$10K UK Womens ITF events - August 05

[Florian Buechting]

Hey guys,
I just wanted to post my reports in here, as I will have to prepare my interview now... Yesterday, I sent score updates to Samarth, maybe he was just to buzy to post them, sorry for that. I decided to watch Ankita's match and the Bhamri doubles match, so here are my reports and thoughts about them:

Ankita Bhambri def. Elisabeth Thomas (GBR, 1056) 76(2) 62

Playing a qualifier in the first rounds is always a tough deal during the first rounds of a future: they are more used to the conditions on court, had some matches - and experience. So though ET's (what a shortcut for her name, sounds that Alien-like to me...) ranking is just above 1000, you should not underestimate Ankita's task to today against the British left-handed qualifier.

Ankita started putting ET under pressure from the very beginning and was - let me tell you this in advance - with break points in all first five game served by the British. For example, in the firt game, our girl had three break points, one at 30:40, two at Ad out each. But while Ankita was strong on deuce-court served points, she had very serious problems
with ET's spinful left-handed Ad-court serves, which were definitely ET's strongest weapons today - apart from her ability to return every shot and let her opponent run all the time. But Ankita was definitely the more skillful player all over the match and gave ET a fantastic fight. But back to the match now: Ankita failed to convert one of the three break points
in the first game, but had no problems at own serve afterwards. The key fact was: will Anki be able to break her opponent? In the third game, she did, after ET had the chance to win the game thrice (40:30 and Ad in twice). Though Ankita was deuced three times in the next game, there were no major problems to win that one, so our girl lead 3-1 after four games. Everything seemed to be easy: after ET tied the points to 30-30
after she was 0-30 behind, Ankita had one break point at 30-40 and ET shot the ball out of bounds in that points. But there was a very major fact in that game today called luck - the linesman called it in, so the score was deuce. Ankita could not convert another break point, whereas ET managed to win the game after the third Ad in situation. 1 out of 6 break points converted so far by Ankita - it looked like a very bad percentage, but I have to repeat that these ET ad court serves where really tough. Another wrong call made by the referee in the next game turned the game: Ankita's serve was definitely in, but as long as the umpire says it was out, it is a tough situation to argue... To be honest, Ankita gave ET the opportunity to come back in the game by three double faults, but this call caused a second serve at break point (after Anki saved a first one), which was converted by the British girl. 3-3 score now. Ankita could not convert another break point in the next game, but won her own serve very easy in the eigth one - 4-4 now. ET was to serve, Ankita increased pressure again: 15-30, 30-30, 30-40, that was the scoreline of the ninth game. The Indian could not convert the first break point, but succeeded in a second one at Ad out - 5-4 for Ankita, serving for the set now. But the tenth game was the only really disappointing one today. Ankita struggled with her serve, started with a double fault and needed to take the second serve in the next two points - ET took a great advantage of this situation and was 0-40 in the lead. The second break point tied the score again - and as ET did not face a break point for the first time in the eleventh game and Ankita clean-swept her opponent afterwards, it was tie-breaker-time. Not that surprisingly, the tie-break was no tough task for Ankita - if you win many of your games easily and cause much trouble on the opponent's ones, it looks like a good chance for you to win. Two mini-breaks by Ankita, who just conceeded one made her lead 4:2 at court change. After the court change, she broke the ET served points twice to win 7:2 in the tie-breaker. Let me add some stats about that set: the match clock was already on 1:23 hours, when Ankita won it. Another key stat was, that only 46 of all 115 points played have been decided while Ankita was serving - the rest on her opponent's serve - that really shows how much pressure ET had to face - and was able to stand for a long time. Another great fact of Ankita's game was that she won 17 of 20 first serve points at own serve in the first set - a really fantastic percentage!

