French Open 2021, 24 May- 13 June

[jai_in_canada]

Thanks Sameer, Jaydeep, Sanjay, Rajiv, PKB. But I don't have it in me to write another sad poem today. So Sumit better win.

[sameerph]

Lost the first set 3-6. Just that 1 break of serve at the start of the match. Difference in serves is making a difference right now. Tabilo getting a few free points on his serve but not Sumit. So, Sumit is being taken to deuce in almost every service game while no breakpoints in first set for Sumit.

Sumit needs to do more on Tablio serve as his serve is always going to be facing pressure.

[jai_in_canada]

Looks like Sumit got broken in the very first game of the second set but broke right back. Hopefully he gets used to his opponent's game/serve, and adjusts his own tactics. He's a smart, tough player who seems to be good at problem solving. Go Sumit!

[PKBasu]

Sumit has lost the first set 3-6. Now up 2-1 in the second (on serve).

[sameerph]

Gave the break back and now back on serve with Tabilo serving at 2-3. 2 breaks of serve each so far in this set.

[PKBasu]

At 3-3, Sumit went up 40-0 but it is Deuce now
Ad-in, Deuce again, Ad-out, Deuce, Ad-in, Deuce, Ad-out, Broken 3-4

[PKBasu]

Sumit now serving to stay in the match, at 3-5 in the second set

And Sumit is out 3-6 3-6. Sad end to the Indian singles challenge at this year's French Open. And ultimately a disappointing clay season for Sumit, after a promising start with the run to the QF in ATP Buenos Aires.

[sameerph]

All over. Lost 5 straight games from 3-1 up in the second set.

[PKBasu]

Tabilo gets to play the new Spanish phenom, 18 year old Carlos Alcaraz, winner of the Oeiras Challenger recently:

https://www.rolandgarros.com/en-us/arti ... reros-wing

[vparam]

6 sets played by our qualifiers today and no one picked up more than 3 games in any set. Extremely disappointing! Really thought our players would have been more competitive. Don’t think we played anyone whom was “in form” so wonder what happened out there today. Except for Ankita’s match, the men’s matches were players with similar rankings.

[Rajiv]

A very disappointing result compared to Sumit standards.Has to quickly regroup himself,otherwise his ranking might take a huge tumble as in the next 5 months he has to protect over 210 points.

[jai_in_canada]

Bad day at the office for the three Indians at the French Open 2021. Theee up, three down. And all three pretty one sided. In a way better than one or more of them losing a close match. Indian tennis is in the doldrums. Falling further and further behind the Europeans. When will we see 2 or 3 Indians in the Top 100 like in the days of Vijay and Ramesh? Not putting these kids down. They are sacrificing, working hard and enduring difficult travel conditions. It's so tough out there on the tour these days.

[jaydeep]

Disappointing loss of Sumit after bright start in the first qualifying ... Turned to be a terrible day.

[Sanjay]

This is very depressing and I don't see much hope.

PG is over 30 so I don't think he will ever get into the top 100 again. RR has regressed a lot. Nagal I had hope in but he seems to have stalled too. If he can't get into the top 100 now, then it only gets harder. Yuki was out for 2 years, played a few matches and is back home again.

Indian tennis is mediocre right now. We didn't appreciate Vijay and Ramesh as much as we should in the 80s.

[sameerph]

It really depends on your expectations, Sanjay. If you expect current guys to be at the level of Vijay and Ramesh who retired more than 30 years back, you will always be disaappointed. If you compare it to the 8-9 year period in 2000's ( after Leander moving to doubles and before Somdev appeared on the scence) when we did not have a single player ranked in top 200, these players are much better. Even during Leander's time we did not have 3 players playing grand slam qualies. In last 10 years, we had 5 guys ranked in top 150 which is way better than the period 10 years before that.

So, Indian tennis may be mediocore by world standards or our standards during 70's and 80's, it is much better than our standards in 90's and 2000's.