Rupesh Roy thread...

[sameerph]

Rupesh won the grade 4 event in Namibia.
His results from this tournament :-
[R1] bye
[R2] Rupesh ROY (IND) defeated Regard SMITH (RSA) 62 61

[R3] Rupesh ROY (IND) defeated Hendrik COERTZEN (RSA) 60 61

[QF] Rupesh ROY (IND) defeated Gregory ANDERSON (RSA) 76(8) 61

[SF] Rupesh ROY (IND) defeated Ruan ROELOFSE (RSA) 62 63

[F] Rupesh ROY (IND) defeated Jurgens STRYDOM (NAM) 63 63

Good result for Rupesh.

[jayakris]

I did not even check that event to see if he went there. I don't know why he played that. I suppose because he was in Africa with his coach anyway and had a week to spend ... Really, even the title points addd just 10 more to his point total to 273.5 and moved him only about 6 spots in the ranking to #116. But there was no big events avilable anywhere to play I guess.

He should not be playing grade-4 events or even grade-3 events anymore, unless the coach wants to work on some specific things against lesser players to improve his game.

Jay

[amr090]

maybe they just wanted to get his confidence up haha..

[nkoth]

I did not even check that event to see if he went there. I don't know why he played that.

Yeah, I didn't bother checking it either thinking no one would go to namibia for a little grade 4 event... huh, strange choice, but getting some wins and continued match play certainly doesn't hurt.

[PKBasu]

Very strange that Rupesh is still pottering around Grade-4 (or even Grade-3) events. His coaches should be a bit more ambitious.

[jaydeep]

Yes I m also surprised to see that Rupesh still playing Grade IV tournament ... Hopefully as Jay mentioned may be his coach is trying some new things in Rupesh game ... So they decided to play in this lesser tournament ... Otherwise bad selection of opponents.

Jaydeep.

[Sandeep]

It is ok as long as he tried various aspects of his game instead of going for a win.

I remember once Sania playing in Junior nationals (doubles and mixed doubles), to try her newly acquired serve before 2003 french open (Juniors).

[sameerph]

Rupesh won both singles & doubles titles in grade 4 event in Botswana.
In final Rupesh beat Jurgens STRYDOM (NAM) 16 64 75 .

In doubles finals ,CROWLEY (RSA) / ROY (IND) defeated RAMIARAMANAN (MAD) / SETSHOGO (BOT) 63 64


It is surprising that Rupesh is continuing to play lower level grade 4 tournemnts.
Would the points gained in these events help him in gaining entry at US open juniors ? Otherwise it is a waste of time.

He is up to 105 in the latest combined rankings.

[jayakris]

Strydom is actually a decent player I think. But for him, there was no point in the Namibia events. Well, Rupesh beat that guy twice and showed a bit of his spirit in coming from a set down this week. Some of these things can't hurt, but I wouldn't have had him going to these two grade-4 events if I were managing him.

.. I hope the Boston country club coaches who support him, know what they are doing. I will give them the benefit of doubt for a while though. At least he is not stuck in India playing nobody.

Jay

[sameerph]

Can he play US open juniors this year ?

[jayakris]

He is among the alternates. The last two events have come after the entry deadline for USO juniors (the Aug 1 ranks were used) so these grade-4 events were not needed for that.

With a #122 ranking, he is 9th in the Alernate list for qualifying. Pretty decent chance for him to make the qualifying draw for US Open juniors three weeks from now.

Jay

[jaydeep]

Nice wins by Rupesh ... But the expected one in these lower level tournaments ... Hoping those Boston country club coaches injecting new things to Rupesh game, so they asking him to play these low tier tournament ... Wishing his qualification for US Open Qualies.

Jaydeep.

[jayakris]

I don't know. May be you are right about all the injecting. I would have liked him being coached by known coaches. I guess that is a harsh comment, and probably they are better than the coaches he would have got in India. I hope so. May be I am somewhat uncomfortable from not knowing who these coaches are. Not ones with any big resumes as far as I can see. That does not mean much, though. At least they took the initiative to find the guy and bring him to Boston, so that itself makes them better than a lot of others in my view. So far they have taken the trouble of taking him to all the evnts he could play (after his junior ranking, about #50 just last year, was allowed to completely disappear by his advisors in India) .. So I won't complain. I am in a wait and watch mode, I guess. Thanks Bosse foundation for doing what you are doing, for whatever reason. All the best; hope to see Rupesh all developed into a great player in a few years.

One thing I have heard from everybody so far (even those who complain about how he is older etc) is that the boy has serious natural talent - theough they all say he needed a big crash course to to take the village out of him and get him ready for the international circuit, including mental maturity etc. I would expect the Boston trip to have been a big adjustment for the boy to make. So far he has done well in the events he has played. Yes, the Philadelphia international grasscourts grade-4, etc, were somewhat lower ranked events than for a player ranked #50 last year, but the fact that he has gone and won 4 of the 7 events the Boston guys have taken him to, is an indication that he is keeping up with the program well.

He has gone 26-3 in these 7 events! He has had only one bad loss, and that was in one of those first two grade-5 events in Louisiana, Florida. The loss to #46 Vitulli and #138 Simon in the RSA events are fine. He has a 61 62 win over the current #138, and he has just picked up two wins over #103 Strydom in the finals of the last two weeks . More than the fact that he won, I was glad to see that he came back from a 1-6 set to beat Strydom for a second final in a row. That "fight" in him is nice to see.

24 of those 26 wins are in straight sets over a lot of players in the 200-1000 range. It is interesting to see that he has not had a single match where he dropped a middle set - an indication that he stays on top and does not lose focus .. There are two three-set wins, but both were comebacks by him.

So, all in all, a really good, focused restart in the junior tour under the watch of the Boston coaches. For that, we should give them credit. Best of luck to them.

I am not sure why he is not playing the Aug 22 USTA International hardcourts Grade-3 in New Jersey though. The entry list shows three players in the top 60-80 and that would have been a good place to start testing himself again against some better players.

He is not in the Canadian Open grade-1 (Aug 29) entry list either. He would have been among the top seeds in the qualies there. A little puzzled about all that. So three weeks off for him now, and then the US Open juniors qualies.

Jay

[BSharma]

Jay,

I guess beggars cannot be choosers.

I don't want my comments to sound harsh.

I know some decent coaches in my town who are not known outside the state but do a good job of teaching the proper fundamentals to the juniors. I think that they know more about modern tennis, proper fitness and nutrition, and the psychological aspect of the game than most of the coaches in India. If the coaches who are handling Rupesh are as good as the good ones in my city then he is in good hands. I do not know if the Foundation wants to look good by seeing their "player" win a bunch of tournaments (lower level or not), but exposure to international tournaments will do Rupesh some amount of good compared to sitting in India and playing in domestic events.

Thanks Bosse Foundation.

[amr090]

I agree with Bhushan here. No point splitting hairs over the Bosse foundation. They have made something like a $100 k investment on him. That is the biggest investment a group outside India has made on a relatively unknown kid bar none. Looking at their facilities, they seem imeccable.

If someone is going to spend 100k on a kid I'm sure they have some kind of detailed long term plan. Perhaps they want to give him confidence at a few lower level events and then bring him up slowly. As Bhushan said hes playing more international events than he ever would have in India, and the talent even at grade 4 events is probably still better than anything he would have ever gotten in India.


I'm going to reserve judgement for another year or so to see where and exactly how Rupesh plays. Might be interesting if someone contaceted the Foundation to get more details on what exactly they have in store for Rupesh.