Karan Rastogi to resume playing Tour events in 2009

India's Karan Rastogi, his promising tennis career laid low by recurring back problems, will attempt a comeback on the Tour early next year.

Rastogi, 21, underwent surgery in Melbourne last week after staying off the tennis courts for almost two months.

"The surgery went off exactly as planned, the surgeon was very happy with the result. I have been discharged already and have been walking around quite a bit," Rastogi told the Indian Tennis Blog on Tuesday.

"Planning on returning to the Tour (in) January or February 2009 but all that depends on the physio and surgeon and how fast I recover," he said.

Back problems have been Rastogi's bane in the past year, noticeably at the Mumbai Open in September, and continued to affect his game and confidence as his ATP ranking plummeted nearly 300 places in recent months.

As a junior, Rastogi was hailed as India's best tennis hope since Leander Paes but a successful transition to men's tennis was no easy task.

His career-best ranking of 327, which he achieved as a 19-year-old in June 2006, is a milestone Rastogi looked set to beat when he won the Morocco F5 Futures claycourt tournament in July last year.

But the Mumbai resident has enjoyed only sporadic success since -- semifinal placings at the $15,000 TCL Futures in Taizhou(China) in April and the $15,000 Meshref Futures in Kuwait the following month.

Although he picked up two doubles titles in China and Korea in April, back problems again forced him to miss the two New Delhi Challengers in May.

Rastogi gifted Australia's Miles Armstrong a walkover victory in the Kuwait semifinal and hasn't played professionally since.

Chances of him coming back to the tennis court this year are bleak -- the recovery process will keep him in Melbourne for a couple of months.

"I won't be able to get back to practice for at least another two months or so I think," Rastogi said.

With Somdev Devvarman having usurped Rastogi's place as upcoming tennis great and teenager Yuki Bhambri fast catching up, the world number 718 (as on July 28) has a hard task at hand.

But no one can take Karan Rastogi for granted. After all, he might just spring some surprises next year.

No French luck for Indians, moving on to grass now

No luck at the 2008 French Open for India. Even Mahesh Bhupathi, the only player from the country to survive the first week, was forced to concede his mixed doubles semifinal after injuring his calf muscle.

Will this affect his chances at events in the run-up to Wimbledon?

"Hopefully not" was all that the doubles specialist told The Indian Tennis Blog.

Bhupathi, who turned 34 on Saturday, is partnering Rohan Bopanna at the Artois Championship in London this week.

Arch rival Leander Paes (that's still how the media describes the split halves of the Indian Express) continues his not-so-old partnership with Czech player Lukas Dlouhy at the Gerry Weber Open in Halle.

Playing together for the first time, the duo put up a decent show at Roland Garros, losing to eventual champions Horna and Cuevas in the pre-quarterfinals.

Even tennis prodigy Yuki Bhambri stumbled in his opening encounter of the boys' singles. Was India's next tennis hope, so impressive in his run to the semifinals of the Australian Open in January, a no-show on clay courts?

The 15-year-old didn't think so and that's what he told the Indian Tennis Blog after his early ouster.

"I'm fit and fine. I think it was just lack of match practice cause I don't feel that there is anything wrong with my game right now but unfortunately I also ran into some very good clay court players. I played before in Europe on numerous occasions and I can definitely play on clay."

This week's tennis spotlight will be on Sania Mirza when she makes her long-awaited comeback after wrist surgery at the DFS Classic in Birmingham.

Sunitha Rao made it a double delight with a superb show in the qualifying rounds and a hard-fought main draw victory to join Mirza in the second round. The Indian number one enjoyed a bye in her first match.

Away from the media glare, Prakash Amritraj and Rohan Bopanna clashed in the final qualifier round at Surbiton. Bopanna emerged the winner - a sign that perhaps he is once again ready to don the mantle of being India's best men's player, an honour he lost to Amritraj earlier this year.

Harsh Mankad had another disappointment at the Yuba City Challenger, though his 0-6,1-6 loss in the opening round was at least understandable since he was playing the second seed. Also down on his luck is Stephen Amritraj, the lesser known of the two Amritraj cousins, who has been struggling with his doubles game for some time now.

