$25K+K India-1 ITF satellites

[jayakris]

Four-week circuit starting on May 30th. Here is the entry list that came out today.

1 SIPAEYA, Sunil-Kumar IND 353 1
2 BOPANNA, Rohan IND 469 1
3 KANNAN, Vijay IND 484 1
4 KWON, Chris USA 503
5 SRIDHAR, Vinod IND 508 1
6 CLARKE, Peter IRL 523 P 1
7 UPPAL, Vishal IND 549 1
8 DAVLETSHIN, Vadim RUS 593 1
9 MITCHELL, Stephen RSA 786 1
10 IRWIN, Richard GBR 789 1
11 KASIRI, Miles GBR 792=
12 MATHEW, Jaco IND 808 1
13 PATHANJALI, Ravi-Shankar IND 809 2
14 KANNAN, Kamala IND 818 1
15 BREWER, David GBR 824 1
16 STOLT, Philip USA 832 1
17 HANSEN, Carl-Henrik SWE 884= 1
18 MOHAMMED, Salifu GHA 1095= 1

Alternates
19 FLEMING, Colin GBR 1115= 1
20 TIERRO, Patrick PHI 1134= 1
21 SYED, Rahil IND 1160=
22 IVANOV, Dmitry UZB 1160=
23 FURUKAWA, Hayato JPN 1220= 1
24 SINGH, Gurmehar IND 1247=
25 MIYAO, Joji JPN 1280= 1
26 VENTURI, Adrian AUS 1308= 1
27 VAN DER WERF, Ordan NED 1308= 3
28 YAMAMOTO, Tetsuhiro JPN 1308=
29 WALIA, Varun IND 1308=
30 VIRALI-MURUGESAN, Ranjeet IND 1361= 1
31 MARTIN, Fabrice FRA 1361= 2
32 MONTILLA, Gabriel PUR 1361= 1
33 GOUTHAM, Arjun IND 1361= 1
34 DE SANCTIS, Marco ITA 1466= 1
35 FILENKOV, Alexei RUS 1466= 2
36 SHERWOOD, Bradley USA 1466= 3
37 LA PORTE, Shane USA 1466= 2
38 MISHRA, Shivang IND 1466= 1
39 GRILLI, Stefano ITA 1466= 5
40 NATHAN, Kris USA 1466= 2
41 SI, Yew-Ming MAS 1466= 1
42 MAKEYEV, Dmitri KAZ 1466= 1
43 CAMPBELL, Luke Sr. GBR 1466= 1
44 SHITRIT, Matan ISR 1466= 5

Karan Rastogi will be going to Nick Bollitieris for a few weeks now, based on what I heard yesterday. That explains why he is missing. Good to see Rohan in there. Great chance for him to move back up quickly. Ajay Ramaswami was in the list but withdrew yesterday for some reason.

The one we always look for - a certain ArunPrakash - is missing again. Oh well.

ITF lists all four legs to be at Gurgaon. All four on hard court (outdoor rebound ace), and not on clay like last time, though.

Jay

Jay

[sameerph]

Jay,
How many ATP points does someone like Rohan or Sunil expect from Satelite cicuit for them to prefer the same over futures/ challangers.

Are there any futures/ challanger in this period for which they could have played & garnered more points?

[jayakris]

Harsh Mankad got 39 points for topping the British satellites which had the same point table. The circuit topper normally gets 35-40 points in this satellite. The runner-up about 25-32, the 3rd place gets 15 to 20, 4th about 12+ etc ...

It is definitely more preferable to going abroad and playing 4 weeks of futures, where even the best players in the 300-400 range would not make more than 6 to 8 points average per week. This is cheaper too. Anybody below 350 or 400 who can play the satellite and skips it, is really not doing himself a favor - unless there are other good reasons.

I wish they could have had trhis satellite about three weeks late, so that US college players could join. Somdev Varman and Rohan Gajjar would miss it because it clashes with the NCAA tournament (this is not the first time that the India-1 satellites dates are non-ideal. It was OK in 2000 and 2003 when HM and PA managed to play it while in college).

Jay

[jaydeep]

Agree Jay ... But ITF finalise schedule directly or AITA gives them date??? IF AITA giving them dates then they should consider atleast about these US college players ... So they will get more exposure on pro curcuit with these satellites.

It would be great if Karan play it .. Such opportunity not easily comes, he definetly gain some position (may be in Top 500) after this satellites ... But then training is also more important and major part in development of any palyer.

Jaydee.

[jayakris]

The dates are proposed by AITA and thena pproved by ITF. Generally, they don't complain too much if the dates are moved ahead or behind by a couple of weeks and all that, from what I understand - as long as i t is done early enough.

In Karan's case, it is not a big deal. He needs to focus on getting himself ready and there is still plenty of time for him. He is just 18 .. Let him take his time to go to an academy and work on a few things he and his coach have hopefully identified from the good number of tournaments he recently played, and work on it at NBTA in Florida .. He should not be chasing the rankings now.

Jay

[PKBasu]

Agree. But Karan needs to get his ranking at least inside top-400 so he doesn't have to rely on wild-cards at Futures and Challengers -- which will not be as forthcoming in future as they have been in recent times for an 18-year-old.

[sameerph]

Further Karan also may need some sponseship which will also come to him if he raises his ranking .

He may have evaluated these options & decided that training is a top priority right now.

[Dhruv]

Karan is currently with the IMG group which is one of the largest sports management companies out there. It also allows him to get trips to Nick B's every so often and I am sure IMG will do a reasonable job to try make the best of Karan,

[PKBasu]

I presume qualifiers should have started for the first leg today. Where can one find scores??

[sameerph]

Sunil Kumar Sipayea is shown as withdrawal from Satellites due to injury.

Good chance missed to earn valuable points. I hope nothing serious & will return to action soon

[jayakris]

Oh great ... DAMN! ... Now Sunil is going to be in a big hole with all the points that have dropped off. Terrible. The poor guy can't get a break due to all the injury problems. Hope it is nothing serious and he will be able to get back on tour soon.

Jay

[prasen9]

This is Rohan's chance to pick up a lot of points.

-pm

[PKBasu]

True enough. But Rohan should have been in England instead, earning a whole host of points on the grass circuit. He is in excellent form, and would have done very well on grass.

[sameerph]

Yes, he may be very good on grass but his ranking at the moment may be too low to get direct entry in challangers.

So he must have decided to play satellites & earn points rather then playing in challangers qualifiers. He may still play some grass challangers which are in July in England.

[insideout]

Damn....Sunil has not performed well for the past few weeks because of injuries.....These injuries are taking their toll on his points....he has missed yet another opportunity to earn valuable points...Hope its nothing serious......The sad thing is that he was on a roll last week but now...