Indian-Tennis: Daily News for the week ending on Jan 10, 2005
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Jan 10 Notes
Sorry to disappear once again -- too much of travel lately .. The weekend
did not go perfectly for LP and MB, with LP-Zimo falling in the SF and MB-JB
falling in the final of doubles at Chennai, both of them falling to the same
surprising singles-pair, Yen-Hsun Lu and Rainer Schuettler in close three-setters
.. Moya won the singles title, once again beating Srichaphan in a repeat
final from last year, once again in a tough three-setter ..
Sania fell to Cara Black, a former top-50 player, in the Q2 at the Tier-5
WTA in Hobart, Australia .. Up nest is the Australian Open for Shikha and
Sania ..
The Mumbai futures starts today .. Later, with news.
Jan 8 Notes
At Chennai, LP and Zimonjic play doubles semifinal today against Yen-Hsun
Lu and Rainer Schuettler after the Moya and Srichaphan SF matches.
Meanwhile, more good news from Sania Mirza .. #169 SM demolished Paula
Garcia (ESP,160), 61 64 in the qualifying first round at the Tier-5 $110K
"Moorilla International" in Hobart, Australia .. Another "wow' match from
our favorite girl .. Sania is supposed to play the 6th seed Cara Black (ZIM,138)
also today itself in trhe Q2 .. Sunitha Rao (USA) who won a big Q1 against
Shikha yesterday, was completely out of it today, as she went down 60 61
to the 5th seed Jennifer Hopkins (USA,137) ..
In other news, Sumit Prakash Gupta, who was the top seed at the grade-4
ITF juniors in Bangladesh, finished runner-up there .. He lost to a seeming
talented 14 year old, Kittipong Wachiramanowong (THA) in the final there
.. Sushanth Nambiar of India was the 6th seed but was upset in the first
rouond .. On the girls's side, the second seed GK Shweta lost in the semifinal
to the eventual winner Elena Tcherniakova (RUS), and the top seeded Sandri
Gangothri fell in the QF to the 6th seed .. There is a grade-3 event in this
coming week in Bangladesh - probably a few more Indians may join for that.
Jan 7 Note-3
The Chennai Open organizers must be thrilled at the way things have gone,
so far, with all the fan favorites still alive going into the weekend ..
Mahesh and Bjorkman just won the doubles semifinal, beating Kevin Kim and
Jiri Vanek, 62 63 to reach the final .. Earlier, Moya advanced to the semi
beating Mathieu and Srichaphan advanced beating Vliegen .. It will be Moya
vs Garcia-Lopez and Srichaphan vs Zib in the two semis tomorrow, followed
by Leander-Zimonjic playing their doubles semifinal .. So, a nice weekend
of action remains .. See the
Chennai Open
page for all the scores ..
Jan 7 Note-2
Some terrific news to report - and this came "straight out of the left field", so to say .. Somedev Dev Varman has earned a wildcard to the $700K Memphis ATP qualifiers,
in the same week as the Rotterdam ATP qualies, where Karan earned a wildcard
.. A few days back Somdev played a wildcard tournament in Memphis, and won
the tournament to get the wildcard .. It is a championship series event (or
International Series Gold, as they call it now), the same level as the Rotterdam
ATP .. As at Rotterdam, the Memphis qualies have an early entry list
(i.e., it is not of the "sign-in" type) and the two-round 16-player field
normally closes at around the #250 rank .. I just got an email from Buji on this, but have not got the details of the matches he played at that Memphis tournament ..This
is a fantastic achievement by Buji, who continues to show that he is a great
promise for the future too .. Isn't this wonderful?? .. What are the odds
for our best two teenage youngsters, Karan and Somdev, to EARN wildcards
into such prestigious events abroad in the same week?? .. Go Buji ..
Leander has more work to do now .. He has to follow Karan, Somdev, Harsh,
Prakash and everybody very closely from now on .. Davis Cup comes along soon
.. Buji, as you might remember, had shown his quality with that incredible
futures win on clay in Kolkata last year, but had gone to college and been
flying "under the radar" lately .. Don't forget this guy! ..