Back problems are also becoming Karan Rastogi's bane and the 21-year-old might find it a challenge just to keep fit.

"I am scheduled to play in Iran in a couple of weeks. But will go only if I am a 100% fit," Rastogi told the Indian Tennis Blog.

On the domestic front, most of the country's second-rung women players are battling it out at a $10,000 tournament in Gurgaon this week.

ATP RANKINGS (9 June 2008)
(in brackets - positions lost/gained since last week)
SINGLES
282 (-22) Amritraj, Prakash
293 (+17) Bopanna, Rohan
468 (-18) Sipaeya, Sunil Kumar
481 (-22) Rastogi, Karan
540 (-4) Singh, Ashutosh

DOUBLES
13 (-4) Bhupathi, Mahesh
23 (+1) Paes, Leander
52 (-1) Bopanna, Rohan

WTA RANKINGS (9 June 2008)
(in brackets - positions lost/gained since last week)
SINGLES
33 (-1) Mirza, Sania
160 (-5) Rao, Sunitha
310 (-4) Lakhani, Isha
441 (+5) Iyer, Tara
502 (-3) Bhambri, Ankita

DOUBLES
20 (0) Mirza, Sania
120 (-9) Rao, Sunitha
326 (-4) Iyer, Tara

Titles for Karan Rastogi, Rushmi Chakravarthi

April 28 - May 4: Karan Rastogi wins Gimcheon(Korea) doubles title, Rushmi Chakravarthi picks up twin titles in Kochi, Isha Lakhani falters in Balikpapan(Indonesia) final, Mahesh Bhupathi retires hurt in Munich

Karan Rastogi added yet another doubles title to his trophy collection with a win in Gimcheon (Korea) partnering Alexey Kedryuk. The fourth seeds lost just one set on their way to victory in the $15,000 hardcourt event.

For Rastogi, the win came two weeks after he paired with Ashutosh Singh to bag the doubles title at a $15,000 event in Taizhou (China).

Although he lost his second round singles match at Gimcheon, the Mumbai lad reached the semifinals at Taizhou and said he hopes to carry the same form in the coming weeks.

"My confidence level is pretty high right now although I would have preferred the same results in singles. But I am playing well and even the doubles titles are welcome," the 21-year-old told the Indian Tennis Blog.

Rastogi has pulled out of this week's Changwon event in Korea and will reach New Delhi earlier in order to prepare for the twin challengers in the Indian capital starting next week. Prakash Amritraj and Rohan Bopanna, both struggling for consistency in singles, will also be seen in action in Delhi.

RUSHMI CHAKRAVARTHI

At 30, most players are at the fag end of their tennis career but not Rushmi Chakravarthi. The top-seeded Tamilian dropped a set in her opening singles match at the $10,000 event in Kochi but breezed through the rest of the claycourt tournament.

Ranked 518 in the world, Chakravarthi also picked up the doubles title partnering 17-year-old Poojashree Venkatesha.

Chakravarthi, who has won more singles and doubles matches than any other Indian woman, will be hoping to extend her winning streak at the $10,000 event in Thiruvananthapuram this week.

ISHA LAKHANI

Isha Lakhani was one match away from being the third Indian to pick up a title this week but Thai youngster Noppawan Lertcheewakarn was in no mood to humour the second-seeded Indian.

Lakhani, who turned 23 last week, lost 3-6,2-6 in the final of the $25,000 Balikpapan event in Indonesia. But the world number 345 will be the favourite to grab the title as the top seed in Thiruvananthapuram this week.

MAHESH BHUPATHI

For those expecting yet another tournament win for doubles specialist Mahesh Bhupathi, news of his groin strain was disconcerting. Bhupathi picked up the injury during the Monte Carlo Masters final where he and Mark Knowles lost to Rafael Nadal and Tommy Robredo in straight sets.

But Bhupathi, who crossed the 500 milestone in doubles victories at Monte Carlo, didn't use the injury as an excuse for the loss.

"Nadal played great, he was the difference in the match. They were already up a set before I got hurt so it would have been a tough task," Bhupathi told the Indian Tennis Blog.

