Saketh Myneni in Challenger final in Turkey - The School Of Power Tennis

NEW DELHI, OCT. 3:

Eighth seed Saketh Myneni pulled off two impressive wins over quality opponents to make the final of the €42,500 men’s Challenger tennis tournament in Turkey on Saturday.

The 27-year-old Saketh who had won his maiden Challenger singles title in Indore last year, first knocked out third seed Evgeny Donskoy of Russia 7-6(5), 6-4 in the quarterfinals that was interrupted by rain.

Donskoy had beaten Saketh in straight sets in the first round of the Kolkata Challenger last year, in their only earlier meeting in the professional circuit.

Thereafter, the 198th ranked Saketh beat Denys Molchanov of Ukraine, who had been ranked a career-best 169, in the third set tie-break in the semifinals. The 28-year-old Molchanov had also beaten Saketh in straight sets in a Challenger last year in Fergana, in their only previous meeting.

‘’It has been a great week so far. Competing with quality players has been a positive sign for me this year. I hope to finish strong’’, said Saketh, happy with the fine run that has already assured him of 55 ATP points in singles.

In the final, Saketh will challenge the sixth seed Farrukh Dustov of Uzbekistan.

In the doubles semifinals, however, second seeds Saketh and Divij Sharan saved a matchpoint before being beaten 6-4, 3-6, 11-9 by Alexandr Igoshin of Russia and Yaraslav Shyla of Belarus. The Indian pair had won the doubles title last week in Izmir.

In the $10,000 ITF women’s tournament in Jakarta, Dhruthi Venugopal in partnership with Haine Ogata of Japan was beaten in the doubles final by Beatrice Gumulya and Jessy Rompies of Indonesia.

The results:

€42,500 Challenger men, Agri, Turkey
Singles (semifinals): Saketh Myneni bt Denys Molchanov (Ukr) 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(1); Quarterfinals: Saketh Myneni bt Evgeny Donskoy (Rus) 7-6(5), 6-4.
Doubles (semifinals): Alexandr Igoshin (Rus) & Yaraslav Shyla (Blr) bt Saketh Myneni & Divij Sharan 6-4, 3-6, 11-9.

$10,000 ITF women, Jakarta, Indonesia
Doubles (final): Beatrice Gumulya & Jessy Rompies (Ina) bt Haine Ogata (Jpn) & Dhruthi Venugopal 6-4, 7-6(4).

C.V. Nagaraj tennis coaching - The Hindu

C.V. Nagaraj tennis coaching - The Hindu

CV Nagraj ­ dronacharya of Hyderabad tennis

Sep 29 2015 : The Times of India (Hyderabad)

CV Nagraj ­ dronacharya of Hyderabad tennis

Solomon Kumar

Hyderabad:





“Coaching is an everyday event. Not something we do just at practice or game days or in season. It is all year,“ said Bo Schembechler, former American football player, coach and athletics administrator.

It's been the same in tennis coach CV Nagraj's life too ever since he started the School of Power Tennis in 1991. The celebrated coach was recently conferred with the Dilip Bose `Lifetime Achievement Award' by the AITA in Kolkata.

Sport runs in Nagraj's blood.His father CD Venkat Rao was a university-level cricketer and mother Rajeswari a tennis player. Nagraj preferred his mother's sport but soon gave up playing as he felt his calling lay in grooming youngsters. “I did quite well as a player, but I gave up playing once I realised that Iwill not be able to make it to the international level. Also by then I had a brush with coaching and decided to take it full time,“ Nagraj told ToI at his coaching centre at the RRC ground.

Nagraj's first stint with coaching was when he was just 17. “In 1978-79, PN Misra asked me to help out at a coaching camp in Siddipet.Icontinued to play for several years but coaching had caught my imagination and it grew with the years,“ Nagraj said.

However, the transition was not as smooth as he would have expected. His first setback was when the club where he was plying his trade lost out a lot of players to a new facility that was started at the Gymkhana. Just because they had a qualified coach. “That prompted me to secure a degree in coaching rom the National Institute of Sports,“ said Nagraj.

In addition, Nagraj completed BPEd and then did his MPEd from Annamalai University in 1987. Al hough these degrees earned him a physical education teacher's post at HAL, he couldn't be at peace with himself in that role. He began to explore avenues and in 1991 decided to become a full-time coach. He started his school at the YWCA in Secunderabad.

Nagraj had to move out of YWCA five years later and RRC became the new and permanent address for his school. Since then, Nagraj has grown in strength as he has been able to produce 10 players who have gone on to represent the country. Apart from J Vishnu Vardhan, who participated in the 2012 London Olympic Games, four others played in the Davis Cup and five in the Junior Davis Cup.

