Saturday, September 16, 2017

Tennis News

At Davis Cup 2017 - World Group Play-off, Edmonton, Canada

India vs Canada 1-1

Courtesy Davis cup site
Day One
[R1] Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,154) bt Brayden Schnur (CAN,202) 57 76(4) 75 75
[R2] Yuki Bhambri (IND,157) l Denis Shapovalov (CAN,51) 67(2) 46 76(6) 64 16

RamK gave gutsy performance for winning this tight first rubber in four sets ... The debutant Schnur gave a fighting performance against experienced RamK ... Schnur won the first set and after that RamK needed to dig deep for fightback ... RamK gave huge efforts for winning the second set in the tie-break ... In the fourth set also both players were playing the matching game ... RamK saved six set points to even things up at 5-all and then immediately broke Schnur in the next game ... RamK holds it to take 2-1 sets lead ... In the fourth set, both players traded early breaks ... RamK was serving for the match at 5-4 but Schnur showed grit and broke for 5-all ... RamK again broke him in 11th game and then hold for giving India 1-0 lead in this tie.
Ramkumar Ramanathan - "To play a Davis Cup is something special. I fought hard for every point. It could have gone either way, especially in that third set. I kept going. That paid off. Victory feels good when you have your team. I like team competition. Denis (Shapovalov) is playing really well, but he’s going to feel the pressure a little bit because they are down 1-0. It’s a good place to be at for us now."

In this match, #NextGen rising star Denis Shapovalov was a favorite against Yuki, but Yuki stretched him to five setter after losing first 2 sets ... In the first set, Yuki hanged up with Shapo to take it into the tie-break ... Shapo played perfect tie-break for winning it comfortably ... In the second set, Shapo managed to put extra pressure on Yuki and took an important break in 7th game ... That break was enough for Shapo for winning this set ... In the start of the third set, Yuki played a loose game for 0-1 down, but Yuki fought back and broke Shapo for the first time in the match for 1-all ... Yuki saved few break points on his serve but Shapo broke him in 7th game when Yuki played another loose game ... But this time also Yuki raised his game to broke Shapo in the next game, 4-all ... The match went to the tie-break, Shapo was a mini-break up at 3-0 but Yuki got back at 3-all ... Shapo again took a mini-break at 5-3 but again Yuki equalled at 5-all ... Yuki saved a match point at 5-6 and then converted a first set point on Shapo's serve for taking this match into the fourth ... In the fourth set, Yuki saved a break point in the 2nd game and then broke Shapo in next game with excellent defensive game, 2-1 ... After that Yuki served really smartly and mixed a lot ... He hold his service games comfortably, in 10th game Shapo saved 2 set points but Yuki converted 4th set for 2 sets-all ... After the fourth set Yuki took almost 10 mins MTO and I felt after that momentum shifted ... Shapo broke Yuki in 4th game for 1-3 lead and Shapo took full control on the set as he again broke Yuki in 6th game with good shots making and unforced errors from Yuki, 1-5 ... And Shapo hold it comfortably to make 1-all for Cananda.

At $15K ITF Women Tournament 2017, Hua Hin, Thailand

Courtesy to Rutuja
Singles Final
Rutuja Bhosale (IND,743) bt Hua-Chen Lee (TPE,708) 64 26 75

Doubles Final
Zeel Desai (IND)/ Pranjala Yadlapalli (IND) bt (2) Rutuja Bhosale (IND)/ Alexandra Walters (AUS) 62 75

Rutuja won her 2nd ITF title beating in-form Taipei player, Hua-Chen Lee ... In the final, after winning the first set Rutuja lost the focus to lose the second set easily ... Rutuja was leading 5-2 in the third before losing next three games, in that losing her serve twice ... Rutuja broke Hua-Chen in 11th game and then hold for completing the victory.

No double crown for Rutuja as she and her Aussie partner lost against young Indian duo of Pranjala and Zeel ... Good title win for our youngsters.


At $15K At $15K India F8 Futures 2017, Chennai

[R1] (2) Sasi Kumar Mukund (IND,486) bt (Q) Vijayant Malik (IND,1582) 61 64
[R2] (2) Sasi Kumar Mukund (IND,486) bt Dalwinder Singh (IND,1038) 61 63
[QF] (2) Sasi Kumar Mukund (IND,486) bt (6) Haadin Bava (IND,758) 75 76(6)
[SF] (2) Sasi Kumar Mukund (IND,486) bt (WC) Arjun Kadhe (IND,UNR) 62 60

Singles Final
(2) Sasi Kumar Mukund (IND,486) bt (4) Colin van Beem (NED,725) 46 63 63

Doubles Final
[R1] (1) Chandril Sood (IND)/ Lakshit Sood (IND) bt (WC) Arjun Kadhe (IND)/ Rishabdev Raman (IND) 46 63 12-10

Sasi lifted another futures title after a long gap ... In the final, after losing the first set Sasi made strong comeback for winning next two ... This week also Arjun had a good week ans he lost in the semis, which will helped him to be back in top-1000 rankings.