The injury also forced Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna to retire from their opening round encounter at last week's BMW Open in Munich, despite leading 6-2, 0-1. Bhupathi returns to action at the Italian Open in Rome this week where he and Knowles are the fourth seeds.

MEN'S TENNIS

Leander Paes and Australia's Paul Hanley, who have suffered a string of inexplicable first round losses this season, are seeded eighth at Rome.

The trio of Navdeep Singh, Rohan Gajjar and Purav Raja couldn't work wonders at the Great Britain Futures at Bournemouth and will try their luck at Edinburgh this week.

WOMEN'S TENNIS

With Sania Mirza still out of action thanks to wrist surgery, the spotlight will be on India's number two Sunitha Rao who is playing a $75,000 claycourt event in Zagreb, Croatia this week.

JUNIOR TENNIS

But there's great news on the junior front. Yuki Bhambri and Saurabh Singh led India to an impressive victory in the final of the Asia-Oceania Junior Davis Cup under-16 tennis tournament held in New Delhi. The win helped India qualify for September's Junior Davis Cup finals in San Luis Potosi, Mexico.

ATP RANKINGS (5 May 2008)
(in brackets - positions lost/gained since last week)
SINGLES
246 (+2) Amritraj, Prakash
303 (+3) Bopanna, Rohan
420 (+2) Sipaeya, Sunil Kumar
443 (+13) Rastogi, Karan
602 (+8) Singh, Ashutosh

DOUBLES
11 (0) Bhupathi, Mahesh
24 (-2) Paes, Leander
51 (0) Bopanna, Rohan

WTA RANKINGS (5 May 2008)
(in brackets - positions lost/gained since last week)
SINGLES
33 (-1) Mirza, Sania
157 (-1) Rao, Sunitha
345 (-10) Lakhani, Isha
381 (-5) Iyer, Tara
512 (-5) Bhambri, Ankita

DOUBLES
19 (0) Mirza, Sania
127 (-4) Rao, Sunitha
316 (-2) Iyer, Tara

INTERVIEW - Karan Rastogi

Somdev Dev Varman and Yuki Bhambri may be gathering all the accolades but this week Karan Rastogi showed he's still in the reckoning as far as Indian tennis is concerned.

The Mumbai lad beat three Chinese players in straight sets to reach the semifinals of the $15,000 TCL Futures in Taizhou, China -- his best performance since winning the Morocco F5 Futures claycourt tournament in July last year.

The 480-ranked Rastogi fell to Zhe Li, yet another Chinese player, in the last four of the hardcourt tournament --- but not before showing glimpses of the form that have made him one of India's best prospects in the sport.

The 21-year-old also teamed up with Ashutosh Singh to win the doubles event in Taizhou, his first doubles title since triumphing with the same partner in the 2005 Chandigarh Futures.

Rastogi's semifinal run in China is expected to get him closer to the Top 400 in singles and a few consistent performances may see him cross his career-best ranking of 327, which he achieved as a 19-year-old in June 2006.

In this exclusive interview, Rastogi told The Indian Tennis Blog it's good to finally get some wins under his belt.

This is your first foray in the semis of a tennis tournament since winning in Morocco. Was reaching this far a confidence-booster for you?
It's always nice to win some matches. In the past I have been playing good matches but been a little unlucky not to win some - losing in third set tiebreakers and close matches. So it's good to get some wins under your belt.

China hadn't been too nice to you this year (losing opening round matches at both Futures in January) so did you enter this tournament hoping to live up to your seeding and get this far?
I really didn't think about winning or getting to the semis, finals... when I came here. I had my own goals in mind and I just wanted to enjoy my tennis and be happy at the end of the day with my effort.

You played four Chinese players at Taizhou - did the home crowd support put you under pressure? Was Zhe Li one Chinese player too many?
I've been playing a lot of matches where there has been home support against me so that really didn't have any effect on me. Saying that, Chinese players are tougher to beat in their own backyard.

What is your tennis schedule for April-end and May?
There is another $15,000 event next week in Taizhou, after that I play two more $15,000 events in Korea and then the two challengers in Delhi.

Is Karan Rastogi's tennis career back on track?
	Yes
	No
	Can't say
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Karan Rastogi back in action at Delhi Challenger

Karan Rastogi, India's number three tennis player, is all set to make a comeback at an ATP Challenger tournament in New Delhi next month.