Though there were still many long rallies, Ankita controlled the match much better in second set. Nevertheless, it took her some 50 minutes to win it - but first of all, the net chord hit by her opponent and secondly, quite a large number of strange calls against her forced her to need much time for that set than needed. For example, ET deuced her in the first game (AK to serve) by two net chords. Ankita had no major problems
in second set on own serve at the beginning and won her games quite easily, while she took a 0:40 situation in the fourth game to break ET and take the 3-1 lead. After two more easy wins for the server, Ankita was 0:30 (of course, by net chord...) and 15:40 behind at 4-2, own serve, but
saved those two break points as well as a third one following at Ad out. She took her first Ad in point and lead 5-2 now. In the eigth (and last) game of that set, ET took profit of a very wrong call again - but instead of winning the game while leading 40-30, she missed an easy shot and was called for ball abuse as she shot the ball out of court. Deuce now, two more to go to finish it off for Ankita - and that's exactly what our girl did.

Though the first set of this 2:10 hours match were much closer than they needed to be in Anki's point of view, there was no need to critize her for that. Ankita showed a great fight and looked like the better player all the match. Even in the worst situation, she kept on fighting. On the other hand, ET is surely not gifted with powerful strokes that much, but is a tough opponent due to her immense fighting spirit, quite a handsome play and her incredible leftie-serves.


(1) Ankita Bhambri/Sanaa Bhambri def. Birgit Ritschka(AUT)/Radhika Tulpule 62 62

This one will be a very short report, nothing really special to talk about - as Ankita and Sanaa were just too strong for BR and Radhika, who joined for the first time.

And that's how the match started alike: with a clean sweep game - bad luck for Radhika that is was a four-point-in-a-row one by the Bhambris against her serve - so ABSB lead at own serve. Ankita struggled with her serve and was 15-40 behind after the score was 15-15. Ankita finished this game off by a double fault during the first break point, so the score was tied again - 1:1. BR and Radhika did quite well together, especially regarding that this was their debut match - and so they won the third game after they wasted two points at 40-15, saved a break point and needed four Ad ins to win it. Therefor, they did it with style by a beautiful volley shot by Radhika. Let me sum up the next two points with "double clean sweep": first, Sanaa won her serve to love, then Radhika lost her one without getting a single points. The Bhambris were back in the lead - 3:2 at own serve - and improved steadily, which made them win the next three games and the set with a 6-2 score. Though Ankita and Sanaa were just too strong for BRRT, you could really see and feel how the Indian-Austrian team enjoyed themselves on court.

Not for the first time in this tournament, the main actor of the second out turned out to be the chair umpire giving wrong calls at least once per game. Sometimes, the players just laughed at the decisions, but mostly they really struggled with that guy. The first important wrong call was against Birgit's serve, who was to serve and faced a break point (the second one), in the first game. Bad luck, BRRT got broken because of this wrong one. Ankia did not have any serious problems with her serve and Radhika won her one after facing a break point. So, Sanaa served at 2:1 for the Bhambris - and again, it was quite easy for her: 3:1. Birgit was broken afterwards, after Sanaa just could not stand laughing loudly on an umpire's call. The match was now far away from being even-strengthed. At least, Radhika saved her serve (of course, by a wrong call...) in the seventh game, so that Sanaa was to finish off the match at 5:2. Radhika and Birgit were even able to have a break point at 30-40, but they failed to win that one and lost 2:6 2:6.

Of course, the Bhambri were the much better team in this match, in which the worst part of the match sat on the umpire chair. Nevertheless, it was great to see Radhika and Birgit enjoying themselves.

Some short notes on Sanaa:
Sanaa Bhambri def. Bianca Aquistapace (AUS) 61 21 ret.
I just watched some points from the nearby court where Ankita played. Sanaa looked great and controlled the match. Nevertheless, BA called the physio quite early in the game, so I am not sure whether she was really able to play her best.



I haven't seen the other matches, I am sorry. I talked to Radhika, Sanaa and Ankita yesterday, I will give you a sum up of this later today or tomorrow - the pictures will be ready then, too.

All the best,
Florian

[jaydeep]

Another excellent report Florian ... But this time I m more interested in knowing ur chitchat with Radhika and Bhambri sisters ...

But before that good luck for ur job interview and hoping some good news from u.

Jaydeep.

