Karan Rastogi Thread ...

[Kumar]

Met with KR after his victory over Simon Gruel at Chennai Futures (along with Hindu Correspondent Keerthivasan, so may see some excerpts in Hindu tomorrow).. He had his childhood coach Sanjay Bodhar (need to check last name, jay/Dhurv please feel free to correct if i had got it wrong) who accompanies him for the tournaments within India...

Not in the order asked

1) Where do you expect to be at the endof the year (asked by yours truly)
A) I am hoping to break into top 500 in 6-7 months.. but ranking is not really my concerns.. I really need to improve my game..

His answer really surprised me and showed his maturity..

2) Follow up question.. Where do you feel you need to make improvement..
a) I definitely need to work on my serve and add more power to ground strokes.. And I need to gain more strength and commented that he has put on few pounds but needs to put in more (he really has a wiry frame and needs lot of pounds on him)... He talked about following a weight training regimen at bolleteri academy...

3) How did he feel when he was down 2-5 in the third set?
a) I felt a little sad at that point.. But it was just one break and I was hoping that i could get it back..

4) What did you do to change your game plan down a set?
After the first set, I started playing more consistently cutting down on errors.. Started making him run hitting on both sides of the courts and wide..

5) On his past performance against Gruel and this victory..
As per his recollection he played him twice.. "Once in Gurgaon Satellite, where I lost 4 and 2 and then in BOMBAY Futures in SF when I lost from 64 41...

It was an satisfying victory and I badly wanted this win (this is not an exact quote, but he said something to this effect)..

6) Did bathroom break(BB) affect your concentration as your were in a good flow at the end of second set..
No not really... I was playing well in the third set until 2-2 and it did not really affect me...

7) Do you like playing on Clay..
I generally prefer playing on Hard court... As to this court, it was very slippery, but the bounce was true...

8) Do you follow TENNISINDIA website and your thread... (Probably a Redundant question to ask an Indian tennis player)
Yes I do.. I try to catch up at the end of the tournament.. He was very pleased when he heard Jay's prediction about him upsetting Simon Gruel...

9) Is this your best victory in terms of high ranked players..
Yes I think so.. He acknowledged that this was one of his top wins so far...

10) Strengths?
a) Movement, Mental Strength..

11) You seem to be volleying well..
a) I felt very pleased with the way I volleyed whenever I came to the net..

[Red_Indian]

Great job Kumar... you're doing a much better job than I did - no kidding!

[jayakris]

Man, can I buy you a virtual dinner for all the work you are doing there? This is fantastic! .. Excellent interview. I will put a link from my notes directly to the interview of Karan.

Karan is a great player, and he will ultimately live up to the expectations. It is really only a matter of time, if all goes well.

Jay

[PKBasu]

Karan is a guy we've been following (courtesy Jay) since he was 13 years old. Today he lived up to the potential Jay has seen in him for 5 years (of course, there have been other great moments, including notably the Australian Open junior singles semifinal last year). What a marvellous day! Congratulations Karan!!
And thank you, Kumar, for bringing us this fabulous interview.

[amr090]

awesome job karan you are the man! beating simon greul who has dominated the indian circuit and is an excellent player in my opinoini speaks to the volumes of karans talent. simply an amazing win! (almost as amazing is the fact jay called it )

[BSharma]

Great job by two "K"s of Indian tennis - Karan and Kumar.

8) Do you follow TENNISINDIA website and your thread... (Probably a Redundant question to ask an Indian tennis player)
Yes I do.. I try to catch up at the end of the tournament.. He was very pleased when he heard Jay's prediction about him upsetting Simon Gruel...

I don't want Karan to read Jay's predictions before the match.

[gvhvhg]

Wow....great job once again Kumar!

Karan is the real thing....What a performance today.

[PKBasu]

Jay, you say in your notes today that Karan's win yesterday was probably his career-best victory.

I would say it is his second best. Probably his best performance was two years ago, when he qualified for a Challenger in India -- beating Jamie Delgado (then ranked in the 200s, but near top-100 within the previous year) in the final qualifying round, and giving Arvind Parmar a big scare in the first round. He was 16 then!! His final year in the junior ranks was a bit of a lost year (after a great start at the AO), but it's great to see him bounce right back now.

[Kumar]

PKB, I wanted to ask him about the last year in Junior when he looked seemingly lost... but in the excitement of the victory forgot to ask him about it..

[jaydeep]

Great interview ... From his answers we get to see Karan's maturity ... If he increase physical fitness and strength then he will be having injury free ride to the top.

Kumar now I m fed up of giving u compliments for ur good work after good work ... ... Really u r doing great job man.

Jaydeep.

[kiran r more]

Great show by Karan.If I remember correctly,this is his third semi final in the last four futures he has played.I am sure he will go further in this tournament.All the best.You can do this.

[PKBasu]

PKB, I wanted to ask him about the last year in Junior when he looked seemingly lost... but in the excitement of the victory forgot to ask him about it..

I'm glad you didn't ask him about it. That's ancient history, and best forgotten. Trying to analyse it will serve no purpose.

He's playing fabulously well again, that's what matters.

[PKBasu]

With 4 points from the semi-final last week (in a $10K) and 8 points from this week (in the $15K+H), Karan's points total will go up to 25 -- taking his ranking to about #660 next week. (SteveG says both this week's and last week's points will go into the computer by the end of this week). Of course, each additional win in Chennai is worth a further 8 points...! Go Karan!!

[jayakris]

Have they started adding futures points to the immediate next mondays' rankings??? .. I should check. They started that for satellites this year .. Great if they have started it for futures as well ..

Jay

[PKBasu]

May be only for $15K and above Futures? Or perhaps they had another reason not to put in points last week...