Yuki Bhambri pulls out of junior French Open

Junior Australian Open champion Yuki Bhambri has pulled out of the French Open due to a sprained right ankle.
Yuki, who in January became the first Indian to win a junior Grand Slam in Melbourne Park, twisted his ankle while playing the doubles quarter-finals of the Kuwait Futures last week. He was to play another week at Kuwait before heading to Roland Garros for the junior French Open, but has decided against it.

The 16-year-old plans to leave for Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy, where he trains regularly, in June.

‘I came back home to see how my ankle responds. But I don’t think I will play singles as of now. The ankle keeps getting swollen and I need to regularly ice it,” Yuki said on the sidelines of the women’s International Tennis Federation (ITF) tournament here Tuesday, where his sisters, Ankita and Sanaa are playing.

“I will be leaving for Bollettieri around June 10, where I will train for two weeks. After that I plan to play two Futures tournaments here before leaving for Wimbledon.”

Yuki, after Ramanathan Krishan, his son Ramesh Krishnan and Leander Paes, became the fourth Indian to win a junior Grand Slam.

Yuki Bhambri felicitated by tennis body, given cash award

Junior Australian Open winner Yuki Bhambri was felicitated with a Rs.500,000 cheque by the All India Tennis Association (AITA) here Saturday.
His coach Aditya Sachdeva was presented a cheque of Rs.50,000 at the function held at the Delhi Lawn Tennis Association (DLTA) complex. Sachdeva will also be awarded the Dilip Bose coach award in AITA’s annual coach workshop in Agra in March.

Announcing the awards, AITA Secretary General Anil Khanna lauded Yuki’s win at the Australian Open as a “terrific achievement”.

“Yuki’s achievement began last year with a fantastic performance at the Junior Davis Cup. With the win at Australia he has emulated the feats of Ramanathan Krishnan, Ramesh Krishnan and Leander Paes. He is now a junior No.1 ranked player and it is a terrific achievement. We will support him in every possible way,” Khanna said.

“The Delhi government too has promised to support Yuki’s endeavour.”

Khanna praised Sachdeva for honing Yuki’s talent and said with Dilip Bose coach award he has joined the ranks of Akhtar Ali, C.G.K. Bhupathi, Nandan Bal and T. Chandrasekhar, who have been given the award in the past.

“Aditya has done excellent work with Yuki. We all know he is very committed and an excellent coach. I hope he continues to make great contributions to Indian tennis,” he said.

Yuki said he hoped to play in more ITF tournaments in India. “I will need to play in a lot of ITF tournament this year and I request Mr. Khanna to bring as many ITF tournaments as possible to India.

The ceremony was attended by former tennis players Naresh Kumar, Vishal Uppal and Rohit Rajpal.

Yuki last week became the first Indian to win junior Australian Open and fourth in the country to win a junior Grand Slam.

Yuki wins junior Australian Open to create history (Second Lead)

Yuki Bhambri Saturday joined a select band of three other great Indian tennis stars by winning a junior Grand Slam tennis title, but the only one to do it at the Australian Open by outclassing German Alexandros-Ferdinandos Georgoudas 6-3, 6-1.Top seeded Yuki stamped his authority in packing off Georgoudas in less than an hour, 57 minutes to be precise.

The junior World No. 2 Yuki emulated the country’s tennis icons Ramanathan Krishnan and his son Ramesh and Leander Paes to win the singles title at a Grand Slam.

Ramanathan won the Wimbledon junior title in 1954, the first Asian player to achieve the feat. His son Ramesh carried the legacy. However, he is the only Indian to win two titles in the same year in 1979 — French Open and Wimbledon.

Paes is the only Indian to win a junior Grand Slam title in different years, his first in at Wimbledon in 1990 and then the US Open in 1991 as a 17-year-old.

Like Paes, Yuki has won his first Grand Slam at 16, and his post-match comments show that the Delhi youngster has his feet firmly planted on the ground.

Yuki also joins an illustrious list of former Australian Open junior champions like Andy Roddick, Marcos Baghdatis and Gael Monfils, all accomplished players on the circuit now.

“Winning the title is a big thing for me. But I am aware that it is a small step to bigger things in life,” Yuki said.

“I was confident that I could win. I had worked really hard. I changed my actions, I worked on my fitness and brought more power to my shots. It was a hard work of three-four months which paid off today”

Yuki dominated from the start, serving big and showing good court-craft. Such was his grip on 17 year-old Georgoudas that the German could not come anywhere near breaking his serve and at the same time hardly allowed him to hold his.