[sameerph]

Today's singles results :-

Q (5) Julie Coin FRA d. (1) Rushmi Chakravarthi IND 6-7(7), 6-3, 7-5

(7) Sanaa Bhambri IND d. Q Paula Marama NZL 6-0 RET

(3) Ekaterina Kozhokina RUS d. (8) Ankita Bhambri IND 6-1, 6-4

Not a good day for India with only Sanaa going through to SF. Rushmi had a close loss though.

[jayakris]

What is this? Players seem to look at sanaa and start getting injured or something? .. two rounds on injury retirements.

Ooh, tough loss for Rushmi.

Jay

[nata]

Rushmi also lost the doubles Semis..

[SF] (2) Rushmi Chakravarthi (IND)/Svenja Weidemann (GER)(947) l. (4) Sarah Coles /Elizabeth Thomas (GBR,1284) 6-4, 4-6, 2-6

Bhambri sisters though are through to FINALS by getting a walkover from Hawkins/Marama..!

I guess this is because Marama was injured in the match against Sanaa.

[Florian Buechting]

Hi,
bad luck: I am away and our girls loose Hope that Sanaa will do well, I enjoyed watching her very much. Here are some facts about my chat to the players:

Let me start with Radhika, as many of you were quite interested in her. She said, she did not play very much last year due to her educational situation, but she will play more tournaments in the future again. As far as I know, she will be play Nottingham next week - and she told me she will be playing some tournaments in India in October (?).

Some things I chatted about with the Bhambris, especially with Ankita (Sanaa is more shy, but at least she remembered we met two years ago...). We talked quite long about their situation as tennis professionals and so on. I am not sure whether I may publish exact amounts in this forum, but their parents pay about the annual gross salary you get in Germany (!) as an University Mathematician - for each, Sanaa and Ankita. Quite a mass of money - and of course, on the other hand, they don't earn much by playing tennis. Even if Sanaa wins this week, she will get some 1,200 USD price money - that will be about what they need to get from London to Helsinki and pay a one-week accomodation, food and so on. On the other hand, winning the doubles draw in a 10k future gives you really nothing - I am not sure about the numbers, but it will be something like 500 bucks quite likely - of course, per team. No other earnings, their only sponsor is Lotto who gives them their clothes and equipment. Just becuase to save some bucks (I think it is some 10 pounds per day), they did not stay in the tournament accomodation, but in a guesthouse in a far-away-part of London which made them travel one hour to the venue and another one back to the guesthouse including some longer walks. Wow, this is really tough, especially if you remember that Sanaa is just and Ankita is - they have to travel around all by themselves (at least, they are sisters and can accompany themselves, always have somebody to share a double room and stuff like that).

These girls are our number 4 and 5 regarding the singles ranking and #5 and #6 in doubles - but there is no way for them to at least pay their expenses by playing tennis. They are really nice people and Indian sisters in the great world of tennis representing one of the world's largest country, but there is no way to find a sponsor for him. And by the way (that's what I already talked about with Shruti): price money in the ladies tournaments is mainly lower than in mens tennis (or at least, the 10k tourneys have better entry lists in ladies tennis as there is no large number of challengers...) and you don't have that much hospitality events which keep the players expenses lower.

Just some thoughts about professional ladies tennis, which I think we should always keep in mind when we critize players if they are having bad results (apart from that, results are not important anyway as long as the players are improving...). It is really a tough job - and if you are no top-150 ladies players or maybe some top-250 or top-300 for the mens, there is no way to earn money as a "tennis pro". As you already know, Sanaa and Ankita head to Helsinki next, I forgot to ask them about future plans.

Unfortunately, Shruti was not on the ground yesterday, so I could not take some pictures of her. At least, let me add that this was a fantastic week and it was really nice to meet our girls. Radhika and Oormila are very, very nice people, of course, I enjoyed to meet the other girls very much, too. Maybe I might even help the girls by these reports and by my pictures and reports on my website (I am sorry, I will just manage to present them tomorrow, not today...) to attract some more attention to our great-fighting tennis girls apart from Sania and Shika.

