahaja managed to break twice and hold once to claw back to 06 33, but then lost 2 close games that went to multiple deuces and BPs - one her serve and another on Kathinka's. Then it was over.

The archive link is there now. I should watch sometime later to see what all went wrong and right... meanwhile, Okamura got a walkover in the SF too, following a QF walkover yesterday. So she is in the final, stealing 33 extra points without playing a match. That is so unfair! Why don't our players get such breaks? They have to beat Okamura in 3-hour 3-set matches to get even an extra 12 points, like Vaidehi had to do at the Taipei W35 final

Despite the loss today, it was one of Sahaja's best weeks, on the quality of the wins and points. First W75 semi too. Hopefully she will do well again next week there.

[sameerph]

Vaidehi got the same Japanese player whom she beat in Q2 last week after saving 3 match points in Q1 today and this time an easier win for her.

[Q1] (9) Vaidehi Chaudhari (IND,397) d. Ikumi Yamazaki (JPN,492), 60 75

Tough match next up against former top 35 level Kazak,

[Q2] (9) Vaidehi Chaudhari (IND,397) vs. (6) Zarina Diyas (KAZ,382)

[jayakris]

Vaidehi should probably beat the 31 yr old veteran Zarina, whose form is always very doubtful. She won a W50 in Turkey in October to get back to respectable rankings but has not done much since. She lost in straight sets last week in the R1 to Kuramochi, ranked around where Vaidehi is, so probably not playing with her October form.

[Dinesh]

^^^ No. Zarina is too good for this level. I am not that confident that Vaidehi will beat her.

[sameerph]

Vaidehi won the first set 6-4 and was 2-0 up in second set but than lost 8 straight games. After that he staged a good comeback from 2-5 down in third set to 5-5 but lost the next 2 gams.


[Q2] (9) Vaidehi Chaudhari (IND,397) l. (6) Zarina Diyas (KAZ,382) 64 26 57