Weekly tennis round up of the Top 5 Mens, Womens, and ITF Juniors, highlights, thoughts and featured players.
ATP TOP 5 (INDIAN MEN’S)
- 100 – Yuki Bhambri
- 125 – Ramkumar Ramanathan
- 170 – Prajnesh Gunneswaran
- 312 – Sumit Nagal
- 326 – Saketh Myneni
The biggest mover was 20 year old Aryan Goveas, moving up 33 spots to rank 727 in Singles.
WTA TOP 5 (INDIAN WOMEN’S)
- 201 – Ankita Raina
- 215 – Karman Thandi
- 340 – Pranjala Yadlapalli
- 368 – Rutuja Bhosale
- 565 – Zeel Desai
Clearly this and the previous week belong to Pranjala, a local girl from Hyderabad girl, who won 2 ITF $25K tournaments in Lagos, Nigeria. Beating a top 150 player in the finals, both times. Her decision to move to Thailand has paid off and we hope that we will be soon seeing her in higher level tournaments.
ITF JUNIOR, INDIAN BOYS
- 91 – Siddhant Banthia
- 114 – Megh Bhargav Patel
- 125 – Sacchitt Sharrma
- 157 – Mann Shah
- 179 – Vikas Singh
ITF JUNIOR, INDIAN GIRLS
- 155 – Shivani Amineni
- 181 – Vaidehi Chaudhari
- 200 – Akanksha A Bhan
- 302 – Salsa Aher
- 318 – Kaavya Sawhney
TENNIS HIGHLIGHTS, THOUGHTS & FEATURED PLAYER
This week we’re going to talk about a coach and player duo, a pair who we at ITL know personally, Robi Cokan and Kaja Juvan.
Kaja has gone onto win 2 Gold Medals in tennis at the Youth Olympics 2018, as she bids adieu to her junior tennis career and turns to focus professionally from here on.
She is the only person in history to win 2 Gold Medals in one Youth Olympics. A historical feat for her, her coach and her country – Slovenia.
Not only did she battle through pain in her leg in the Doubles final, but fought through it in her Singles final as well.
We are connected very closely with her coach, Robi Cokan. When we travelled in 2017 with a group from Hyderabad to train with him. Though the trip in 2018 did not materialize, for other reasons, we look forward to having a training trip for sure in 2019.
ITL also offers video evaluations for tennis players, through Celota, where you can send your video in and Robi will give you exact tips on how to improve your game. An Olympic gold medalist coach giving you tennis advice while you are right here in India? Yes, ITL has that for you!
I’ve seen them train together, and having spent time with Robi, I can say that their training dynamic is one of the main reasons for their success.
Through my observations, Robi obviously wants the best for her but at the core level they both want the same thing, to play well and win. In order for Kaja to do that I felt that she has lent her confidence to Robi, which is the main reason why she is able to absorb his training so well. Once a player is able to let go of themselves and hand over some responsibility only then can they allow their game to improve. In return, Robi makes sure that her training is always evolving and she is learning and improving everyday, not just doing the same drills over and over again.
We wish them the best for their future and look forward to seeing more achievements being unlocked by them.
I leave you with the above story for this week as a reflection point for parents and players seeking out their goals.
See you on the court.
—
Watch our calendar for upcoming events and tournaments.