I can't wait for the Feb 12th weekend, to see what Karan and Somdev can do
in Netherlands and US against top-200 quality players in those qualies ..
The future is so bright, I have to wear shades (sorry Timbuk3! :)) ..
Jan 7 Note-1
Paradorn won easily in straight sets, 63 64 against Kristoff Vliegen
at the Chennai Open this evening .. So the crowd favorite is still
there ... Mahesh and Jonas play their doubles semi at night on the center
court against Kevin Kim and Jiri Vanek, after Moya's singles match against
Mathieu ..
Indian girls are all at the $110K WTA Tier-V "Moorilla International" at
Hobart, Australia .. Unfortunate draw for two players I like .. #193 Sunitha Rao (USA) against #159 Shikha Uberoi
(USA/IND) .. Well, Sunitha got the better of Shikha in a close one - 75 76
today .. Frankly, I still wish we could somehow have Sunitha also play for
India -- but well, I guess we can't have everything we want! .. #169 Sania Mirza
is drawn against #160 Paula Garcia (ESP) but I believe the match is postponed
to saturday due to rain .. Neha also is at Hobart but could not make the
qualifying draw .. Very tough entry there, even though it is just the lowest
grade WTA event, because all the players are in Australia for the Australian
Open qualies that start next week.
Jan 6 Notes
LP and Zimonjic again won in straight sets, and are also in the semifinal
at the Chennai Open .. 62 76(6) win over Bachelot and Carraz .. They
would be facing Yen-Hsun Lu and rainer Schuettler in the semifinal .. The
LP semi will be on Saturday, but the MB semifinal will be on schedule for
tomorrow ..
Only the top two seeds (Moya and Paradorn) are alive amomg seeds in the singles
QFs and only the top two seeds, MB-JB and LP-NZ are alive in the singles
QF there ..
The entry list for the $15K futures in Mumbai is posted
in the forum thread on that event .. Due to Christmas, ITF had the entry
deadline a week earlier than normal, and so some of the Indian players probably
forgot to enter by the deadline .. Anyway, Prakash has apparently taken a
wildcard to the Mumbai event .. Good to see him play there .. Harsh, Sunil,
etc are all there in what appears to be a pretty strong field .. There is
an even tougher field for the second futures in Delhi in the following week
- check out this thread ..
Jan 5 Notes
MB and Bjorkman had some starting trouble, which was somewhat expected
because one of them has to change their customary side (AD court) for doubles
- I think Bjorkman moved over to the right - but they came back strongly
and finished off the match against Tabara and Ventura to advance to the semifinal
.. In the semifinal on friday, they will play Kenneth Carlsen and Jan-Michael
Gambill, a potentially difficult team (who had upset the tough 3rd seeds
Erlich-Ram in the R1) .. LP and Zimo had advanced to the QF on Monday, and
will play their QF tomorrow (thursday) against Bachelot and Carraz, who somehow
stayed alive and got past the Amritraj cousins who played a very good doubles
match but went down in three sets, 26 75 46 .. Actually, Stephen and Prakash
were up a break in the third, but their lack of experience at this level
showef after that .. Still, a very impressive outing for the cousins to have
come back that well in the match .. Bjorkman went down to Gimelstob today,
but the Chennai tournament is fine so far, as long as Moya and Srichaphan
stay alive .. See the
Chennai Open
page for all the scores.
