Karan Rastogi Thread ...

[jayakris]

Saw that Varma had put in a match report. Took me a while to get back home with Karan after a late lunch, etc.

Here is how the match went

First set
0-0 .. KR made a couple of volley and forehan errors but held at 40-30
1-0 .. Four big serves with one ace and DF from DT. Held at 40-15
1-1 .. Two FH errors, shot going long, from KR .. An ace and forehand cross court made it 30-30 .. At AD in, Karan missed an easy put away at the net - simply hit it wide left with all kinds of real-estate everywhere inside the lines .. He really put himself in an unnecessary earlyu hole with that mistake .. Then Karan covered the net very well on serve and volley and left alone very accurate shot from the baseline by DT - would have been tough for KR to lunge left and volley but he would have had it, had he gone for it - sadly it fell a centimeter in and that gave DT his first BP .. Karan made a forehand error (wide right this time) and dropped serve [Really, except for one hail mary shot from DT, the rest was all because of KR's mistakes here].
1-2 .. Karan was actually doing a decent job of reaching the scorching serves but two mis-hits off the racket rim (having trouble judging the pace of some of the shots, actually) plus two big serves gave DTY the game at 40-30.
1-3 ..A double fault and two more forehand errors (one more mishit that went about 80 feet up in the air) gave DT a second break, at 30-40.
1-4 .. DT serving .. Karan was able to really play quite well in the game, trying to get a break back .. Nice fight by Karan to bring it back from 40-0 to deuce on DT's serve ... Especially impressive was a 12 shot rally at 40-30 .. Excellent BH crosscourt put away at the net by Karan to get deuce .. A double fault and two big serves later, Dmitri held ..
1-5 .. KR not folding yet, as he started with two aces and a terrific forehand drop shot .. Held at 40-15, onc again moving up to the net ..
2-5 .. DT was smelling the set .. Two more huge serves and two return errors .. Love game and set.

Second set
0-0 .. Again KR started fine, with a love game .. Two service winners and an 10-shot rally that finished with nice forehand kill at the net .. I thought Karan was doing a good job of moving up at the right time in the rallies in this match ..
1-0 .. Two double faults from DT and two nice shots from KR (an accurate forehand screamer an inch inside the line was a beauty) .. Karan had a break point there .. Now came a great sequence when Karan was made to run rt, left, right and left 2 yards behind the baseline - he held up impressively for three shots but the 4th one was a netted backhand .. He treied gamely, but could not force the break .. This is where DT came up big with his serve .. Two aces from decue, and he stayed on course ..
1-1 .. Yet again, Karan served off a good game, finishing with an ace at 40-15 ..
2-1 DT answered with two aces from 30-15.
2-2 .. Karan's troubles started again here, as he did not hit a single first serve, one forehand went an inch long and then he again had two mishits to drop serve at 30-40 .. The real problem was not hitting the first serves (point to note: Dmitri had nothing to do with this break either .. KR probably going for a bit too much, not realizing that he had had three service games with no problems, and there was no reason to feell too bad at that point, caused the problem!) ..
2-3 .. Now Karan was feeling serious pressure - probably wondering what the heck he head to do to get back in the match, but in fact, probably he did not have to think that way (I admit, that I was feeling the same way at that time, and only when I looked back through my notes I found that KR was much more in this match than we *felt*) .. DT comes up with a love game ..
2-4 .. It started with an unfortunate sequence which really deflated Karan .. He started with a really good first serve .. Dmitri somehow got a defensive lob on it .. Karan hit a overhead from the net about as well as one could hit ot .. DT was running right and decided to just jump up and whack at it .. A magical shot that he did not expect at all ... Went in straight to KR's left and jammed him .. Dmitri just shook his head and was looking at us in the stands almost apologetically .. I can;t blame Karan for being deflated totally at that .. He did nothing wrong and still lost the point .. He was also a little mad, and was now trying to serve his way out of trouble .. An ace and two double faults followed and he dropped serve at 15-40 ..
2-5 .. An ace and two return winners .. Love game .. Match over.