“I was a little nervous in the beginning, but as the match progressed I was calm and played my shots. I cut down on the errors against Georgoudas and made him play more balls,” said Yuki, who trains at the famous Nick Bollettieri Academy.

Yuki now wants to carry forward his success into the senior ranks.

“I am now gearing up to play in the men’s circuit,” said Yuki who is planning to play in a couple of ITF tournaments in Australia.

Yuki had been in imperial form right through the tournament and raised his game by a notch or two in the final.

Nothing worked for Georgoudas as Yuki was in firm control of the match never letting the grip off.

Georgoudas lost his first service game, his shots peppering the net, and he could never recover. The German, who shocked No.2 seed Julen Uriguen in the semi-final, was soon going downhill as Yuki mixed his clever netplay with some whipping forehands. The lone hiccup for the Indian was when he double-faulted in his final service game but that hardly made any difference to the final outcome.

Georgoudas conceded after the match that Yuki was too good and complimented him on a resounding victory.

“It is a very nice tournament here; well done Yuki, and I hope to play here in the future,” Georgoudas said.

Yuki is hailed as future of Indian tennis

here was never a doubt about his talent. It was just a matter of when it translates into results. And Yuki Bhambri did just that at the Australian Open by becoming the first Indian to win the junior title Saturday. The 16-year-old Delhi boy is hailed by the country’s tennis greats as the most exciting prospect. Yuki, who after Ramanathan Krishan, Ramesh Krishnan and Leander Paes has become the fourth Indian to win a junior Grand Slam, is seen as the future of Indian tennis along with American Collegiate champion Somdev Devvarman.

Former Davis Cupper captain Naresh Kumar feels that Yuki’s performance is “uplifting” for tennis in India.

“It is a fantastic achievement because he is only 16. He has a bright future. His win is certainly very encouraging and uplifting for Indian tennis,” he said.

Another Davis Cupper and Chairman of the Commonwealth Games Preparatory Committee, Jaideep Mukerjea feels Yuki’s training at famous Nick Bollettieri helped him develop his game.

“He has improved by leaps and bounds at the Bollettieri. It is a very proud achievement. He has a lot of talent and I hope that he makes his mark in the men’s tennis which is a different ball game all together,” Mukerjea said.

Akhtar Ali said he saw in Yuki “a spark of champion” when he played in Kolkata two yeas ago and felt that with Government’s new passport policy disrupting India’s Davis Cup plans,he is the right choice to step in.

“I had said two years ago that Yuki is a great prospect. He is smart, he is intelligent and is on the right path,” Akhtar said.

“His win gives a lot of hope to Indian tennis. The present lot of Indian players is ageing, so it is good to see capable youngsters waiting in the wings to step in.

“It is also a very good news for India’s Davis Cup team. Since Prakash won’t be able to play now owing to government’s policy, with Somdev (Devvarman)and Rohan (Bopanna), he will make a good team.”

However, many promising Indian juniors could not make a smooth transition into the men’s circuit and so the stalwarts have a word of caution for the youngster.

“He needs more power to compete in the men’s tennis. Ramesh Krishnan, Leander Paes all won the junior Grand Slams but could not do that well on the men’s tour. Therefore, it is important that Yuki works on his physical fitness as tennis is a intensely physical sport. I am sure Yuki is aware of that,” Mukerjea said.

Naresh concurred. “It is a great moment for Yuki but like in every tennis player’s career, this is also a very difficult time for him as he now needs to move into senior ranks and it is highly demanding to cope with the pressures,”he said.

“I think the physical aspect will be taken care of as he grows up. Nevertheless, it is very important to be physically strong nowadays. See how (Andy) Murray collapsed in the heat at the Australian Open.”

Naresh goes on to point out that Yuki needs a world class trainer and coach.

“What is most important for him now is to get a good coach who has trained the top-10 players or has been a top-ranked player in his playing days. For Leander I got Gene Mayer, who was a World No.3 player, and who put him on the right path, ” he said.

All India Tennis Association (AITA)secretary-general Anil Khana said Yuki’s win augurs well for Asian junior tennis.

“Yuki has made all of us here very proud. We are waiting to welcome him in the best possible way. His win is a great news for Asian tennis as well. Last year Yang Tsung-hua of Chinese Taipei became the world no.1 while Yuki achieved No. 2 rank. Alcantra Francis Casey from Phillipines and Cheng Peng Hsie from Chinese Taipei have won the Australian Open boys doubles,” Khanna said.

“I hope ATP and WTA will notice the performances of the Asian players and help in tournament formatting that will fetch the Asian boys and girls valuable ATP and WTA points.”