Lots of nice articles in the Indian newspapers .. One that caught my eye is the
full transcript of Leander's
interview
with the press in The Telegraph
.. He too was mentioning the depth issue that I wrote about yesterday, but
actually what he calls a lack of depoth is really not a depth issue .. In
my view he is using the wrong term -- "depth" is not what he is worried about,
but our inability to produce a top-100 type player to keep our Davis Cup
chances alive - and he is right about that .. I was also glad to see him
being refreshingly candid about being surprised by Harsh Mankad .. LP has
seen only very little of Harsh Mankad over the last year or so, as their
paths rarely crossed (except for a couple of hours of practice at the Japan
Davis Cup tie), and seems to have been rather unaware of some of the strides
Mankad made in his game since last summer or so .. Leander was also frank
in admitting that "every time people write off Harsh, he comes roaring back
and does something fabulous like this" .. He is probably also aware that
HM wasn't happy about being left off the Davis Cup team in Japan .. Again
LP was candid, probably in a lighter tone -- "if this is how he reacts, well,
it is probably good to put some pressure on him!" .. :-) .. Leander sounded
happy that there are some more options at the upcoming Davis Cup, thanks
to Harsh's good form .. Cool!
In other news, there were a couple of articles on Niru getting into the thick
of things on the girls' side .. Micky Aigner of the Indian Express started
off the topic with this article -
India's best
to coach India's brightest? - Shikha looks to Nirupama .. Nice comments from Niru and
Mahesh about the bright future involving Shikha, Sania etc .. Amitava Das Gupta of
The Telegraph also had an
article
with some comments from Niru, who is in Chennai for TV work at the tournament ..
Jan 4 Note-2
Looks like Mankad played a very good match, though it ended in a loss .. Here is the
NDTV writeup - Qualifier
Mankad displayed scintillating tennis to come back from a set down to take
the match to the decider .... Mankad finally went down 6-4 4-6 6-4 in the
marathon two-hour encounter .... Mankad, who became only the second Indian
qualifier to enter the main draw since Sandeep Kirtane in 1996, showed a
positive approach throughout the match .... Down by a set and trailing 1-2
in the second, the 25-year -old Indian staged a memorable fightback to take
the match to the decider. After taking a 3-1 lead, Mankad showed urgency
but erred to lose crucial points
.. Good stuff .. Wish he could have stayed mistake-free at the end and finished
off the job like he did in the last two matches .. Harsh had said yesterday
that his focus is on staying consistent with his play throughout a 2 or 3
hour match, so he knows what he needs to do, but it was tougher to do today
against a solid top-100 player in Kevin Kim ..
By my unofficial count/stats, since the last summer Harsh has gone 6 and
7 against top-225 caliber competition on the tour .. He has gone 14-16 in sets and
156-152 in games in those matches .. Pretty safe to make the conclusion that
Harsh has played top-225 tennis in the last few months and has taken a next
step from the top-350 levels .. I think, after the physical training stint
over the last couple of months and some nice coaching by Happy Bhalla, he
has possibly made even more improvements in his game now, which showed in
Chennai this week .. He may well be playing top-175 tennis now, and if all
goes well, that is where I expect him to be pretty soon, like in the next
few months. Hopefulyl he will pick up some points soon .. Despite some
big wins in the last few months, he has missed some weeks due to training
and visa problems, and basically did not put in any positive points into
his points total in about 5 months or so, which is the reason why his rank
is a bit down now .. I expect him back near top-275 as early as by the end
of this month after the two Indian futures .. Then watch out ..