Point progression:
9-10 start, followed by
4-13 where some 6 mistakes on his serves caused two breaks (you see, he would not have been broken even once in that stretch if he simply avoided mishits!) .. But that stretch was enough to put him into a 1-5 hole!! ...
18-16 in the next 6 games (to 2-6 2-2)
3-16 Hit only one first serve in 8 attampts (trying to serve his way out?- there was NO need to do too much), made 4 mistakes including two DFs, DT comes up with ONE huge lucky shot. Match over!
34-55 for the match.

Service and Breaks
Karan served 8 times .. Held .. broken, broken, held, held, held, broken, broken .. Not one break by Tursunov was due to anything great he was doing on Karan's serve .. Two of them were due to about 8 mistakes - mishits and FH/BH errors (Games 3 and 5 in the first set) .. One was due to poor first serves (3rd game in the second set), and the final break was due to KR being just deflated and confused about what to do ..

Did Dmitri *earn* break points on Karan's serve? .. NO. Alright, it was same for DT's service games too and Karan did not *earn* a break point either, but DT was bound to give Karan a game where he would hit a couple of double faults, make a mistake or two, or get a bad call which he did once .. As we could expect, DT did give him chances in 1 of his 4 services games in each set .. Had KR held serves 2 extra times, which was easily possible, DT would have served more games and would have given KR more chances with his own mistakes on serves (he was making plenty of DFs) ..

Bottomline comments

What KR should have focused on, while playing, was that he actually WAS handling the power in DT's game whenever the ball was in play .. The mishits would not have happened had he not ben "awed" by the pace of what DT was doing and was pushing too hard, while he really had no problem staying in the rallies, and moving up at the right time to win points on DT .. He *could* handle him, but he did not know it ..

But this is the bottomline in playing these types of guys with "power tools". Very few of them are all that great in a lot of the rest of it .. They do make mistakes (both in service and in shots) purely due to their power approach. Wait for enough of them to string together in one of their service games and you will find openings for yourself .. This often happens once in 3 or 4 service games from top servers - and DT *did* give KR one service game in each set that went two two deuces each and one BP.

The top players know it about players like Tursunov. They know that if they play their game and hold serve, a player like him will give them their chances. They also know that it is no big deal to hold serve six times against a guy like Tursunov if you don't make totally unnecessary errors by thinking that you HAVE TO HOLD SERVE (and that if you are broken once you cannot break a big server! - WRONG!!!!) .. Hold serve 12 times in two sets and make him serve 12 times - he will give you 3 or 4 chances to break him and you can do it. Once the pressure is on HIM, his service games becomes easier too, as HE starts pushing. That is why Tursunov is not top-10 and has not become Roddick, though a causual observer focusing on his serve would even be surprised that his highest rank is "only" #63 last year.

I am sure Karan knows what I am saying. This isn't rocket science. But that doesn't mean his mind was thinking that and focusing on the positives while facing the power from Tursunov. He certainly was not experienced to stay calm and think of the fact that DT was also "breakable". He will learn that from a match like this. The next time he plays a Tursunov he will know what he has to do - which is, JUST PLAY YOUR GAME and do not try to focus on what the other guy's "tools" are. Case closed.

It has been two good weeks for Karan! .. 5 matches in SoCal, with 4 of them against higher ranked players. 2 upsts, including his third best career win yesterday. Can't complain about that!

[Karan, Harsh, our trainer-friend Mike, Varma and I have been having a lot of fun the last few days - this was great; Varma and I will remember this for a while!]

Jay

[sameerph]

Jay,

What is Karan's Schedule in next 2-3 months? Any idea? He he playing like a top 300 player. But perhaps needs to earn some points by playing at lower level to move up the rankings & earn direct entry in challangers.

Perhaps he can play at Indian satelites in September.

[jayakris]

Karan will return to Bollitieris tomorrow (Tuesday) and will do another 5-6 days of work. Will reach Bombay early next week and will spend 5 days at home after quite a long time. Then off to Delhi by the Aug 6th weekend. Practise for 3-4 days and will fly to UZB for two challengers. Samarkand (clay) sign-in is on Aug 12th; Bukhara on Aug 19th. Back to India for a week and then back to Tashkent for the Asian championships. Then a week off, and play the Indian satellites. So,

Aug 15 - Samarkand CH, clay
Aug 22 - Bukhara CH, hard
Aug 29 - off
Sep 05 - Asian Championships
Sep 12 - off
Sep 19 - OCt 15 - India-2 satellites
Oct 17 - off
Oct 24 - $15K Thailand F4
Oct 31 - $15K Thailand F5
Nov 7 - week off, and most probably returning to US for the year-end training.

