ATP Grass season 2017-w/c 15/7 Newport HOF

[PKBasu]

Not entirely surprised by Sugita winning the title. After Surbiton, he played an impressive match against Federer (although the scoreline didn't show it), and goes into Wimbledon as one of the hottest grasscourters after the big guns -- despite lacking the conventional big serve. Yuki in particular should take inspiration from him.

[PKBasu]

Having watched Thiem fight back from a set down to beat Gilles Muller (who is a good grasscourter), I'm even more impressed by the shellacking Ramkumar administered to Thiem in Antalya! (And Thiem easily beat Pospisil in R1, another good graascourter).

[Prashant]

Having watched Thiem fight back from a set down to beat Gilles Muller (who is a good grasscourter), I'm even more impressed by the shellacking Ramkumar administered to Thiem in Antalya! (And Thiem easily beat Pospisil in R1, another good graascourter).

Thiem is a top talent, and I think he will get better with each match he plays on a surface...

[Varma]

I give total credit to RamK for his win against Thiem last week. However, I don't want to get too carried away with just that one top-10 win. Maybe Thiem underestimated RamK. Maybe he had an off-day at work. Maybe he was too cocky. Whatever the reason might be, RamK took full advantage of it and grabbed the opportunity with both his hands. Full credit to him for that. With that one match as the base, I don't want to think he got Thiem's number, or that of any tour regulars. The Austrian is a top notch talent. He took time to do justice to his potential and the expectations the world had on him. If they play 10 times in the next few weeks, RamK will most likely lose all 10. I am not trying to offend him, nor am I trying to discredit him for his win. It's just the reality, and today's match was a perfect reflection of it. He is still work in progress. Last few weeks have been a revelation of sorts for us fans. Let's hope he keeps progressing at the same pace and takes enough time off in between to iron out any kinks. For the first time ever, I am inclined to believe that RamK might end up having a better career than Yuki.

- Varma

[PKBasu]

I agree with most of what you said, although I won't write off Yuki either. Big sister Ankita is now travelling with him: not a bad interim step. In these two players, we have a lot to look forward to in the next couple of months. If Saket gets healthy, all the better! Plus Prajnesh is also in the mix.

[Sin Hombre]

I agree with most of what you said, although I won't write off Yuki either. Big sister Ankita is now travelling with him: not a bad interim step. In these two players, we have a lot to look forward to in the next couple of months. If Saket gets healthy, all the better! Plus Prajnesh is also in the mix.

It is definitely a positive for Indian tennis where 4 our current top 5 are at their career highs, and one can safely expect Yuki and Saketh to be top 150/200 players if they can stay fit.


That said, you are reading way too much in the Thiem win. He is one of those who plays a lot of 250s and sometimes just for the appearance fee. In a way, it is similar to Leander's win over Sampras all those years.

Ram's baseline form on faster surfaces clearly has upticked as we saw in results in Dallas and Tallahassee in Mar/April this year and he now appears to be a comfortable mid-level CH player. (I consider Yuki as a high-level CH player and Saketh as a mid-level CH player).

[jaydeep]

Thiem is undoubtfully top talent and from his one loss against RamK doesn't prove much. Here is Harsh's comment after his win over Pospisil from Facebook to summarize the same.

The star of Thiem keeps shining brighter! He struggled in the grass court warm up events but has come to Wimbledon and made some important adjustments to his game and beaten a tough and solid grass court player in Pospisil. Particularly impressed to see him stepping in and playing the 2nd serve return early (backhand return has glimpses of the Becker backhand), not over-hitting the groundstrokes and allowing the surface to help him, and moving extremely well. Lots of positives for Thiem from this match and sets him up nicely for a strong run in the tournament! #learnandimprove

[Atithee]

For the first time ever, I am inclined to believe that RamK might end up having a better career than Yuki.

- Varma

I never doubted that this is the case. I wrote this several years ago in this forum.

[sameerph]

What is the basis for this ? If one takes win/loss record at challenger level (which is fair indication considering that both are not playing regularly at ATP level), Yuki is 61% while RamK at 42%. Even if we take this year where RamK has improved his level, Yuki is 65% and RamK 47%. On a consistent level, Yuki is still a much better player.

[prasen9]

I am not so sure. I think it will be extremely hard for RamKu to reach top-100.

[PKBasu]

RamK plays Christopher Eubanks, a US wildcard, in Q1 and the winner of Brydan Klein vs Matt Ebden in the final qualifying round at Newport.

[jaydeep]

In the doubles, Lee is partnering Sam Groth and they r 3rd seed ... Purav and Divij r 4th seed, Jeevan is partnering Frenchman Hugo Nys.

At $600K Hall of Fame Open 2017, Newport, USA

[Q1] (1) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,184) vs Christopher Eubanks (USA,455)

Doubles
[R1] (3) Sam Groth (AUS)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs Marco Chiudinelli (SUI)/ Adrian Mannarino (FRA)
[R1] Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/ Hugo Nys (FRA) vs Wesley Koolhof (NED)/ Artem Sitak (NZL)
[R1] (4) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) vs Konstantin Kravchuk (RUS)/ Illya Marchenko (UKR)

[Sin Hombre]

Ram has managed to get to Newport for the qualies; early break up against the local WC.

[Sin Hombre]

Wins it in 3, up against Matthew Ebden next tomorrow morning.

[sportsfan]

the energizer bunny keeps running. super efforts to get over travel fatigue and adjust to new surface. He finished his match last night around 10 pm then a good sleep, travel plus a decent warm up to get acquainted to a new surface and a match, all within 17 hours. for the next one.