Highest rankings of all the former Indian players please????

[gbelday]

Isn't Zeeshan Akthar Ali's son?

[Varma]

That's right, Gautam. He is Akhtar Ali's son.

- Varma

[gbelday]

Thanks Varma.  Well then, he had enough help! 

[PKBasu]

He did have lots of help while growing up, and even perhaps as a junior internationally (as you don't need so much money to play juniors globally, and there is more support from AITA, etc.). But he could NEVER afford (from a financial standpoint) to have his dad along as a travelling coach, which is what made all the difference to whether or not he could've succeeded as a tennis pro.

We should remember that Zeeshan was trying to make it at a particularly difficult time for the Indian economy (1989-91), when the crisis of 1991 was brewing: in 1989, we had the erratic VP Singh government (with Devi Lal as DPM), then the 1990 first Iraq war followed by the balance of payments crisis that began in December 1990 and "concluded" with us turning to the IMF in June 1991. The economy (and especially our balance of payments situation, and availability of foreign exchange) did not stabilize until late-1992, by which point Zeeshan's pro career was winding down in frustration.

[jayakris]

But things like home challengers etc were not just for LP.  Zeeshan was pretty young in early to mid 90s to play those too.  He could have easily got wildcards just like LP (he actually had more people who could have helped, like his own dad, who was more connected than LP's dad).

By lack of help, what I meant were other things like real advice on world tennis which had "turned modern" in the past decade since Lendl (just an overly simplistic characterization, I know, but things did change quite a bit from 85 through 95 when Indians fell a lot behind).   Even if Ramesh gave a bit of advice to LP (probably very little, knowing how little he even talks!) and was friendly with him, even RK was an anachronism who was still somehow surviving in modern tennis in early 90s.   I am unsure if even RK knew what had to be done to come up the ladder from 1000 to 300, or from 300 to 150 (which applied to Zeeshan) in the modern tour which had become truly global with east European countries and a lot of new places starting ITF events with ATP points and all that.   

We had nobody who really understood the modern tour and its rigours fully, and LP had to do it on his own with his dad's help.   A big reason why he got stuck inside top-150 to 250 for some three years and almost gave up on tennis (he has personally talked at length about this once to me) was that he was a lone man out there charting his own course, without too many people's leads to follow.  He somehow managed to still go to some top coaches for short coaching stints and all that, to improve his game and modernize it a bit.  It was tough, as he couldn't afford it, but there are people who do help if you show you really want their help.  THIS part of the equation is probably what Zeeshan failed in, but admittedly, he did not have that "would junior #1 and multiple junior grand slam titles" to talk about like LP.   

Zeeshan could have tried to do what LP did, with the only question mark being whether he was THAT talented to attempt it.  He was talented enough to be a top-200 player for a few years, for sure, but at that time with the exchange rate and the situation in India as PKB said, one needed to be at least top-175 to just about squeeze out enough money to continue on.  Perhaps he realized that it was touch and go, and too risky.

Jay

[arjun2761]

Thought I would update some of the recent updates in bold. Somdev in top-10 all time and Yuki in top-25. Hopefully, these 2 in particular can go a lot higher from these highs.

Updated list of highest singles rankings attained by Indian male professionals since the ATP computer rankings began in 1973:

Vijay Amritraj - 16
Ramesh Krishnan - 23
Leander Paes- 73
Anand Amritraj - 74
Sashi Menon - 87
Jasjit Singh - 89
Somdev Devvarman - 103
Premjit Lall - 105
Jaidip Mukherjea - 120
Zeeshan Ali - 126
Ramanathan Krishnan -136
Prakash Amritraj - 154
Akshai Misra - 158
Srinivas Vasudevan - 166
Bhanu Nunna - 199 (before turning pro, he was called Nunna Bhanumurthy)
Ashok Amritraj - 201
Joykumar Royappa - 207
Rohan Bopanna - 213
Mahesh Bhupathi - 217
Chiradeep Mukherjea - 221 (amateur; never turned pro, but made R2 at Wimbledon)
Harsh Mankad - 222
Nandan Bal - 309
Srinath Prahlad - 310
Bidyut Goswami - 315
Yuki Bhambri - 321
Karan Rastogi - 327
Sunil Kumar Sipaeya - 340
Vishnu Vardhan - 355
Enrico Piperno -373
Shankar Krishnan -373
Syed Fazaluddin - 396

The usual caveats continue to apply about Ramanathan Krishnan, Premjit Lall and Jaideep Mukherjea. Krish was ranked #3 in 1961, before the professional era and Jaideep and Premjit would have been in the top-20 and top-30 at their peak in the pre-Open era -- and Jaideep probably around 30-35 in 1968-69, the first couple of years of the Open era. But Prakash Amritraj is now close to surpassing his uncle Ashok's career-high ranking.

[Prashant]

From the folks at the top of the list, the only one I know nothing about is Jasjit Singh. When was he active?

[PKBasu]

1973-76. He was a member of the 1974 Davis Cup side that made the final that year, but chose not to play it against apartheid-era South Africa. Jasjit had some epic singles victories during that Davis Cup campaign, and we have a separate thread for him here.