Sood won their naother futures title ... They scored comeback win over Arjun and Rishabdev in the match tie-break.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

How I wish Star Sports/Sony ESPN had the rights to the Davis cup telecast & fans would not have to miss out on the heartwarming performance by our boys on Day 1. I doubt if anyone is able to get Neo Sports/ Neo Prime on DTH/Cable. AITA should ensure that fans in India are not deprived of the telecast by ensuring that India's Davis Cup Matches [Home/Away] are broadcast live simultaneously on DD National/DD Sports or at least make sure that Davis Cup telecast rights are with popular broadcasters like Star/Sony ESPN. Feels so miserable not to be part of the journey with our boys! Hope Jay comments on this!

Jay said...

Agree, but we already know how much AITA support the tennis in India ... Don't expect anything from them ... You can get authorised streaming of the complete tie from Davis Cup site - https://video.daviscup.com/ - for only 5 Euros. So I have suggested many of my friends to do the same. Now, rooting for our win in the doubles rubber as then only we r having a realistic chance in the tie.

Anonymous said...

Thx for the revert Jay. Will definitely get the authorized streaming. Hope Rohan-Purav can put us 2-1 ahead. Feel so bad 4 Indian tennis-- there was a time in our days when it was easily the No. 2 sport in the country. Nothing against badminton which easily occupies that spot today. Extremely proud of Saina,Sindhu, Srikanth and the rest. Hope Lee-Hesh can put their differences aside & help in guiding the youngsters in the same way as Gopichand has to the badminton players. At the end of the day, if we can get to watch Junior Kabaddi on our TV screens [Extremely happy for our traditional sport of Kabaddi which has come a long way], Indian tennis deserves much better!

Jay said...

Totally agree, need more academies like Gopi sir's ... Moreover feeling bad for our players, who r not receiving any help from their respective governing bodies ... But our players r keep trying their best with limited funding, some state associations r helping them; like Tamil Nadu, at some extent Gujrat and Maharashtra ... Still, it is a long journey ... Hoping for some positive changes after the appointment of Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore as Sports minister, though his first decision of appointing Sjoerd Marijne as the Indian Men's hockey coach baffled me.

Anonymous said...

I totally agree with u there-- I think Indian Hockey was on the right track with Roelant Oltmans- we should have persisted with him till Tokyo 2020 [though I must admit, I m not an hockey expert-- not that I m a tennis one either--but tennis is closest to my heart - specially Indian tennis]. I feel in a country as large as ours, public-private partnership could be the best way forward - Corporates can be encouraged to adopt a sport for a longer duration [10 years approx] with tax concessions maybe as a CSR initiative. Also some decisions in tune with modern times need to be made like allowing people of Indian origin to compete for India - We missed out on some good tennis players like Prakash Amritraj, Shikha & Neha O[U]beroi just because of the stupid rule which requires them to surrender their US passport. Why should a player surrender his/her USA {or any other foreign country} passport when the playing career in modern times is much shorter? Likewise we missed out on many good soccer talents as well due to the same. This at a time when Middle East countries are importing talents from Africa in Middle Distance running & other athletic disciplines as we have seen in Asian Games & other Continental Events. Hope Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore as a Sports Minister [who has been there & done that & now with his son also following in his footsteps] makes some bold decisions, so we as a nation can truly achieve our sporting potential. Jai Hind!

Jay said...

Well written and really appreciated your thoughts ... It is my honor and pleasure to get into a discussion with passionate fan ... Hopefully, we will discuss more in the future and see required changes in the system.

Anonymous said...

Not a day ends without me visiting your blog & checking our players performances. Infact the URL http://jaydeep72.blogspot.in/ is the bookmarked page on my laptop & mobile! Hats off 2 u Jay for taking out time from your busy schedule & keeping us informed about the latest scores of Indian players from round the world. Still remember distinctly the Monday of July 1993 & the heroics of Ramesh Krishnan & Leander Paes in Frejus, France in Davis Cup QF, which till date I feel was the best performance by an Indian Davis Cup team [considering it was an away tie & France were the overwhelming favorites - was 2 young to recollect India's Davis Cup heroics in 1987 & earlier!]. Hope this team can bring back those glory days again! Thanks Jay once again 4 the great work u put in. It's been an absolute honor & privilege for me to interact with you!

Jay said...

Remembering our tie against France at Frejus still, gives goosebumps to me. Thanks once again for your kind words which really inspire me to do my bit of work.

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