By the way, I am getting increasingly irritated by all the talk from
many quarters about the lack of depth in Indian tennis and all that .. Frankly,
going back to at least 15 to 25 years or more, I don't think we have had as
many promising players as we have now, at any time -- Harsh, Prakash, Rohan,
Karan, Somdev, Sunil Kumar etc are not sliced cheese and they all have several
years ahead of them .. Yes, I am including the "forgotten" Harsh also among
the "still promising" category - though he just turned 25, he has only played
about 2-3 years of serious pro tennis, has not shown he was regressing or
hitting a plateau anytime, and has at least 3-4 years ahead of him, as far
as the "wear on the body" is concerned .. The others in that group have at
least 4 to 8 years to look ahead to .. No need to feel down about "depth"
.. It is not like we were ever a tennis depth factory .. Even in the days
of Vijay/Anand, then Ramesh and then the early years of Leander/Mahesh, we
did not have a big second string who could win Davis Cup ties and be contendors
in ATP events .. On the other hand, one can even say that we have never had
as big a pool of gritty/talented and focussed full-time players like we have
now (Vijay Kannan, Vinod Sridhar, Ajay Ramaswamy, Vishal Punna, Mustafa Ghouse
etc all included) who could provide some top-notch domestic competition to
help toughen the next string of young players .. True, we need one or two
top-150 type players soon, to remain competitive in Davis Cup, and we need
a top-25 type doubles team too .. Rather than talk about lack of depth and
all that, we should be concentrating on putting some trust on at least the
above few players (HM, PA, RB, KR, SKD, SKS, etc) and do whatever we can
to get them enough sponsorship and coaching support .. True that nobody among
them is a proven top-100 player soon, but without coaching/sponsorship, we
can be sure that none will get there .. Add in the younger ones like ArunPrakash,
Rupesh Roy, Jeevan, etc, also in the mix .. The "doomsday" talk does not
help anybody .. We have to get down to find sponsorship for these players
and need to put a system in place to get them proper advice ..
Most importantly, we need to stop writing people off at the drop of a hat .. For instance,
I just saw a newspaper article that mentioned some people saying in Chennai
that Prakash "just has his father's last name; he is all hype" -- Come on,
it is disgusting that people talk like that .. I remember hearing people
writing off Harsh 6 years back when he was just 18 that "he was too soft"
(well, who is having the last laugh?) .. Come on, this attitude of overeagerness
to be judgmental, is a curse of Indian sports .. We have no right to be judgemental
like that, because we have not done enough work on our part to be judgmental
- neither do we Indians have the right to feel that we are a country that
somehow "deserved to" have a top-100 player fall out from the sky every decade
or so .. Talk and expectations without planning and action gets us nowhere.
Then there is the doubles matter .. We do need a good doubles pair soon
.. Something needs to be done about that but I don't see anything happening
.. Again, Harsh gives us a measuring rod on what the problems are .. He
was the first to crack top-200 in doubles since LP and MB, but the guy has
never even once had a chance to play with a top-150 player in doubles ..
Heck, he and Karan would have been a good team for a wildcard at Chennai
this time, but that didn't happen .. If we give up on our players and do
not try to see where they can get, how are we going to produce top players
or top teams? .. Karan and Somdev could be a good pair worth giving a few
chances together .. Harsh and Rohan .. Harsh and Sunil Kumar .. Prakash and
Sunil .. Somdev and Harsh ... These type of combinations could turn out to
be terrific if properly advised and groomed .. Of course, the players need
to get along too (another big curse in Indian sports - but that is too complicated
to get into) .. We only need to look at how China picked two girls, basically
even forced them together for three years in a row with continuous support,
win or loss, and willed them all the way to an Olympics medal .. And China
did not have two top-10 doubles players to advice those two either .. I can
suggest some work for AITA, or even my friends LP and MB driectly -- get
down to business and get ready to prepare the next big doubles team .. Start
by a tryout period of at least 5-6 events for 3 or 4 different pairings -
help them schedule their events, and get them some little travel sponsorship
or something .. Then at the end of a few months, make some objective conclusions
.. I know Hesh and Lee are always busy but they can do this, and I would
guess they are willing to do it too -- they just need to get their heads
togther to get it done .. It is important to prepare a good doubles team
for 2 or 3 years down the line .. It is of course important to find all the
support (and more importantly, no negative vibes!) to at least about 5-6
players for one or two of them to get up to top-150 or top-100 singles levels
as well. let us stop talking and get down to work.
OK, enough of sermonizing - Back to chennai Open .. LP plays doubles soon..
Jan 4 Note-2
All I know about the score at Chennai is that Harsh is in the 3rd set against
Kevin Kim, 46 64 00, based on phone calls to the tournament media room ..
