Bengaluru: India’s Aryan Shah was in a joyous mood after clinching his second ITF title in Ahmedabad on Sunday. A bigger prize awaited the 19-year-old, who will break into ATP’s top-500 next week. He can now use the ATP Next Gen Accelerator pathway for greater exposure and also to push his ranking higher.
Players, who are aged 20-and-under and are ranked between 351 to 500, can feature in the main draw of eight ATP Challengers in the 50 and 75 categories.
The Bhuj-born player wasn’t aware of the pathway until a well-wisher informed him about it. “Someone texted me right before the final (on Sunday) about it,” he said. “After I won the final (against Great Britain’s Jay Clarke) I got to know it is a real thing.” For one who is playing his second year in the pros this is a huge opportunity and Shah will hope to maximise.
“I need to make every one of the eight tournaments count, I don’t have to go thro-ugh qualifiers. There are not very many 50 and 70 events on the calendar, so the cut is high. It’s a good jump for me. There’s not a lot of difference between a guy ranked 250 and one ranked 600. I would say it just depends, like how good they are performing on the day,” said Shah, who is training with Swapnil Desai in Ahmedabad. After having featured in 18 ITF events last year, the youngster is aware of the tough challenges in the pro circuit.
Shah, 5 ft 8, has worked hard physically to be able to compete in the pros. Talking about the jump from junior to pros, Shah said, “the players are bigger, stronger, faster. There are no free points.”
Shah watches Roger Federer and Pete Sampras’ videos for inspiration.
The 19-year-old got first-hand experience of the level he’ll need to produce in the coming months when he went up against the second seed Great Britain’s Oliver Crawford in the SM Krishna Memorial Open here.
He was outclassed 3-6, 0-6 in the quarterfinals on Friday. Likewise, India’s Karan Singh also crashed to a 6-7, 1-6 loss to the top-seed Clarke from Britain.
Chirag in semifinal
Chirag Duhan sealed a semifinal berth with a 6-2, 7-6 win over compatriot Ishaque Eqbal to set up a date with Clarke. Japan’s Ryuki Matsuda, who outclassed Maxim Zhukov 6-4, 7-6, will meet Crawford in the other last four contest.
Results: Singles (Quarterfinals): Ryuki Matsuda (Jpn) bt Maxim Zhukov 6-4, 7-6 (3); Chirag Duhan (Ind) bt Ishaque Eqbal (Ind) 6-2, 7-6 (1); Jay Clarke (GBR) bt 5-Karan Singh (Ind) 7-6 (5), 6-1; Oliver Crawford (GBR) bt 6-Aryan Shah (Ind) 6-3, 6-0. Doubles (semis): Nick Chappell (USA)/Grigoriy Lomakin (Kaz) bt Aryan Shah (Ind)/ Karan Singh (Ind) 6-1, 6-0; SD Prajwal Dev (Ind)/Nitin Kumar Sinha (Ind) bt Manish Sureshkumar (Ind)/ Parikshit Somani (Ind) 6-0, 7-6 (5)