ATP Tournaments in North America, July-August 2018

[PKBasu]

Marvellous victory for Ramkumar over the 8th seeded Denis Kudla (USA, 80). RamK served 14 aces, although his first serve percentage was only 45%. The good thing was that he also won 56% of points on his second serve.

RamK has defended (belatedly) his points from Antalya last year, but is still down at 147 in the live rankings. Winning the QF will take him to 132, and winning the title will catapult him to 97. Go Ramkumar!!

[Sin Hombre]

It is so bizarre that Ram has a 0 point countable tournament despite playing so much.

[Rajiv]

The key point in the match was when he broke Kudla in the opening game of the decider and held it till the very end to finish the match, a trait which we havn't seen in the past as he would quickly give back the advantage after doing  all the hard work.

[kishash]

Great win Ramkumar
On the same day all our Indian men won. Saketh, Arjun, Purav, Leander, Jeevan, Ramkumar all won. Must be a very rare occurence.

[jaydeep]

Great stuff by RamK, so next is a tricky customer in Vasek Pospisil, who defeated Mischa Zverev.

At $623K Hall of Fame Open 2018, Newport, USA

[R2] Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,161) bt (8) Denis Kudla (USA,86) 46 63 64

[QF] Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,161) vs Vasek Pospisil (CAN,98)

[sameerph]

Excellent win by RamK. Good to see him getting back to form after a somewhat lean period in European clay and grass season.

RamK lost in a close match against Posipisil in Australian open qualies. Hope he can reverse that result.

[arjun2761]

Great results by RamK here! Pospisil is as good as it gets (in terms of low ranking and general performance) in an ATP QF level match, so good opportunity for RamK to make his first SF in a venue where Indian genes count for something. (I think LP won his sole title here and Rajeev Ram has won multiple times here as well).

[jaydeep]

Divij and Jackson in the semis with straight sets win over Stakhovsky and Ebden.

[QF] (2) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Jackson Withrow (USA) bt Matthew Ebden (AUS)/ Sergiy Stakhovsky (UKR) 76(4) 63

[jaydeep]

In the semis, Divij-Jackson pair facing Artem and Jonathan Erlich, who defeated Purav and Ken in the match tie-break after losing the first set.

[QF] (3) Purav Raja (IND)/ Ken Skupski (GBR) l Jonathan Erlich (ISR)/ Artem Sitak (NZL) 64 36 8-10

[SF] (2) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Jackson Withrow (USA) vs Jonathan Erlich (ISR)/ Artem Sitak (NZL)

[fabshab]

Ramk takes the first 7-5 !!


This guy really has what is require to be a decent grass courter. A strong serve which we already know but the thing which delights me the most is his world class volleying which really came in to knowing this grass season.

He earlier too forayed to the net a lot but that was jus like more predictable but now the change is he looks for the moment and never hesistates coming forward.

I hope i dont jinx it but he looks to bag this match easily although Vasek is a force to rekon with but he doesnt seems to be the same Vasek which we knew earlier

Update : 2nd set

Races to a 3-0 lead with Vasek serving. In this game Canadian went up 40-0 but Ramk played some brilliant tennis to get to ad with 2 nice lobs and a hammering service return.Vasek holds
3-1.

A strong service game yet again. Ramk holds 4-1*

Both went on to hold their next service games respectively. 5- 2*

Vasek serving to stay in the match. And he takes the first match point


[QF] Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,161) d Vasek Pospisil (CAN,98) 7-5 6-2

[Varma]

I have heard of RamK's volleying prowesses from others in this forum but never watched it myself, so I was hoping to see him play this QF match against old-style serve and volleyer, Mischa Zverev. Apparently Pospisil had other thoughts . Anyway, RamK is cruising along just fine, up a break in the second and receiving serve at 3-0.

- Varma

[Rajiv]

Ram extracts his AO loss with an emphatic straight sets win to reach his maiden ATP Semi Final
The grass courts here are playing true to form unlike the Grass in UK , with the ball keeping low , uneven bounce and Ram employed his serve and volleying, chip and charge to a good advantage. Hardly did we see any of those long boring rallies we saw on European Grass .The points here were mostly over after 3-4 shots.

And writing out of memory , this is only the 5th instance in the last 20 years after LP,Somdev(twice) & PA for an Indian to make a Semis in an ATP

[kujo]

Wow, an ATP semifinal for Ramk!!

Newport has always been favorable to Indian tennis players. Next up Tim Smyczek

World number 123 Smyczek, 30, has never played 161st-ranked Ramanathan, but their triumphs ensure one of them will reach his first ATP singles championship match on Sunday.

[sportsfan]

Wow, an ATP semifinal for Ramk!!

Newport has always been favorable to Indian tennis players. Next up Tim Smyczek

World number 123 Smyczek, 30, has never played 161st-ranked Ramanathan, but their triumphs ensure one of them will reach his first ATP singles championship match on Sunday.

A dominating win for RamK. I like his chances in the semi-final against Smyczek whose game is suited for anything but grass-courts.

[jayakris]

There is something about those courts in Newport, Rhode Island... I don't know what it is, but Indians just get inspired there. Go RamK, go!! Take the title.