The Chennai Open website once again has managed to pick up the title as the
worst website on tour right here in the first week of the tour itself (shameful!)
.. If anybody from India has news, please come to our
chatroom ..
Hope Harsh pulls his 3rd comeback win in a row.
Jan 4 Note-1
Today's schedule at Chennai shows Mankad playing the 8th seed Kevin Kim
at 4 pm on court 1 and then the center court action starting at 5 pom with
Karan Rastogi playing against the 4th seed Bjorkman ..
If HM can somehow pull another upset, it would be his second top-100 win
.. Incidentally his previous top-100 win was a few months back in the qualifying
rounds at the Long Island ATP where he pulled an easy 63 62 upset Olivier
Patience, who was the one pulling the big uipset of the 3rd seed Schuettler
in a 62 62 match yesterday at Chennai. Harsh, if gets goiung with his
A game immediately in the match, has the ability to pull another top-100
upset, but Kevin Kim is a very solid player who would not grant him any easy
opportunities .. Harsh probably knows Kevin's game quite well - I do know
that they have hit against each other a few years back once down here in
California, thiough they haven't played in a pro match against each other
.. As for Karan's match today, no expectations -- the boy certainly has some
good stuff with him, but Bjorkman is way too experienced and talented too
- it will at least be a great experience for Karan to play somebody as good
as Jonas.
Here are some nice write-ups on Harsh's fabulous work so far -- Mankad in
main round - 25-year-old first Indian in 9 years to progress through qualifiers
(The Telegraph) .. quotes - He’s
arguably the most neglected tennis player in the country. Very low profile
and without a sponsor as well. When it comes to making a statement on the
court, however, there’s few to match Harsh Mankad ... The first week of 2005
has already been a memorable one for Mankad. But he doesn’t want to make
any predictions. “If this is to be my breakthrough year, so be it,” he remarked
with a touch of cynicism .... One can’t really blame Mankad. He would surely
have been in a happier frame of mind if he had a God-father .. A bit
hard-hitting, that article in its tone, but actually not inaccurate in what
it says .. Here is another good article: Battler Mankad makes it to the main draw (Deccan Herald) .. Some
quotes - The 25-year-old from Mumbai, treated poorly by the organisers last
year when he was given a wild card at the last minute and then forced to
play only hours after reaching Chennai from Florida, however, said he had
no point to prove. “I am focussing on my tennis and am not concerned about
the other things. I took more chances and played more shots today. I need
to sustain this level,” said Mankad, after making the main draw of an ATP
event for the first time as a qualifier ... ... When the Briton broke Mankad
in the first game of the second set, it looked curtains for the Indian. But
he came back superbly, breaking Delgado in the fourth game and thereafter
taking control of the rallies and games. In the second set and in the decider,
the feature of his play was his timing ...." ... The Hindustan Times
also had a nice article on Mankad (but the articles can be read only by subscribing
to their epaper now, but it is cheap and worth getting .. some quotes - "Up
against the tonsured Briton, Mankad played aggressive tennis which few thought
he is capable of. Mankad, son of former Test cricketer Ashok and tennis champion
Nirupama Mankad, has been knocking on the doors of the big stage for a while.
But with the absence of sponsors and presence of more hyped players, .., Mankad
had been sidelined ....Having touched a high of 280 last year, and ranked
300 now, Mankad believes if he can play this level of tennis, he would be
happy. On Monday, he was very much in the zone. His aggression with the groundstrokes
and net play was there for all to see but what really caught the eye was
the superb return winners" ..All these articles were without attributions
to the correspondents, but I am glad to see that the press points out the
situation quite well with regard to Mankad.
There were some other good articles today .. Here is a round up article on Prakash's and Mankad's matches by Vijay Parthasarathy of The Hindu .. Here is an article by Prajwal Hegde (Deccan Herald)
with some keen comments on how Prakash could use some adjustments in his
gametime strategies to fully bring out his abilities and potential .. Not
much details in any article about LP's match, as it got done only by 9 pm
or so and it was press deadline by then.