[sameerph]

This is the updated list of highest singles rankings attained by Indian male professionals since the ATP computer rankings began in 1973 with couple of recent changes in bold -

Vijay Amritraj - 16
Ramesh Krishnan - 23
Leander Paes- 73
Anand Amritraj - 74
Somdev Devvarman - 80
Sashi Menon - 87
Jasjit Singh - 89
Premjit Lall - 105
Jaidip Mukherjea - 120
Zeeshan Ali - 126
Ramanathan Krishnan -136
Prakash Amritraj - 154
Akshai Misra - 158
Srinivas Vasudevan - 166
Bhanu Nunna - 199 (before turning pro, he was called Nunna Bhanumurthy)
Ashok Amritraj - 201
Joykumar Royappa - 207
Rohan Bopanna - 213
Mahesh Bhupathi - 217
Chiradeep Mukherjea - 221 (amateur; never turned pro, but made R2 at Wimbledon)
Harsh Mankad - 222
Karan Rastogi - 284
Nandan Bal - 309
Srinath Prahlad - 310
Bidyut Goswami - 315
Yuki Bhambri - 321
Vishnu Vardhan - 335
Sunil Kumar Sipaeya - 340
Enrico Piperno -373
Shankar Krishnan -373
Syed Fazaluddin - 396

So, Somdev is in top 5 now just behind Leander & Anand Amritraj. Karan is among only 22 players who have made it to the top 300. Yuki & Vishnu are 2 other current players who are just oiutside top 25 here

[jayakris]

But, as we know, all ATP rankings from before 1975 or so are spurious. The #1 on the list should of course be Ramanathan Krishnan, who was ranked unofficially as high as #3 or #4 and was considered top-10 for quite some time. The wimbledon seedings those years would be the best indiction of the rankings. Somdev will probably end up #4 ahead of LP and behind RK sr, VA and RK jr .. Jay

[Prashant]

Rankings were spurious even after 1975. I'd say early eighties at least.

Wouldn't using Wimbledon seeds weight grass-court performance (a traditional strength for Indians) disproportionately? I guess in Ramanathan's era 3 GS were on grass so that is perhaps fair.

[PKBasu]

Rankings were spurious even after 1975. I'd say early eighties at least.

Wouldn't using Wimbledon seeds weight grass-court performance (a traditional strength for Indians) disproportionately? I guess in Ramanathan's era 3 GS were on grass so that is perhaps fair.

I don't think rankings were spurious in 1975. They were constructed in the same way that they are today (broadly), and were introduced 5 years into the Open era (around July 1973), by which point all players had got used to playing a full roster of pro tournaments throughout the year.

Ramanathan Krishnan was not only seeded #3 at Wimbledon once (having twice made the SF there), but he also made the QF of the French championships on the clay of Roland Garros in 1962. He was certainly among the top-5 international tennis players in the world in 1960-62, although there were probably at least 2 professional players (Ken Rosewall, Pancho Gonzalez) who were better than all the players eligible for the Slams at that time.

[sameerph]

This is now updated list of all time highest ATP rankings for Indian players -

Vijay Amritraj - 16
Ramesh Krishnan - 23
Somdev Devvarman - 63
Leander Paes- 73
Anand Amritraj - 74
Sashi Menon - 87
Jasjit Singh - 89
Premjit Lall - 105
Jaidip Mukherjea - 120
Zeeshan Ali - 126
Ramanathan Krishnan -136
Prakash Amritraj - 154
Akshai Misra - 158
Srinivas Vasudevan - 166
Bhanu Nunna - 199 (before turning pro, he was called Nunna Bhanumurthy)
Ashok Amritraj - 201
Joykumar Royappa - 207
Rohan Bopanna - 213
Mahesh Bhupathi - 217
Chiradeep Mukherjea - 221 (amateur; never turned pro, but made R2 at Wimbledon)
Harsh Mankad - 222
Karan Rastogi - 284
Nandan Bal - 309
Srinath Prahlad - 310
Vishnu Vardhan - 312
Bidyut Goswami - 315
Yuki Bhambri - 321
Sunil Kumar Sipaeya - 340
Enrico Piperno -373
Shankar Krishnan -373
Syed Fazaluddin - 396

Somdev is now comfortably in third position ahead of Leander but is still a long way behind Vijay & Ramesh & not sure if he can get ahead of them.
I have highlighted currently active players in bold. Out of these, Prakash, Rohan & Sunil have been either injured or not playing singles much . So, it does not look likely that they will go ahead of their career high rankings. However, there is a lot of hope from other 3- Karan, Vishnu & Yuki to get much ahead of their current high ranking.

[gbelday]

Congrats Somi. Onwards and upwards!!

[arjun2761]

I fully expect Somdev will crack the top 50 at some point and perhaps even the top 40.

However, to add to the earlier discussion on Ramanathan Krishnan being a top-5 player in the pre-Open era, I believe Premjit Lall and Jaidip Mukherjea were also solid top 75 or higher players at their peaks. I seem to recall seeing that they would win multiple rounds in the slams and go too-to-toe with the top 10 players of their time, so their top ranks on these lists also understate how good they really were at their peak.