Yours,
Florian

[jayakris]

I feel like crying.. Nicely written Florian .. But what can we do? -- this is the situation with regard to sponsorship in India (and actually it is not a whole lot different in other places either; the tennis tour, below top-250 in the mens and below top-175 in women's is a money-losing propostion).

I wish at least some of the players would try to take up on some goodwill from some of the people here and try to make some schedules to go and play in some places where they don't have to spend a lot. It won't help a whole heck of a lot, but even if they can all add an extra 4-5 weeks of foreign plans with all our help, it would be great.

Yeah, I know, we can all put in some $100 each and could raise funds, but I know that won't work - and who gets what etc becomes the question. The players need to also do some extra on their part with at least some initiative to contact us if they think any of us would be of help.

In many cases when I hosted somebody it is after I wrote to them asking whether they would like help. When we don't even know where they are planning to play, we cannot even do that.

Jay

[amr090]

Yeah its too bad...we should have talked to florian to talk to them about planning their events close to where we have forum members...this is how things all got started with harsh.


if you look at what a dire situation he was in last year...i think the forum members helped him out greatly to some extent with pkb coming up with the financial support, the rest of us coming up with moral support, and guys like sks, jay and others housing him whenever possible.

its not much, but from our side its what we can do...i think if we could get in touch with sanaa and ankita perhaps some of the forum members who have families could host them if they plan their tournaments near where there are families. not sure if theyd be comfortable with this since theyre girls and all, but it would definitely save them a bit monetarily and in addition give them some moral support.

as florian said the tour is a lonely place especially if you are fighting out in the 200s and below.



at the very least even if theyre not comfortable about staying with a family..if they plan their trips near forum families we can at least support them...verbally
jay, bhushanji, pkb...and others...any ideas?

[amr090]

wow just checked out florian's pics first time ive seen sanaa and ankita and they both look really athletic especially ankita....hope they start moving up soon and we see them up there with sania, shikhs and neha..

[jayakris]

Tell me about it .. I have been waiting for Ankita for way too long .. She is really the one with all the abilities to be right up there with Sania and Shikha ..

She needs to somehow play a bunch of events on the trot, get her game totally going and take it from there. Come on girl - come to the US for a tour; we will take care of you - I guess .. well .. somehow .. I think .. can't we?

Jay

[amr090]

Is there any we we (read you ) can get in touch with her...they never seem to come this way...

[PKBasu]

Jay, please let Sanaa and Ankita know (if you can get in touch with them) that they have a home in Malaysia or Singapore if they want to play any Futures or Challengers here.

[Sandeep]

Tell me about it .. I have been waiting for Ankita for way too long .. She is really the one with all the abilities to be right up there with Sania and Shikha ..

I don't know about along with Sania ot Shikha but I too like Ankita's game. She has some good powerful shots.

I am not all that excited about Sana's game though. I feel he is very defenive.

Jay, did you see any of them play?

[PKBasu]

Thanks (belatedly) for those wonderful reports, Florian, and especially the interviews with Ankita, etc., that were very moving.
I think Ankita and Sanaa are really worth supporting now. They are on the cusp of making it in women's tennis, but it will be impossible for them to do so unless they are able to get some sponsorship. Let's see what we can do. I will start contacting some Indian corporates and see where we can go with this.

[jaydeep]

After reading this I become speechless ... Feeling sad how much these gals r trying to give their 100% and how much their family suffer to fulfill our childrens dream ... Player under 200 ranks always have testing time ... But really we can do some bits and pieces for these players ... With help of from forum members or our family members we can always arrange stays for these gals .... But Jay mentioned correctly that we need to know their scheduling ... Somehow they manages us to tell tournaments where they r participating can help us to check possibilities of arranging staying for these gals.

If Florian somehow manages to ask them to check our forum and get their mail ids ... That will really help us to contact them and we also feel that we r going towards right direction to help them.

Florian thanks for ur deeply moving report and chat ... Nice to know that Radhika is planning to play more tournaments ... I think in october she must be planning to play futures in Pune and Mumbai ... Though not sure about it.

Hoping somehow these gals check our forum and help us to help them to achieve their respective goals.

Jaydeep.