From the 4 satellites, 2 futures and 2 challengers, I would expect him to be able to make at least about 40 points and raise his rank to about 375 or so by the time he turns 19 late this year. Then the big push from early 2006 in the challenger circuit (though realistically, it could be a few months into 2006 when the challenger cuts are low enough to enter - the first 2-3 months normally have cuts in the 225-250 range). In any event, he should shoot for a 260 type rank by the end of next April, and look for French Open qualies entry.

Jay

[amr090]

do the asian championships give you atp points?

[sameerph]

Thanks Jay for update on Karan's Schedule. This schedule means Karan's fitness & work at NBTA will be tested. One breakthrough event at Satelites or challangers can increase the points substantially.

I think Asian champioships do not give any points but the winner gets WC for Austalian open.

[gbelday]

Thanks Jay and Varma for the nice reports. There is no looking back for Indian tennis now Harsh, Prakash, Rohan and Karan will make sure that the singles flag keeps flying high!!

[amr090]

Thanks Jay for update on Karan's Schedule. This schedule means Karan's fitness & work at NBTA will be tested. One breakthrough event at Satelites or challangers can increase the points substantially.

I think Asian champioships do not give any points but the winner gets WC for Austalian open.

Yeah I forgot about that...I think Harsh, ROhan, and PA should consider playing the Asian Championships...last year I remember the field was weak...If one of them can win it, then it lets the avoid the hassle of AUS OPEN qualies.

[jaydeep]

Thanks Jay for wonderful update ... U guys raised bar too high for others to give report ... If I ever get chance of reporting then I will just avoid to go for match ... And give that opportunity to someone else to report it ..

Very neat schedule by Karan ... He is really mixing his training and tournaments quite well ... True Arun but at same time if they r getting some easy options to earn points then they should stick to it.

Jaydeep.

[jayakris]

By the way, I was almost crying this morning .. I don't know if any of you noticed, but Karan would have made it in as a lucky loser to the LA ATP, had he stayed back yesterday .. There were three lucky loser spots available .. Lisnard took the first one, and Tursunov took the second .. Then nobody else signed in for LL, and a Q1 loser, Noam Okun, made it in as the 3rd lucky loser.

Had Karan gone and signed in yesterday, he would have got that 3rd LL spot. Heartbreak. But he had an 8 am flight and he was gone, as he was 8th in the LL order and only one LL spot was expected. I only found out this morning that two LL more spots cleared yesterday (Fish and Dent withdrew).

But how would you expect that 5 players ahead of him for LL spots would fail to sign in?

He would have got Tursunov again (Turs beat Okun 62 61 in the R1 in an LL-vs-LL matchup).

Another lesson learned for Karan (and me too). Do not ever expect the unexpected not to happen!

Jay

[amr090]

ouch...do indians ever get good luck???

[jayakris]

Apparently, NEVER. We have Harsh Mankad running up a total of 192 players he waited to withdraw from three different draws where he was the first lucky loser, starting from the US Open last year -- and not one was a no show.

And Karan had $3000+ available for the taking, and we missed it.

Jay

[Nate]

He missed all those ATP points for getting into the main draw, would have been a good parting gift for him.

[jayakris]

.. yeah, 5 points too. I am sure he would have loved a chance to play Tursunov once more.

Jay

[Red_Indian]

That's really crappy luck indeed! It's like saying no to 3K USD and 5 ATP points someone put in your lap... maybe more.. what the *(@&%

[jayakris]

But, what are the odds for something like that though? .. Zero .. Okun got in with TEN players ahead of him not signing in!! .. Lucky SOB.

Fish withdrew for "heat exhaustion" it seems! .. Before even playing! .. How? .. The dude walked on street in the nice california weather and got a sunstroke? .. Crazy stuff.

Jay