ATP/ WTA Tour
We had our first WTA tournament in India after 15 years in Chennai where a WTA 250 was played this week. 2 Indians – Karman Kaur Thandi and Ankita Raina got singles wild cards. In doubles, Ankita Raina and Prarthana Thombare got in directly with their respective partners while Riya Bhatia/Sharmada Balu got wild card and Karman Kaur Thandi/Prarthana Thombre got in as alternates.
The best win from an Indian came thru Karman Kaur Thandi who upset 8th seed Chloe Paquet of France in the first round. This was one of the best wins of Karman’s career and she lost after a good fight against a former top 5 player Canadian Eugine Bouchard in second round. Karman also won the doubles first round too along with Rutuja Bhosale when they beat Prathana and her partner.
Other Indians lost in first round. Also 5 Indian players in qualifying lost in first qualifying round.
These are the results of Indian players in main draw-
[R1] (WC) Karman Kaur Thandi (IND,359) d. (8) Chloe Paquet (FRA,109) 46 64 63
[R1] (WC) Ankita Raina (IND,329) l. (4) Tatjana Marina (GER,80) 06 16
[R2] (WC) Karman Kaur Thandi (IND,359) l. Eugine Bouchard (FRA,475) 26 67(2)
[R1] Ankita Raina (IND) / Rosalie Van Der Hoek (NED) l. Anastasia Gasanova (RUS) / Oksana Selekhmeteva (RUS) 16 46
[R1] Riya Bhatia (IND) / Sharmada Balu (IND) l. Peangtern Plipuech (THA) / Moyuka Uchijima (JPN) 26 57
[R1] Karman Kaur Thandi (IND) / Rutuja Bhosale (IND) d. Prarthana Thombre (IND) / Jeesie Rompies (NED) 26 76(5) 10-4
[QF] Karman Kaur Thandi (IND) / Rutuja Bhosale (IND) l. (1) Gabriela Dabrowski (CAN) / Luisa Stefani (BRA), 06 36
Davis Cup
India played it’s world group 1 davis cup tie against Norway in Oslo last week. Norway had in it’s team world #2 and recent US open runner up Casper Rudd. So, it was always a difficult tie for us on a slow hard courts. And we lost the tie 1-3 after losing our first 3 matches and winning the dead rubber 4th match.
These are our results-
[S1] Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) l. Victor Durasovic (NOR) 16 46
[S2] Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND) l. Casper Rudd (NOR) 16 46
[D] Yuki Bhambri /Saketh Myneni (IND) l. Casper Rudd / Victor Durasovic (NOR) 36 63 36
[S3] Sumit Nagal (IND) d. Hellum Lilleengen (NOR) 62 61
With that Indian team will play group 1 playoff next March to determine if we stay in group 1 next year.
ATP Challenger Tour
This week only our doubles players played on challenger tour and our old successful pairing of Divij Sharan and Purav Raja won the title in Istanbul, Turkey after beating Arjun Kadhe and his Brazalilian partner.
These are results of our players in Istanbul Challenger.
At Istanbul Challenger 80 (Hard)
[R1] (1) Arjun Kadhe (IND) / Fernando Romboli (BRA) bye
[R1] (2) Purav Raja (IND) / Divij Sharan (IND) d. Berk Ilkel (TUR) / S Mert Ozdemir (TUR) 64 64
[R1] Anirudh Chandrasekar (IND) / N Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND) d. Rishab Agarwal (IND) / Adrian Oetzbach (GER)
[QF] (1) Arjun Kadhe (IND) / Fernando Romboli (BRA) d. Anirudh Chandrasekar (IND) / N Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND) 64 76(4)
[QF] (2) Purav Raja (IND) / Divij Sharan (IND) d. Alexandru Jecan (ROM) / Dan Alexandru Tomescu (ROM) 64 64
[SF] (1) Arjun Kadhe (IND) / Fernando Romboli (BRA) d. Geoffrey Blancaneaux (FRA) / Laurent Lokoli (FRA) Walkover
[SF] (2) Purav Raja (IND) / Divij Sharan (IND) d. Tuna Altuna (TUR) / Lorenzo Giustino (ITA) 63 64
[F] (2) Purav Raja (IND) / Divij Sharan (IND) d. (1) Arjun Kadhe (IND) / Fernando Romboli (BRA) 64 36 10-8
ITF Tour
On the ITF tour, Digivijay Pratap Singh reached QF in M25 in Spain while in Tunisia 19 year old Karan Singh reached second round .
At ITF M25, Madrid, Spain (Hard)
[R1] (8) Digvijay Pratap Singh (IND,710) d. (Q) Lautaro Pane (NR,ITF-492) 62 62
[R2] (8) Digvijay Pratap Singh (IND,710) d. (WC) Pablo Carretero (ESP,1900) 61 75
[QF] (8) Digvijay Pratap Singh (IND,710) l. (3) Alberto Barroso Campos (ESP,403), 16 26
At ITF M15, Monastir, Tunisia (Hard)
[R1] Karan Singh (IND,1103) d. Boris Butulija (SRB,849) 61 26 76(6)
[R1] Niki Poonacha (IND,852) l. (3) Tao Mu (CHN,642) 36 36
[R2] Karan Singh (IND,1103) l. (3) Tu Mao (CHN,643), 46 75 67(3)
