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

[PKBasu]

Ramkumar won 64 36 61.
Matthew Ebden up next.

[jaydeep]

Next, he is facing experienced Aussie Matthew Ebden.

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

[Q1] (1) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,168) bt Christopher Eubanks (USA,455) 64 36 61

[Q2] (1) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,168) vs Matthew Ebden (AUS,249)

[Sin Hombre]

Ram wins the first set 6-4 against Ebden.

[jaydeep]

but down 0-4 in the second.

[Q2] (1) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,168) vs Matthew Ebden (AUS,249) 64 0-4

[sameerph]

RamK lost the second set 1-6. On to the decider.

[PKBasu]

[Q2] (1) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,168) lost to Matthew Ebden (AUS,249) 64 16 57

Still a very impressive performance after all the travel and consecutive weeks of play. He gets an enforced rest now (unless he receives a Lucky Loser slot!).

[S_K_S]

Ran out of steam in 3rd set? 3 breaks to 2 in the final set. Seems to be a trend that the serve drops off towards the latter stage of 3 setters.

Disappointing to lose as the top seed. Shouldn't be losing to Ebden even though Aussies get a good grounding on grass.

I see Ebden has to play Rajeev Ram. Let's hope Rajeev stuffs him.

[Omkara]

Nature found out a way to give RamK some rest.

[PKBasu]

Paes/Groth beat Mannarino/Chiudinelli 63 76(2).

Next up in the QF is Sitak/Koolhof who beat Jeevan and partner in R1 via the STB.

DiPu beat Kravchuk/Marchenko 75 63

[PKBasu]

Ebden thrashed Rajeev Ram 61 64 in R1 of the singles draw, so RamK lost narrowly to an in-form grass-courter. At 33, Rajeev's singles career appears to be ending.

[Varma]

Rajeev Ram may have played his last singles match

After the match, the 33-year-old Ram said the contest was likely his final singles match. Ram's two ATP World Tour singles titles came at Newport (2009, 2015).
“I've played this tournament every year of my career since 2004. There's no better way to cap it off, if it is my last singles match, to play here. Unfortunately it didn't go my way but that's besides the point. I've had so many great memories here over the years,” Ram said.

- Varma

[knarayen]

Rajeev Ram may have played his last singles match

After the match, the 33-year-old Ram said the contest was likely his final singles match. Ram's two ATP World Tour singles titles came at Newport (2009, 2015).
“I've played this tournament every year of my career since 2004. There's no better way to cap it off, if it is my last singles match, to play here. Unfortunately it didn't go my way but that's besides the point. I've had so many great memories here over the years,” Ram said.

- Varma

I guess this had to happen sometime...I had noticed that he was playing a lot more doubles over the past year or two. He's played some great matches over the years.

Prof

[Varma]

I vividly remember the first time I saw him at 2001 LA ATP qualies at UCLA. He was probably 17 or so at that time. Having never heard of his name before, I was surprised to see an Indian name in the draw (I think he got a wild card into the qualies that year), and I was curious to see who it was. Laer that day I got to meet this bubbly, lanky, ever smiling teenager. Needless to mention that I was super excited, but a glance at his legs scared the day lights out of me. They were just about the size of a 2 inch metal pipe. I was really tempted to flick at them to see if they crumble. Since then, that young man of Indian heritage gave us several joyous as well as heart-breaking moments. I see him almost every year at Indian Wells (too bad, I could never talk to him later on), The very moment I spot him, my eyes involuntarily gaze down to look at those sticks. To my amusement, they didn't grow even a millimeter in these 16 years. My temptation to flick them to test didn't go down either. I wonder how they carried him to all those crazy miles he put on court! I wonder how they generate all that power to let him give the ball that big a whip!

Thanks for all the singles fun, Ram! Good luck to your doubles career! Wish to see those legs bear the weight of you lifting a few grand slams!

- Varma

[PKBasu]

Rajeev could've done more on grass in singles than he achieved, but has had a satisfactory career. Rajeev reached his career high singles rank of 56 in April 2016 after making R2 at the Aus Open. But last year's grass season was frustrated by repeated early losses to Dustin Brown and it has been rapidly downhill for him since in singles.
But he picked up an Olympic silver with Venus in MxD and a runner-up with Vandeweghe in Slam MxD too. A Slam title is not yet in the bag, but will surely come with the full focus on doubles now. Thanks for the memories, Rajeev!

[PKBasu]

Meanwhile top seeded Ram/Qureshi are scything through the doubles draw. They double bagelled EstrellaBurgos-Maytin in R1 and beat Menendez-Macieras and partner 61 62 in the QF.