ATP Tour
Hall of fame tournament in Newport has usually been happy hunting ground for the Indians. Number of Indians- Leander Paes. Prakash Amritraj and Ramkumar Ramanathan among others have done well at Newport in the past.
This year also turned out to be quite good for Indian players particularly in doubles. Firstly, in singles current India #2 Sasikumar Mukund had 2 very good wins in qualifying over 2 higher ranked players to make the main draw where he lost in first round against current NCAA champion Ethan Quinn who he had beaten before.
There were better results in doubles as in a rare occasion 2 all Indian pairs- Yuki Bhambri -Saketh Myneni and Anirudh Chandrashekhar-Vijay Sundar Prashanth reached the SF. It was an ATP debut for Anirudh and Vijay and they had an excellent upset win over 4th seeds in their first match. With that run, Anirudh will make his entry into top 100 for the first time in his career. It has been a meteoric rise for Anirudh as he was ranked outside 500 just about 15 months back and was playing futures.
These are results of our players at Newport.
At the Hall of Fame ATP 250 in Newport, Rhode Island, USA (Grass):
[Q1] Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,519) l. (8) Alex Bolt (AUS,345) 36 36
[Q1] Mukund Sasikumar (IND,356) d. (6) Evan Zhu (USA,336) 36 62 63
[Q2] Mukund Sasikumar (IND,356) d. (1) Altug Celikbilek (TUR,292) 75 63
[R1] (Q) Mukund Sasikumar (IND,356) l. (WC) Ethan Quinn (USA,434)
[R1] (3) Yuki Bhambri (IND) / Saketh Myneni d. (WC) Tommy Paul (USA) / Eliot Spizzirri (USA) 36 61 10-8
[R1] Anirudh Chandrasekar (IND) / Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND) d. (4) Julian Cash (GBR) / Maxime Cressy (USA) 64 63
[QF] (3) Yuki Bhambri (IND) / Saketh Myneni (IND) d. Robert Galloway (USA) / John-Patrick Smith (AUS) 26 76(5) 10-5
[QF] Anirudh Chandrashekhar (IND) /Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND) d. Adrian Mannarino (FRA) / Jordan Thompson (AUS) 67(8) 64 13-11
[SF] Anirudh Chandrashekhar (IND) /Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND) l. William Blumberg (USA) / Max Purcell (AUS) 46 67(5)
[SF] (3) Yuki Bhambri (IND) / Saketh Myneni (IND) l. (1) Nathaniel Lammons (USA) / Jackson Withrow (USA) 76(2) 67(1) 9-11
With his regular partner Jeevan Neduncheziyan not playing, Sriram Balaji partnered Chinese Zhe Zhang at Gstaad ATP and won a round before losing in QF against top seeds.
ATP Challenger Tour
Sumit Nagal produced a superb result winning his second challenger title of the year and his fourth title overall at Tampre, Finland. He became the only Indian to win 2 challenger titles on red clay in Europe which is really tough considering the overall tough competition there.
Sumit beat a former top 50 player Jiri Vesely in first round and had a very tough match in the second round against Brazilian Da Silva as he was 2 breaks down 1-4 in third set only to come back to win in third set tie break. Sumit had another nice comeback win from a set down in the semi final but won the final in straight sets against tough top 200 opponent.
These are results of our players in challengers last week-
At Tampere Challenger, Finland (Clay)
[R1] (7) Sumit Nagal (IND,231) d. (WC) Jiri Vesely (CZE,455) 64 61
[R2] (7) Sumit Nagal (IND,231) d. Joao Lucas Reis Da Silva (BRA,283) 63 67(2) 76(4)
[QF] (7) Sumit Nagal (IND,231) d. Aziz Dougaz (TUN,241), 63 63
[SF] (7) Sumit Nagal (IND,231) d. Daniel Rincon (ESP,276), 46 63 62
[F] (7) Sumit Nagal (IND,231) d. (5) Dalibor Svrcina (CZE,193), 64 75
At Pozoblanco Challenger 75, Spain (Hard)
[R1] (3) Rithvik Choudary Bollipalli (IND) / Arjun Kadhe (IND) d. Constantin Bittoun Kouzmine (FRA) /Adria Soriano Barrera (COL) 64 64
[QF] (3) Rithvik Choudary Bollipalli (IND) / Arjun Kadhe (IND) l. Dan Added (FRA) / Pierre-Hugues Herbert (FRA) 57 26
ITF Tour
Apart from Sumit this was a big week for our womens #2 Karman Kaur Thandi who won W60 title in Evansville, USA. With that title win , Karman has moved upto #210 in WTA rankings and sealed her place for US open qualies.
Sahaja Yamlapalli also played there and won a round.
These are their results-
At the W60 in Evansville, IL, USA (Hard):
[R1] Sahaja Yamalapalli (IND,437) d. (Q) Christina Rosca (USA,607), 61 76(3)
[R1] (3) Karman Kaur Thandi (IND,261) d. (Q) Maria Fernanda Navarro (MEX,650), 63 62
[R2] Sahaja Yamalapalli (IND,437) l. Veronika Miroshnichenko (RUS,409) 16 26
[R2] (3) Karman Kaur Thandi (IND,261) d. (Q) Maribella Zamarripa (USA,1107) 62 64
[QF] (3) Karman Kaur Thandi (IND,261) d. (WC) Allie Kiick (USA,632) 63 63
[SF] (3) Karman Kaur Thandi (IND,261) d. (Q) Mccartney Kessler (USA,504), 64 75
[F] (3) Karman Kaur Thandi (IND,261) d (4) Yuliia Starodubtseva (UKR,294) 75 46 61
