This is a forum where users can follow various tournaments that have Indian participation or are held in India. GrandSlams and Davis Cup should also be discussed here.
PKBasu wrote: ↑Tue Aug 15, 2017 3:45 am
Although this is RamRam's second victory over Eubanks (after a 3-set win in Newport), the kid from Georgia Tech has a number of big wins on tour this year: he beat both #125 Taylor Fritz and #59 Jared Donaldson in Atlanta -- and here in Cincinnati, he qualified in by beating both #130 Fratangelo and #69 Tipsarevic. So he has had two victories over top-70 players and two over top-130 players in the last couple of months. This is a really good, meaningful win for Ramkumar Ramanathan. A well-deserved path into R2 of a Masters tournament.
Wow thanks pkb for this info. This definitely is a good win - he took a tough serve/volley path ( admirable from this serve/volleyer point of view) and he did really well with it. Plus the fact that he had played Eubanks before would have given him some additional gyan on what he had to do. He stuck with his game plan and pulled it off. I am so thrilled that we india tennis fans have much to look forward to now with both Yuki and RamK showing some progress.
What terrific news to walk into! It has been a long (very very long) time, since two Indians have played top-150 if not top-100 quality tennis over a two week period. It's all like a dream for me... and for many of you too, I am sure. I had to be away for a couple of days, and heaven breaks loose! Jay
Truly deserved to be in MD and as fate would have it,with a confident display through to R2 and earning the biggest paycheck of his career.
Batista Agut it is once again Verdasco inputs will be useful and vital.
He (Verdasco ) is his regular hitting partner in Spain and when on tour, , and later tommorow it will be back on the courts for hours of practice before their respective matches, Intact in Antalya also there were very crucial inputs before Theim match, So Verdasco , Emilio have a big hand in Ram' s achievements.
Quite an exciting match against Batista Agut coming up
Last edited by Rajiv on Tue Aug 15, 2017 4:10 am, edited 1 time in total.
Surprised the commentators didn't mention RamK played Eubanks last month or that he defeated Theim. However, they correctly mentioned that by winning today he accumulated nearly as many points as the 10 matches he won in 2 futures events in Singapore along with winning $33k verusus $4k for 2 futures titles!
Great to see RamK making full use of his luck and getting his first ATP 1000 win. Watched most of the match on Sony ESPN and sometimes it felt strange to see the tactics used by RamK- serve and volley on almost on every point and slicing his backhand all the time. These are not quite the usual patterns which you see on the ATP tour today and perhaps that put off Eubanks out of his rhythem.
PKBasu wrote: ↑Tue Aug 15, 2017 3:50 am
Verdasco (who lost in R1 of singles) was definitely sitting in RamK's corner and backing him. At least once, I saw him make some sort of hand gesture that seemed like coaching Must be some sort of Spanish connection from the time that RamK spent time training in Spain.
Yes and I think the one sitting next to him was Emillio Sanchez who has been coaching RamK in Spain earlier and now is based in US, it seems. RamK thanked him on twitter after his last match for coming for his match.
Wow so different to read so many positive comments , This space doesn't look like a RamKumar Ramnathan Thread .
What is remarkable about this win , is that Eubanks was riding on great form in the qualies having scored wins over the 120 ranked Bjorn Fartangleo and the ever dangerous 58 ranked Janko Tipsarevic, and to take out their conquerer speaks volumes of the level of play Ram has reached and what he is capable off.
A realistic target of 125-130 by the year end plus 1 Challenger Title should set him well to mount a challenge for Top 100 in 2018.
Rajiv wrote: ↑Tue Aug 15, 2017 6:19 am
A realistic target of 125-130 by the year end plus 1 Challenger Title should set him well to mount a challenge for Top 100 in 2018.
He has only 61 points to defend for the rest of the year. So, a good run to the US open main draw and winning a round or two there and winning at least 1 challenger title can take him inside or at least close to top 100. But, you are right. 125-130 is more realistic target.
Given that there are two Challengers in India (including a $100K+H one in Bangalore) in November this year, I think the chances are very good that both RamRam and Yuki will be in the top-100 at the end of this year. Once that happens, they will be better-positioned to go much further in 2018 -- starting with several rounds in the main draw of the Maharashtra Open ATP tournament, then a round or two in the AO main draw, etc. Once you are in the top-100, staying injury free is the key to living a good tennis life. The trouble with Yuki was that he made it to 88 and then immediately got injured, and similarly Saketh made it to the USO main draw (almost pulled a win -- in fact was only denied by a bad line call on match point) but has hardly played since. That is the tragedy to avoid. RamK is physically (and age-wise) in the best position to avoid that fate.
All 3 of them - Yuki, RamK and Saketh have shown at different times in last year or so ( counting Saki's US open performance) that they are very much capable of playing top 100 level of tennis. Now, doing it consistently will get them there. Among the three, Yuki seems to have the smoothest game with no major weaknesses which can take him to top 50 but has suspect fitness. RamK has the best fitness levels and a weapon in his serve but has one major weakness- backhand which he will need to sort out as it will get exposed as he plays more and more at higher level. Saki will have to first get back his fitness before we start talking about him in the same way as other two but he has the talent to get there for sure.
The key here for Ram is choice of tournaments and sheer handwork playing regularly, crisscrossing the continents and showing complete devotion for tournament play week after week , and once you have these strong work ethics in place combined with your ability the results will automatically follow .
This is one area which Yuki should learn from Ram is to have a seamless period of tournament play , which he should have done in these 2 weeks and this break was totally uncalled for.
Rajiv wrote: ↑Tue Aug 15, 2017 6:19 am
A realistic target of 125-130 by the year end plus 1 Challenger Title should set him well to mount a challenge for Top 100 in 2018.
He has only 61 points to defend for the rest of the year. So, a good run to the US open main draw and winning a round or two there and winning at least 1 challenger title can take him inside or at least close to top 100. But, you are right. 125-130 is more realistic target.
Out of those 61 he has already defended minimum of 45 points this week.
Great win for Ram! I just saw the first set. Movement, forehand and his net game are definitely his weapons. And he looks (body language) very determined as well.
Serve placement is great although I expected the overall first serve to be better. It was my first time watching him. Definitely better than Yuki's serve but the motion is a bit awkward. Also, he didn't hit (through) much on his backhand. I only saw him slice from that backhand side. Maybe it was tactical...
Great win. Good to see some big wigs in the crowd (Jose Higreus, Martin Blackman, Stephen Amritraj (who works with American college players) from USTA in Eubank's corner and Emilio, Verdasco, Bops in Ram's corner)!! Good luck in the next round!!
Wow! - that was fun! I was surprised to see a familiar face on TV last night and it was none other than Ramkumar masquerading as David( 6' 2") taking on Goliath (6' 8") who has strokes with hurricane force. But, Ram showed his experience and adaptablilty by storming the net and leaving the college senior looking like a freshman on tour. Ram started retuning that serve mid-way through the first set and kept up the relentless pressure. I'm not sure he would have survived a baseline argument. Just love it!
Must be some sort of Spanish connection from the time that RamK spent time training in Spain.
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