knarayen wrote: Thu Oct 04, 2018 3:34 am
All it takes is for 1-2 players to make a grand slam run like Osaka and nishikori made at the US Open in 2918, others get inspired too. Maybe we will see India surge in our lifetimes before we pass on. Stay optimistic is my motto.
Yes, by 2918 as you say
This is even beyond PKB optimism. The unit of optimism was 1 PKB. Now, we have to measure it in KNs (not to be confused with kN) I do not think I am living 900 years!
sameerph wrote: Mon Oct 01, 2018 5:17 am
23 year old Yoshihito Nishioka won an ATP title yesterday in Shenzhen coming thru as a qualifier. It is amazing how many quality players Japan is producing. Nishioka was seriously injured and out of action for more than 6 months last year. Now, he is back in top 100.
This is an article on ATP site about Japanese tennis rise -
If all our players are fit we can match their 7 in top 200, I think. We already have 3 ( Yuki,RamK,Prajnesh). Sumit and Saketh can certainly play at top 200 level if they are 100%. Arjun, Manish, Mukund will hopefully reach that level in couple of years.
Hope to start with we can get to level of 6-7 in top 200. A big if in this is injuries nagging our players ( Yuki, Saketh, Sumit).
There is absolutely no chance. Nishikori has been a top-10 level player. We are not going to have that in the next five years. We do not have the infrastructure. We need a Gopichand. What is Somdev up to these days? Lacking funds?
With Nishikori and Chung injured, we do not have any Asian player in top 30 now. Just looking at countrywise players in top 50, top 100 and top 300-
Japan - 2 in top 50, 4 in top 100, 7 in top 200
Kazakhstan - 2 in top 100, 3 in top 200.
South Korea - 1 in top 100, 2 in top 200
India- 3 in top 200
Taiwan - 1 in top 200
China - 1 in top 200
Uzbekistan - 1 in top 200
We are only behind Japan and Kazakhstan as such and Kazakhstan has couple of Russian imports who are in top 100. China will all it's resources pumped in ATP tournament still cannot do much at all in mens tennis. I think we are not doing too badly considering our per capita income which is below all these nations in Asia.
Korean 23 year old Soon Woo Kwon became first Korean to win an ATP title after 18:years as he won Nur Sultan ATP title today. Koreans do keep getting some pretty good players every few years. First it was Hyung Taik Lee, then Hyueon Chung who seemed destined to be top 20 or so but has been injured now and now Kwon who will get close to top 50 now.
20 year old Taiwanese player Chun-Hsin Tseng won the Bengaluru challenger title this week. Looks another real talent coming out from Taiwan, winning a challenger title at 20. This kid had won junior French open, Wimbledon titles in 2018 and now showing his talent in pros.
Current junior world #2 is Chinese Junchen Shang and he has already won 3 futures titles and has won a wild card at ATP 500 in Rio this week.
The kind of talent that Taiwan and China is getting. Korea too have a player ranked close top 50. Japan has decent talent coming along regularly. When will see that kind of talent.
The Chinese players are really exceling on the challenger circuit this year. 22 year old Yibing Wu has made a comeback from injury and has won 3 challenge titles on hard courts in USA. Their #1 25 year old Zizhen Zhang won a challenger title on clay in Europe this week and has had 2 challenger finals and 3 semi finals this year. And this week 17 year Jerry Shang won Lexington challenger title.
Looks like soon China is going to finally make a breakthru on ATP tour.
We had better do something in tennis. Nothing is happening, there is no excitement, and all our players are injured and generally getting old. Maybe Sumit and Karman are there for the next few years but who else? From being one of the best in Asia, we will become pretty much a nobody pretty soon, barring surprises. I guess chances for Asiad medals in tennis are getting slimmer and slimmer.
I do not think I am living 900 years!
