Pre-US Open Challengers, July-August 2019

[PKBasu]

Ramkumar lost 57 26 to Istomin.

That lets him reach Newport well in time for the qualifiers. But hopefully he’ll receive a wild card!

[PKBasu]

2 consecutive Challenger singles QFs have taken Ramkumar to 133 in the live rankings. He must play at Newport without thinking too much about the points pressure. Easier said than done, but his recent Challenger form should give him confidence.

[jayakris]

...but his recent Challenger form should give him confidence.

...or make him feel not so confident. I hope he is PKBesq in optimism.

[PKBasu]

Ramkumar is the second seed at the Binghamton Challenger. He plays either a wildcard or ITF player in R2, and is slated to play #270 in the last-16.

[jaydeep]

A bad loss for Ram against a lower-ranked Ritschard after winning the first set.

At $54K+H Binghamton Challenger 2019, New York, USA

[R2] (2) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,185) l (WC) Alexander Ritschard (USA,443) 62 67(3) 26

[PKBasu]

Really painful loss. He will not be seeded this high for much longer, so it is a shame when he loses to such low-ranked players early in a good draw.

[Rajiv]

He had so many break points in the second set to finish the match in straight sets and than to go on to lose to a ITF player suggest's things are not in place, , And now in a rush to recover the backlog of points he has been playing non stop for over past 2 months , as in couple of days he will be back in Washington qualies , and then after Washington he immediately goes to Aptos which make it almost 9th tournaments in row and in between crisscrossing continents . Just like he rightly took a break from doubles after winning the Challenger, he should take a mini break from tournament play to recoup and head to Emilio to set things right.

[jaydeep]

Just like he rightly took a break from doubles after winning the Challenger, he should take a mini break from tournament play to recoup and head to Emilio to set things right.

Agree with you, Rajiv ... If possible try to convey this message to him.

[knarayen]

this is really not good. i think he needs to take a break, Work on fundamentals, visit family and Friends, have some fun, chill a bit and go back to playing when he feels The fire to win again

[arjun2761]

Interesting that we seem to have 2 category of players on the ATP tour in last 25 years.

Category 1: Good all round game and can compete at the top 100 level but lacked the physicality to sustain success. Somdev, (43-57), Yuki(13-17), and Prajnesh (3-10) appear to be in this category. Of course, Somdev stayed in the top 100 for quite a while (and was physically the most robust of these 3) and Yuki and Prajnesh still have time to do so but injuries have hampered their ability to stay there for sustained periods. All three had some of their best main tour performances at IW/Miami and got injured soon after. The figures in parenthesis is their ATP main draw record.

Category 2: Good grass court players with their best results in Newport but relatively limited success on other surfaces. LP (46-62) was the best in this group (with Newport title and several months in top 100) with Ramk (14-18 with Newport Final) and Prakash (13-21 with Newport SF) being in this group. All three of these players are pretty fit (touch wood) but didn't have the all round game to do well consistently on the tour. The hope here is RamK can develop more of all round game to move into category 1 but stay injury free but that may require a rethinking on his part on the kind of player he wants to be.

Sumit (0-1) appears to be the next candidate and he appears to on his way to joining those in category 1. Saketh (0-1) perhaps does not have time in his favor but likely would also fall into category 1.

[Sin Hombre]

Sumit has the potential to do a Som and be a solid top 80 player for a few years, assuming no more personal issues.

I am more worried about the lack of progress from the likes of Manish Sureshkumar. We have atleast had a constant supply of players in the last decade, but the taps are starting to run dry. While the Japanese and Koreans are producing players aplenty.

[PKBasu]

Digvijay Pratap Singh has a wildcard into the singles main draw of the Segovia Challenger in Spain (on hard courts). He plays a Turkish player in R1.

[PKBasu]

Mukund’s dismal results continue in the Liberec Challenger (Czech Republic) on clay! God only knows why he’s still playing on clay:

[R1] Sasikumar Mukund (IND, 275) l. Dragos Dima (ROU, 322) 46 63 06

[jaydeep]

Ram is playing in the Aptos Challenger, the doubles draw is still to announce.

At $81K+H Aptos Challenger 2019, California, USA

[R1] (14) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,182) bye

[Rajiv]

No Jaydeep , Ram doesn't figure in the doubles and rightly seems to have taken a break after the Doubles title 4 weeks ago.
In the singles ,after the bye has to overcome the dangerous Broady or Novikov , and should he win , the 2nd seed Steve Johnson awaits him.

So a tough draw for Ram, but it is bound to happen when the ranking falls  , you start running in to top players early unlike earlier months of the year , when being higher seed , one had weaker players and good run upto qtrs.