Jan 3 Note-3
LP played a much better second set after a mistake filled first set ..
He also showed some customary spunk in saving a match point at 4-5 in the
second, and then saving two more match points at 3-5 and 4-5 in the tiebreaker
.. He finally fell at the 4th match point .. [R1] L.Paes (IND,NR) l. (6)
Yen-Hsun Lu (TPE,87), 26 67(5) .. I am glad he got some rust off his game
in the second set - it can only help him in his preparation for davis Cup
in a few weeks, when we will again need him.
Jan 3 Note-2
Bad news from Chennai -- Prakash Amritraj just went down to Ivo Heuberger
(SUI,124), 46 46 .. This was not expected to be an easy match at all for
Prakash and it would have been a big upset had #330 Prakash pulled it off
.. Heuberger had reportedly complained of a back problem but apparently he
wasx fine and played well today .. Prakash will lose some points now and
will drop some 30 spots in ranking.
LP is down 26 33 to the 6th seed Lu as I type .. Lot of errors from LP so
far, according to those watching TV back home .. He did not hold serve till
the second game of the second set .. Hope he turns it around.
Harsh Mankad will play the 8th seed Kevin Kim (USA,94) tomorrow in the first
round .. Let us wish the guy all the best for the fantastic achievement ..
He had made $3650 so far and that is a big help, because, as far as I know
he was totally broke when he left from the US recently and really didn't
even know how he could play anywhere after the two futures in India .. He
also gets 10 points total now which will raise his ranking back to around
#330 and place him back as the Indian #1 next week.
Vinod Sridhar went down 36 46 to the top seed in the qualies, Marcos Baghdatis
earlier in the day .. Still a very good outing by Vinod, who had a very big
upset win yesterday.
Jan 3 Note-1
Yesssir!!! .. Terrific news .. We have our very first Indian qualifier at the Chennai Open in nine years, and it is Harsh Mankad,
who did it the old fashioned way -- he earned a spot in the main draw, upsetting
the 5th seed Jamie Delgado (GBR,227), 36 63 62 just now .. Yet another comeback
from dropping a set, showing that his recent hardwork has indeed helped him
with his staying power on court .. This is fantastic work by HM who upset
the 3rd and 5th seeds on the way to the main draw .. I think it is a fitting
answer to the tournament who hardly ever gives him a chance with any help
.. Go Harsh .. I have not yet got the news of Vinod's qualies match .. Also
not sure whom Harsh will be playing in the first round tomorrow.
Jan 2 Notes
For the first time in nine editions of the Chennai Open, we have two Indians playing in the final round of qualifying .. Harsh Mankad and Vinod Sridhar
pulled off tough three-set comebacks today to reach the Q3 .. Vinod upset
the 7th seed Gabashvili today, Harsh came back from the brink to beat Andy
Ram of Israel .. HM also became the first Indian to reach the Q3 twice at
Chennai .. Six of the eight seeds reached the Q3 along with Harsh and Vinod
who upset the 3rd seed and the 7th seed in the Q1 and Q2 rounds .. Tough
matches again on Monday for these two .. Vinod runs into a very talented
and in-form Marcos Baghdatis, and Harsh plays the 5th seed Jamie Delgado
.. Hope we get more good news tomorrow .. See all the news at our
Chennai Open
page ..
Monday's schedule has HM and VS playing the Q3 matches at 2pm .. Then Prakash
and Leander play back-to-back singles matches on the center court, followed
by MB-Bjorkman playing their doubles match .. Mustafa and Vishal also play
doubles late at night .. Karan will be playing singles on Tuesday .. It would
be fun to see LP play singles in a pro event after two whole years .. Something
tells me that he will upset the 6th seed Lu tomorrow with some old-fashioned
Leander stuff that Lu is not used to seeing on the tour! ..
Jan 1 Notes
Hello folks, Happy New Year!
