It was a packed week for Indian Tennis with a home event each on the ATP Challenger and the ITF Womens tours. We also had significant presence at the WTA Taipei OEC Open. A brief roundup of the week is detailed below.
MSLTA KPIT PUNE CHALLENGER
The top performer of the week at the event was Ramkumar Ramanathan. The Indian won the doubles title with Purav Raja and also reached the semis by defeating young Sumit Nagal for the 6th time in a row.
Prajnesh Gunneswaran, who was coming in from a difficult few weeks owing to personal situation, had a tough tourney to lose out in the 3rd round while Sumit Nagal lost in the quarters to Ramkumar Ramanathan. Mukund Sasikumar had a solid tourney and had several chances to close out the match against the No.2 seed James Duckworth but failed and in the process bowed out in the quarters.
Saketh Myneni and Arjun Kadhe had a creditable tourney to finish as the doubles runnerups.
Singles Results | Doubles Results | Singles Qualifying Results
WTA Taipei OEC Open
The event featured Ankita Raina, Prarthana and the young British-Indian Naiktha Bains. Ankita Raina had won the doubles title last year with Karman Thandi.
Ankita Raina had a tough R1 against Vitalia Diatchenko, who held a 2-0 record against Ankita in H2H singles. Ankita put up a strong fight in the first set before bowing out in straight sets.
Naiktha Bains had a great tourney and defeated two higher ranked players to reach the quarters. Facing the formidable T Babos in the quarters, Naiktha took the battle to the opponent and took it to the wire, before losing out in 3 sets. It was a welcome return to form for the young British girl.
In doubles, all the 3 pairings reached QF before losing out.
ITF GWALIOR
The first in the series of 5 ITF $25K tourneys was held in Gwalior featuring the return of the talented Karman Kaur Thandi. Though the event featured the best of India’s talent apart from Ankita Raina, only Karman Thandi and Sowjanya Bavisetti made the most of it as they made the quarter-final and semi-final respectively. This was a continuation of the rich vein of form for the national singles champion – Sowjanya Bavisetti.
ITF $15K MOZAMBIQUE
A really big continent from India participated in this tourney and they were well received by the Indian Embassy there. However, they could not make much of an impression as they all lost by the 2nd round.
India's participation in Tennis tournament in Maputo
— India in Mozambique (@IndiainMoz) November 15, 2019
15 Indian tennis player- the largest participation from any country, have been playing Standard Bank Open Tennis Tournament (4 to 17 November, 2019). The members of High Commission of India met them and encourage. @IndiaSports pic.twitter.com/rWUck7xUh6
INDIAN DIASPORA
Rajeev Ram, who traces his roots to Bangalore, was the only USA player to qualify for the prestigious ATP Finals event. This is indeed a historic moment for the Indian American community in the US!
INDIAN JUNIORS
Dev Javia was the finalist of the ITF Grade IV event in Dubai. This is wonderful result for the young kid who is aspiring to play in the Grand Slams next year. Read his interview on TheBridge.
The Indian team had huge representation at the Rajshahi Grade V ITF event in Bangladesh. The winner list below.
Boys Singles: Winner – Uddayvir Singh; Finalist: Aditya Vardhan Roy Chowdhury
Boys Doubles: Winners – Aditya Vardhan Roy Chowdhury / Jaishvin Sidana; Finalists – Uddayvir Singh / Subash Paramasivam
Girls Doubles: Finalists – Chavana Shree She Mallela Sreenath / Hetvee Choaudhari