Six hours in the morning and four in the evening at the coaching centre has been Nagraj's schedule for the last two-and-a-half decades. “My whole day is spent at the centre as there is a lot to be done for the players,“ he says.

Although it sort of weaned him away from his family, especially from his daughter during her growing up years, he managed to balance it as he didn't socialise much and also his residence was not too far from RRC.

Like in any coach's career, Nagraj's most and least memorable moments too concerned his wards “My most memorable moment was when Vishnu played at the Olympic Games,“ said Nagraj. The lowest point, obviously, is when a student gives up tennis. “I was really saddened when the likes of Susheel Narla and Anant Sitaram gave up tennis. They had so much potential and it seemed as if all my efforts had gone down the drain,“ he said.

Nagraj feels that drop-out rate in tennis is very high because parents cannot afford the expenses after a certain stage and also many of them use it as a means to get admissions in colleges etc.

“Money is a big issue. Even players like Vishnu and Saketh Myneni still struggle to raise funds to play in tournaments. It's not easy turning into a professional. Only 2 percent of those who go to a coaching centre turn professional,“ he said with a tinge of sadness.

HONOUR FOR THE UNSUNG TENNIS COACH

The new tennis Power House - The School of Power Tennis

Purvasha, Saketh-Vishnu bag gold - The School of power tennis

Feb 09 2015 : The Times of India (Hyderabad)

Purvasha, Saketh-Vishnu bag gold

Kochi TIMES NEWS NETWORK





Isaiah Pips Kranti To Claim Bronze Medal

Asian Games goldmedal winning archer Rajat Chauhan of Rajasthan prevailed over his India teammate Abhishek Verma of Delhi to win the gold medal in the men's compound archery event at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here on Sunday .In an all-Telangana fight, Isaiah Sanam prevailed over D Kranti Kumar 143-140 to pick up the bronze.
The women's compound gold was won by Andhra Pradesh's Purvasha Shende, who was a member of the Indian bronze-medal winning side at the Incheon Asian Games.Shende defeated her India teammate Trisha Deb, who also won an individual bronze at Incheon, 144-142 in the semifinal.
Rajat picked up two more medals as he led Rajasthan to gold in mixed team event and silver in men's team event.While they won against Punjab in the former event, they lost to the same opposition in the latter.
The compound women's team event was won by Arunachal Pradesh.
In Thiruvananthapuram, the tennis action wound up with Tamil Nadu's Ramkumar Ramanathan clinching the men's singles gold by beating state-mate Sriram Balaji 6-2 6-4.
The men's doubles gold was bagged by Saketh Myneni and Vishnu Vardhan after they rallied to beat Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and Vijay Natarajan 6-7 6-3 11-9.
The women's title went to Gujarat's Ankita Raina, who staved off Maharashtra girl Prarthana Thombare 7-5 6-3.
It was a golden double for Ankita as she along with Eetee Maheta ended numero uno in women's doubles, getting the better of Telangana's Nidhi Chilumula and Sowjanya Bavisetti 6-2 6-1.
In Thrissur, Punjab's Smit Singh clinched the men's skeet gold on the final day of shotgun competitions at the Police Academy shooting range.
Smit shot 112 to qualify for the final in fourth position be hind Chhattisgarh's Parampal Singh Guron (117) and Mairaj Ahmad Khan (115) of Uttar Pradesh.
The Punjab shooter scored 14 to finish second behind Mairaj (15) in the semifinal. However, in the ensuing gold medal match, Smit pipped his rival 14-13 to climb the top of the podium.
Smit's teammate Angad Bajwa, who also shot 112 in qualifying, made it to the bronze medal match after scoring 13 in the semis. He sealed the medal by out-scoring Indrajeet Sikdar (112) 14-11 in the playoff.
In the cycling competition being conducted near the Ko valam beach in Thiruvananthapuram, Rutuja Satpute of Maharashtra won the 28km Individual Time Trial Road Race for women gold by clocking 46 min 49.145 sec.
The silver and bronze went to host state Kerala's kitty through Krishnendhu T Krishna (48:07.961) and Mahitha Mohan (48:20.357).
In the men's 126km Road Mass Start, Haryana's Pankaj Kumar snatched the gold by fraction of a second after clocking 3 hr 22 min 04.471 sec, followed by Karanataka's N Lokesh (03:22:04.512). Maharashtra's Abhinandan Bhosale (03:22:04.797) settled for the bronze in this event.