And the new year brings
some cheer from Chennai (we badly needed some good news), as the qualies
started today at the $400K Chennai Open with Harsh Mankad (IND,360) pulling a big straight
sets upset over the 3rd seed in the qualies, #203 Stephane Roberts (FRA),
75 61 .. Also pulling a totally unexpected upset was Ashutosh Singh (IND,960),
the very last direct entry in the qualies .. Ashutosh beat #274 Melle van
Gemerden (NED) in a 64 62 match! .. Vinod and Ajay beat their Indian opponents
to advance to the second round .. Harsh has a decent second round match against
Andy Ram (ISR,366) who beat Mustafa Ghouse .. Vijay Kannan who had
won the KTC invitational beating young Jeevan Nedunchezhian this week, went
down against the 7th seed Gabashvili .. Unfortuantely two players, Sunil
Kumar and Stephen Amritraj, went down in very close three-setters where theyr
seem to have played their hearts out .. See all the news at our
Chennai Open
page.
The singles main draw
came out today -- nice to see Leander in a singles draw after a very long
time (first time in two years, since Chennai 2003) .. Wildcard LP gets the
6th seed Yen-Hsun Lu (TPE,87) .. Prakash Amritraj, also with a wildcard,
faces Ivo Heuberger (SUI,124) .. Young Karan Rastogi who got the third wildcard
after his excellent show at the ABN Amro, has the tough job of tackling the
4th seed Jonas Bjorkman ..
Leander has selected
Nenad Zimonjic as his partner for the year .. As I said in the forum, I should
get some candy for predicting/suggesting the name earlier .. I didn't have
any inside info or contact with LP on this .. Just thought he would be a
good partner for Lee .. We didn't get our wish for 2005 for the best possible
pairing, the Indian Express, but we have to be happy that both Lee and Hesh
have very promising partners for next year .. Hesh will be playing with Woodbridge,
as reported earlier .. The earlyd oubles entry list is at the Chennai Open
page
In other news, Shikha
Uberoi (soon to have IND as her country affiliation) went down in the second
round of qualies at the $170K Uncle Toby's Hardcourts in Gold Coast, Australia .. 159th ranked Shikha
beat Delia Sescioreanu (ROM,154) 61 64 in the first round but fell to #296
Zi Yan (CHN) in a close Q2 match 64 36 62 .. Yan had upset the 3rd seed in
the Q1 round .. #295 Neha Uberoi went down iun the Q1 to #181 Nan-Nan Liu
(CHN) in a good match, 57 46 .. I believe Neha is still a little bothered
by the rib-cage pain she had from last month, though she is expected to be
fine soon .. Sunitha Rao (USA,193) is also there - she upset Paula
Garcia (ESP,160) in the second round to reach the Q3 ..
I was glad to meet
the Uberoi sisters here in LA on their way out to Australia .. Dad Mahesh
Uberoi had asked Nirupama Sanjeev (now coaching in the SanFransisco bay area)
to come down to meet the girls and possibly consider doing some traveling
coaching for them .. So we had a nice time on Christmas Day here .. Niru
was impressed by the girls' focus and said she would work with the girls,
who still has Rick Maci as their coach, at his academy in Florida .. He cannot
travel with them .. I think Niru would be a very good traveling coach and
a great influence on the girls, with her experience on the tour and the no-nonsense
approach to things ..
By the way, since
we never had a proper announcement on this, I should say it -- Nirupama is
now retired from tennis .. Thanks for all the pioneering work you did for
Indian women's tennis, Niru! .. Check out Niru's coaching website,
http:// www.nirustennis.com ..
.. Previous notes are at
Notes
for the weeks ending on Jan 03 ..
I am getting some inquiries from US college
coaches who are interested in Indian junior players .. I would like to be able to
contact Indian players (some of the coaches are inquiring about specific names) ..
If any of the junior players are reading this, please contact me .. Or if any of
the other readers know the contact emails/address for any junior playera, let me know ..
Please email me - R.Jayakrishnan