Rastogi, sidelined with a back injury during the ATP Mumbai Open in September, told the Indian Tennis blog that his back was better and he planned to play both the hardcourt challenger events in the Indian capital at the end of 2007.

The 21-year-old Mumbai resident, currently ranked 344 in the world, had won the Morocco F5 claycourt Futures in July this year.

News of Rastogi's comeback should please fans of Indian tennis, which has seen many of its stars fall prey to injury this year.

Sania Mirza finished her season early while Prakash Amritraj, Harsh Mankad and Mahesh Bhupathi are also recovering from injuries. With Sunitha Rao withdrawing from two consecutive Challenger tournaments in the US this month, speculation about another injury scare were rife.

Rohan Bopanna and Leander Paes have also not played since the Stockholm Open and the Madrid Masters earlier this month.

With the country's top players taking a break from tennis courts, the India F10 Futures in Gulbarga got more than its share of attention.

But India's second-string players, with the exception of world number 605 Sunil Kumar Sipaeya, failed to make it beyond the second round in the singles. Eighth seed Sipaeya lost to eventual champion Ivan Cerovic of Croatia in the quarter-finals.

There was better luck for India in the doubles with the second-seeded pair of Vijay Kannan and Kazakhstan's Alexey Kedryuk beating Tushar Liberhan and Rupesh Roy 6-4,3-6,10-3 in the final of the $15,000+ hardcourt tournament.

Across the border, sixth seed Ashwin Vijayragavan justified his seeding by making it to the singles quarterfinals of the Islamabad Futures. Pairing up with Korean Jeong-Han, Vijayragavan lost to home crowd favourites Aqeel Khan and Asim Shafik in a closely fought doubles semifinal 6-2,4-6,9-11.

Other Indians had little success abroad. Mustafa Ghouse lost in the singles qualifiers of the ATP Seoul Challenger before he and Israel's Dudi Sela bowed out in the opening round of the doubles event.

World number 728 Prerana Appineni also lost her opening singles and doubles encounters at the ITF tournament in Valencia, Venezuela. Down under in Traralgon (Australia), world number 359 Tara Iyer lost her singles opener and then forfeited her doubles quarterfinal match.

The action now shifts to the Pakistan F2 Futures grasscourt tournament in Lahore starting on Monday where a host of Indian players, led by Sipaeya, are in the fray.

Mumbai misses Indians at Kingfisher Open

It took four rain-hit days to complete first round matches at the Kingfisher Airlines Tennis Open but when the roll call was taken, no Indians were left in the singles draw.

There's not going to be any consolation from doubles either. Mahesh Bhupathi, who claimed the inaugural title in 2006 with Mario Ancic, pulled out before his opening round doubles match with what appears to be a bad back.

Wildcard Rohan Bopanna, at 244 the highest ranked Indian in singles, was our best hope and he almost made it. But it was Frenchman Nicolas Devilder who prevailed 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (11-9) after saving three matchpoints.

NCAA champion Somdev Dev Varman, the other Indian wildcard in the draw, actually led 5-4 in the second set against Italian Fabio Fognini but had to settle for a 3-6, 6-7(8-10) loss at the $416,000 ATP event.

In a battle of qualifiers, Navdeep Singh couldn't find anything to break Toshihide Matsui's rhythm and lost 4-6, 6-7(6-8) to the Japanese player.

And lucky loser Purav Raja couldn't make much of a second chance, falling 4-6, 1-6 to Spain's Ivan Navarro.

Raja and Vivek Shokeen are playing doubles too, but as last-minute replacements for Bhupathi and France's Fabrice Santoro and no miracles are expected from them.

Last year's surprise finalists Bopanna and Ghouse also survive in the doubles event though with different partners - Bopanna with Pakistan's Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi and Ghouse with Karan Rastogi.

But the question on everybody's minds is the whereabouts of Leander Paes. The doubles specialist skipped the Mumbai event apparently because of his tiff with Bhupathi. But he and Britain's Jamie Murray are also missing in action at the ATP Bangkok event, where they were supposed to be playing this week.

