ATP tournaments in Australia (pre-AO), January 2022

[prasen9]

Ah, but it said highest Indian

[PKBasu]

[R2] Ramkumar Ramanathan/Rohan Bopanna (IND/IND) d. 8-Nathaniel Lammons/Jackson Withrow (USA/USA) 67(4) 76(3) 10-4

[PKBasu]

Divij Sharan/Christopher Rungkat were supposed to play an ALT pair in the first round of the Traralgon Challenger. But they seem to have gotten an implicit bye, as no opponent was found -- so they have gone through to the next round (QF) without playing a match (as have the third seeded pair; the top seeds were not so lucky!).

[PKBasu]

Sania/Nadiia win another match after a bad set, and are through to the SF:

[QF] Sania Mirza/Nadiia Kichenok (IND/UKR) d. Heather Watson/Shelby Rogers (GBR/USA) 60 16 10-5

Semifinal against Ash Barty and Storm Sanders. Should be a great match!

[Rajiv]

Rohan and Ram through to the semis with a facile straight sets win 61 63.
These guys are playing as if they have been playing together since 5 years

[PKBasu]

Yes, that is another superb win, this time over an all-French pair that beat the second seeds in the previous round:

[QF] Ramkumar Ramanathan/Rohan Bopanna (IND, 144/IND, 43) d. Hugo Nys (MON, 44)/Benjamin Bonzi (FRA, 132; s64) 61 63

(Nys is a Frenchman who recently changed his affiliation to Monaco).

Rohan seems to be defending points this week, as his live ranking is 52 now, while Ramkumar's live doubles ranking is 133.

[PKBasu]

Sania/Nadiia have again lost a set 1-6 (as they have in each of their previous matches), but are fighting back -- up 4-2 in the second set against Barty/Sanders.

[PKBasu]

Traralgon Challenger

[QF] 2-Divij Sharan/Christopher Rungkat (IND/INA) d. Lukas Rosol/Vitaliy Sachko (CZE/UKR) 64 36 10-8

[suresh]

Sania/Nadiia have again lost a set 1-6 (as they have in each of their previous matches), but are fighting back -- up 4-2 in the second set against Barty/Sanders.

Sania/Nadia won the second set 6-2 but lost the super-tiebreak 8-10. Well done!

[PKBasu]

Sania/Nadiia lost narrowly in the Adelaide SF, 16 62 8-10

[PKBasu]

Despite her light schedule over the past year, Sania is already back at 54 in the live doubles ranking. Nadiia Kichenok is at her career-high ranking of 31. They won't be seeded at the AO, but will be a dangerous floater pair in the draw.

[PKBasu]

Ramkumar/Rohan are through to the final at ATP Adelaide 1, with a clinical SF win:

[SF] Ramkumar Ramanathan/Rohan Bopanna (IND, 144/IND, 43) d. 4-Santiago Gonzalez/Tomislav Brkic (MEX, 35/BIH, 47) 62 64

This is clearly our ideal Davis Cup pairing. In fact, they should consider abandoning other partners and playing together at the Australian Open too!!

[Rajiv]

Wow an ATP Final for Rohan & Ram thumping their opponents in straight sets.
This surely has to rank as the one of the best Indian Dbls Tennis news since the heydadays of LP/MP.
And those serial critics of Ram who villified Ram on his BH with long Katha's must be rubbing their eyes to see Ram taking the crucial Ad court BH position over Rohan who is an ad court specialist.

[sameerph]

Another excellent win.

This is clearly our ideal Davis Cup pairing. In fact, they should consider abandoning other partners and playing together at the Australian Open too!!

Agree, RamK is just few spots away from Divij now in live rankings, a title here will take him to India # 2 in doubles. But, in any case I think currently RamK is way ahead of Divij as of now.

They will not get into Australian open main draw based on their combined ranking. But, they should find a way to play together at ATP level. RamK will have to raise his ranking at least inside top 100 I guess for them to be able to make it to ATP main draws I think.

[Rajiv]

For Ram this spurt in dbls ranking may be short lived, as next month has to protect 228 points, so unless a title in Pune with 250 points (if Pune takes place) his ranking will drop considerably, and don't want him to get embroiled in chasing dbls points at the cost of singles, cause as of now Ram is still a singles player first and than a dbls player, and today in modern Tennis a player cannot do both.