Junior Circuits Abroad for Indian Kids...

[jayakris]

Manas gets lucky with wildcards, but unlucky in the draws. The usual pattern. He is playing the top seed Rodrigo Pacheco Mendez (MEX,5) in the first round at the J500 Trofeo Bonfiglio in Milan, Italy (clay). Aryan Shah gets a wildcard - Lorenzo Sciahbasi (ITA,104).

[sameerph]

Manas gets lucky with wildcards, but unlucky in the draws. The usual pattern. He is playing the top seed Rodrigo Pacheco Mendez (MEX,5) in the first round at the J500 Trofeo Bonfiglio in Milan, Italy (clay). Aryan Shah gets a wildcard - Lorenzo Sciahbasi (ITA,104).

Very tough draw for Manas against an 18 year top 5 player. It would have better to get more matches in qualifying draw I think.

[jayakris]

^^ It is *always* better not to take a main draw WC at the junior level (unless your ranking has dropped so much below your actual level for some reason like an injury period). Isn't that the case?? What is the point in taking a WC?? In the pros, there is at least the financial aspect of getting a WC. And in some cases (like Sumit's or RamK's) there may be clear evidence that you are a bit under-ranked based on past rankings and established abilities, so you want to avoid playing too many matches when you know you can win 1 or 2 in the MD. That is only very rarely the case in the juniors.

There is just no earthly reason to take a WC in the juniors when you are coming up. Somehow, our parents just don't seem to think that way. Just refuse the WC even if somebody tells you that they can get you one!!! (Any decent coach will only appreciate the determination in the player, when one does that).

Qualifying wildcards are different. They might be needed when your ranking is low and you need to play somewhere to start moving up. Not main draws.

[arjun2761]

^^^Agree with the above. The only exception may be if you are an underranked Junior perhaps because you haven’t played many ITF junior events. That isn’t the case with Manas.

[jayakris]

^^^Agree with the above. The only exception may be if you are an underranked Junior perhaps because you haven’t played many ITF junior events. That isn’t the case with Manas.

But in most such cases, a qualifying WC would be more appropriate because, again, you get to play more matches which is very important. The kid wouldn't be ready to win much in the main draw. I have no issue with qualifying WCs for this purpose.

(There could be a case of a kid who is very high in USTA ranking or AITA ranking, where an ITF main draw WC would be the appropriate level. That would have to be in cases where it would be unfair to other players for such a kid to play the qualies and beat them up!)

[prasen9]

If the player is injury-prone or if travel issues create a case where you can overcome jetlag, etc. better due to a few more days rest would be my other justification but I am looking for answers and largely agree with you.

[jayakris]

Cahir Warik (IND,243) was at a J60 (grade-4) event in Budaest on clay as the top seed last week. He finished runner up there. Nothing too great, considering the level, but at least he got some clay matches and showed he can play at the level he is at ... The first three rounds were all three-setters, so this was not easy, but at least he won those matches.

[jayakris]

15 year old Kandhavel Mahalingam Akilandeshwari (IND,841) was at a J30 in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, as the 4th seed and finished runner up there, losing to a Taiwanese player in 3 sets in the final. Kadhavel seems to be a good player.

[sameerph]

Manas gets lucky with wildcards, but unlucky in the draws. The usual pattern. He is playing the top seed Rodrigo Pacheco Mendez (MEX,5) in the first round at the J500 Trofeo Bonfiglio in Milan, Italy (clay). Aryan Shah gets a wildcard - Lorenzo Sciahbasi (ITA,104).

Manas lost 36 36 and Aryan lost 36 75 36.

[jayakris]

Aryan's match was quite close (against Sciahbasi who was ranked #69 just last month). He was 2 pts away from losing the match 36 46 when he broke Sciabahsiand won some 15 of 20 points, breaking twice to tie it up at 36 75. He continued the run for a third break to lead 2-0 but then lost 5 of the next 6 games. There was a time-out period in there (not sure if it was a medical TO), but he was not winning too many points there.

[Dinesh]

Manas and Aryna won their doubles first round 6-2 7-6.

[jayakris]

Manas and Aryan lost a close R2 doubles match to the Italians Bondioli and Sciahbasi, 64 26 [9-11]

[jayakris]

Manas has moved up to the 4th ALT spot outside the qualifying list for the FO juniors... Aryan has moved up to the top 6th spot in the qualifying list. Yuvan is in the main draw, of course, and will get Astrid Bowl J300 next week to get used to playing on clay. It is the first time that Yuvan is playing on red clay since a couple of J4 events in Kazakhstan last year in June.

[sameerph]

I think there are 2 special exempts in main draw and 2 special exempts in qualifying draw. So, quite likely now that Manas will make it to qualies draw with more than a week still to go. There is some chance too that Aryan will move into main draw.

I think Yuvan has taken too long a break after that great run to the title in Thailand in March. Maybe he had some injury niggle or something.

[jayakris]

Pranav Karthik (IND,338) is at the J60 in Les Franqueses del Valles (Spain) as the top seed. ITF shows only his match to be unfinished in the first round, but he is leading 6-4 over a lucky loser. This is probably a lower-grade event than he would normally play, I assume, but he can use some points to make entries to some more good events during the year (His ranking has dropped by about 100 from around 235 earlier). I am generally happy when our juniors play, even if it is at a lower level. The more matches they play against decent players, the better. It is near Barcelona in Spain, so no match will be a gimme at whatever level you are playing.

The second seed is a 14 year-old former US president #326 Jack Kennedy (USA) who is actually ranked higher than Pranav this week, after he won the J60 in Lleida, Spain,last week..