Prakash Amritraj thread...

[PKBasu]

Oh dear, this looks like a recurrence of the injury that caused his absence from the tour for a prolonged spell. Sad indeed

[sameerph]

His eariler injury was a wrist injury . But, shoulder injury is something which can be career threatning as well . Hope he can recover fast.

[sameerph]

Prakash tweeted today -

Going to bed boys and girls.. Shoulder surgery tomorrow. Lets do this!

So, it seems he has taken a decision rather fast to go for surgery. Hope he can recover from this & play pro tennis again.

[PKBasu]

Oh god!! Get well soon, Prakash! All the best for your shoulder surgery.

Tennis is really pretty hard on the body, and getting more so with time. (I am 49, but feel the creaks in my body all the more when I am playing tennis regularly: lower back, knees, shoulders, and elbow of course; and I only play once a week usually, and occasionally 2-3 times in a very good week).

[jayakris]

All the best, and get well fast, P$. Jay

[Tolamu]

I think he will be out of the tour for at least 6 months or more. When the next ranking is out he will be around 260-1. Will this be his @ protected ranking when he returns to the tour? Can someone tell me the PR rules?
And may he get well soon.

[Omkara]

I hope it isn't that bad...

[vk2052]

where is he? is he alright?

[sameerph]

Vk, please read a few posts before yours where details of Prakash's shoulder surgery are mentioned. I guess at least this season may be over for Kash.

[vk2052]

Thanks sameer. I some how forgot it.

[sameerph]

As I put in RamK's thread, Prakash tweeted that his shoulder is heeling well but he will not be ready for Chennai Open 2014. He thinks he may be able to play around February/ March. His last match was in end July. So, I guess that should make him eligible to use his protected ranking.

[PKBasu]

His last match was end-July, and his surgery was end-August (27th or 28th). So there are two aspects here: first, his recovery and rehabilitation from the surgery itself, which will surely take a minimum of 4-5 months; and secondly, when his injury-protected ranking kicks in. At best, he is probably beginning a modest regimen of training and fitness exercises currently. In theory, he can start applying his injury-protected ranking from end-January 2014 onwards, but I think the realistic time-line for any return to the circuit is unlikely to be before end-February 2014.

[Ravishankar Krishnan]

SO, this should not come as a surprise and was simply not official, that's all. Prakash replied to me yesterday that he's not making a comeback to the professional tour. He will be joining his dad in hosting the Star Sports Wimbledon show next week. It's quite sad that an injury ended his career post a very successful comeback a couple of years ago.

[sameerph]

Yes, quite sad. I have not followed him much in his junior days but IMO overall he achieved a career high ranking (154) which was consistent with his overall talent. He was very good on grass but inconsistent on hard courts and did not play on clay at all.

All the best for his post tennis career.

[PKBasu]

Sad that injuries eventually ended his career. I wish he had made one final bid on grass courts, given that there is now a slighly more extended season on his favourite surface. He could've used his injury-protected ranking to play a few Futures and Challengers in the UK, and spend 5 weeks on the surface. Having had to do surgery yet again, Prakash probably felt it wasn't worth the enormous effort to grind his way back to where he was -- and realistically decided that he couldn't have a serious career in the top-100 at his age (30+ already).

By the way, there surely is no better archive of any recent Indian tennis player's career than this forum! If you want to review the high points of Prakash's career, just re-live them by reading through this thread!!