Update: Ghouse and Rastogi lost to the British pair of James Auckland and Ross Hutchins 2-6, 6-3, 3-10 in a first round match on Centre Court that lasted an hour and 14 minutes.

Update 2: Bopanna and Qureshi have advanced to the doubles semifinals thanks to a walkover over Ivan Navarro of Spain and Sergio Roitman of Argentina. Roitman withdrew with an elbow injury in the quarterfinals.

Raja and Shokeen, the only other Indian pair still in the fray, lost their first round match in straight sets 3-6, 2-6 to the Serbian duo of Boris Pashanski and Victor Troicki.

Will Bopanna and Qureshi win the doubles title?
	Yes - Bopanna was a finalist at ATP Mumbai last year
	No - Luck favoured them so far, not any more
	Can't say - all depends on who they play next
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Another blow for Karan Rastogi

Top-seeded Karan Rastogi has crashed out of the Spain F34 Futures 2007 hardcourt tournament with a 6-4, 6-4 loss to an unheralded Spaniard in the second round.

Rastogi, ranked 347 in the world, fell to qualifier Juan Luis Rascon, who at 36, is one of the oldest players still active on the men's tour.

The 986-ranked Rascon had reached his highest ATP singles ranking of 144 in May 1996, when the Indian player was not even 10 years old.

The loss was another blow to the 20-year-old Rastogi, who has failed to make it past the first round of four tournaments since claiming the Morocco F5 Futures claycourt tournament in July.

This week in Mostoles (Spain), Rastogi broke the jinx with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over 611-ranked Frenchman Xavier Audouy in the opening round but couldn't maintain the rhythm against Rascon.

It's raining aces for Indian tennis

It's been a good month for Indian tennis. Sania Mirza finally displayed some of her early promise, rocketing up to number 30 on the WTA rankings following an impressive run in the American edition of the tour. Her scalps at Stanford and San Diego include known names like Dinara Safina, Shahar Peer and Patty Schnyder.

The plucky lass from Hyderabad figured in the WTA Top 10 Power list for the Acura Classic and we can be sure her fearsome forehand may pack some punch yet. Add to this her second career victory over Martina Hingis at the ongoing East West Bank Classic in Los Angeles and Mirza's surely gonna be the first Indian woman to be seeded at a Grand Slam.

The US Open, which starts on August 27, is also the Grand Slam where Mirza achieved her best showing yet - a fourth round loss to Maria Sharapova in 2005. And who knows, if her form continues, a quarter-final berth at Flushing Meadows may just be within her reach.

In the men's singles, Prakash Amritraj is also inching towards his highest ranking yet - he was 220 in 2004 and is now at 268, after impressive runs at the ATP Hall of Fame Championships and the Comerica Challenger. He's vaulted up 200 positions in the rankings in just one month. Though it remains to be seen whether Prakash will ever match the achievements of his father Vijay, being India's numero uno is still very much within his grasp.

That position currently belongs to Rohan Bopanna. The 27-year-old reached his highest ever ranking of 213 this July after winning his maiden Challenger title at Dublin. But Bopanna is more in the limelight for his doubles victories in partnership with Pakistan's Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi. In one month, the duo notched up a hat-trick of doubles titles at Segovia, Manchester and Nottingham - making Bopanna the first Indian after Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi to break into the top 100 in the ATP doubles rankings.

After Bopanna and Amritraj, the next Indian in the ATP singles list is 340th-ranked Karan Rastogi. A victory at the ITF Futures tournament in Morocco is Rastogi's claim to fame. Keep him on your radar as this 20-something resident of Mumbai may have some more wins up his sleeve.

There's more good news in store with 15-year-old Yuki Bhambri. This sibling of the Bhambri sisters won an ITF event in Cairo and is now headed for a stint at the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy. Yuki has a shot at playing the U.S. Open Juniors and I feel we'll be hearing a lot about this talented youngster in the coming years.

In the women's singles, Shikha Uberoi is going through a slump. She's currently at 333 in the rankings, having reached a personal best of 122 two years ago. Apart from Mirza, the US-based Sunitha Rao is the only other Indian woman in the Top 300, coming in at 218.

(Current rankings based on August 6, 2007 ATP and WTA list)