Grass court tournaments 2022 (Challengers & ATP)

[PKBasu]

The grass season has finally begun, and Ramkumar Ramanathan is seeded 3rd in the Surbiton Challengers qualifying. He beat WC-Joshua Paris (GBR, 1102, CH769) and will play another Brit -- either 11th seed Billy Harris (GBR, 335) or another WC -- in the final round of qualifying. The top seed in the qualifiers is Max Purcell (AUS) and the second seed is Pierre-Hugues Herbert (FRA).

The top seed in the main draw is the former Wimbledon champion and Olympic gold medalist, Andy Murray!

Ramkumar is partnering JP Smith in doubles, and they are seeded 4th. Divij Sharan is partnering Artem Sitak (with whom he made the Wimbledon QF in 2018), but they run into top-seeded Jamie Murray and Filip Polasek in R1.

[sameerph]

Ramkumar plays 335th ranked Billy Harris in final qualifying round at Surbitron Challenger. Harris seems to be in best form of his career this year reaching couple of M25 finals and couple of semi finals. So, good contest for RamK.

[PKBasu]

It seems ATP points are being awarded as normal (at least that's what the tournament draws suggest for the Surbiton Challenger). So is Wimbledon alone being punished for excluding the Russians?

[PKBasu]

Ramkumar was up 3-2 against Billy Harris in Q2, but then went down 3-4 (implying he was broken). Not clear if that meant they were back on serve, or he was a break down. But it is 4-5 now.

[PKBasu]

Ramkumar down a set (4-6) against a 27 year old Brit who has been a Futures journeyman, but did win his last tournament (an M25 on hardcourts in the UK) and hence is now at a career-high ranking of 335. Ramkumar still has no business losing to a guy ranked as low as this. So, come on RamK, let's get it together now!

[PKBasu]

Ramkumar takes the second set comfortably (6-4) and it's suspended at one set all.

[Rajiv]

Ram bow's out of Surbiton qualifiers.
Actually not quite a surprise, if one saw his match yesterday, where a novice unknown player had triple break points in S1, and opportunities to get the break back in S2, and the worst fears came true what if a slightly better opponent than yesterday ,and all it took a  futures journey man to complete the job

Initialy thought it was good that he didn't make the MD, as qualies would give him extra grass court practice,but his singles play has gone down considerably since last year, that now winning matches against even easy opponents have also become a struggle, in fact last year he had arrived in Nottingham just few hours before from France and didn't even have proper grass court shoes , and a NIKE pair had to buy from the club pro shop but still went on to win the match ,so confident and assured his singles play was then that within few hours arriving from different country/surface without proper gear could win matches.

[PKBasu]

Ramkumar could still get into the main draw as a Lucky Loser. The top two seeds, Purcell and Herbert, have qualified in, so Ram should be the first in line for an LL spot. One LL spot has opened up, but I'm not sure if the procedure here is to take the highest-ranked player or draw a lot. If the former, RamK should get the first LL spot.

Murray won 62 61 today in R1!

[prasen9]

It is usually to draw lots.

[vparam]

At some point, hopefully soon, RamK decides to focus his attention in getting into ATP doubles draw. He has done absolutely nothing in singles in 2022 and still has to defend his challenger title at the end of the year.

[PKBasu]

He will surely start entering ATP doubles draws soon enough. But why should we ask India's #1 singles player (now ranked 175, a level rarely reached by Indian players over the past 20 years) to downplay singles at the first hint of trouble? Ramkumar has just made the QF of a Challenger on clay (beating ex-#10 Verdasco, and #190, before losing to #70 Bonzi), and qualified into a bigger clay Challenger. Then he won a round in the FO qualifying. So, we don't need to panic just yet

[sameerph]

Ramkumar could still get into the main draw as a Lucky Loser. The top two seeds, Purcell and Herbert, have qualified in, so Ram should be the first in line for an LL spot. One LL spot has opened up, but I'm not sure if the procedure here is to take the highest-ranked player or draw a lot. If the former, RamK should get the first LL spot.

One more LL spot opened up in Surbitron making 2 LL spots. From what I read from ATP rulebook, a draw will be made between 3 highest ranked players ( 2+1) will be made to draw 2 lucky losers. So, RamK will have 66% chance of making it in as LL.

One of the final qualifying match is still being played though interrupted time and again by rain since yesterday. So, we will know if RamK gets in as lucky loser only after that match gets finished.

[sameerph]

And RamK does get in as a lucky loser in Surbitron.

At Surbitron Challenger 125

[R1] (LL) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,175) vs. (PR) Yuichi Sugita (JPN,270)

[PKBasu]

Sugita has yet to win a match this year, and has suffered a bagel set several times in 2022. So this looks like a great opportunity for RamK to pull off a win, although Sugita had a terrific season on grass 3-4 years ago.

[arjun2761]

I suspect Sugita is also looking at this as his chance to get his first win of the year.

Go Ramk!