Ramkumar Ramanathan thread

[sameerph]

Updating the results in our usual format -

At $439K Antalya Open, Turkey (ATP 250) - Grass

[Q1] (1) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,221) d. Andrey Yekolov (RUS,1835) 60 60

Next,

[Q2] (1) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,221) vs. Yannik Mertens (BEL,267)

This is one of the qualifying draw one would get at an ATP qualifying event with 221st ranked RamK being the top seed. Yuki would have been the second seed in qualies had he come here.

[Sin Hombre]

Hopefully Ram can win this and gets some luck in the draw as well. Couple of the qualifiers will get fairly easy draws.

Dutra Silva - Qualifier (Silva has never won a match on grass in his career)
Qualifier - [WC] Ilkel

[sameerph]

Mertens made the final qualifying round at Wimbledon last year. So, it wont be easy for RamK but he must use this chance to get into ATP main draw.

[Rajiv]

A confident straight sets victory 6-4 , 6-4 over the Belgian , takes Ram through the MD draw of the Antalya Open and in turn assure him of atleast 12 points and USD5k.

What is commendable and remarkable about Ram’s game is that he has a natural ability to adapt to any surface effortless without any practice or preparation as we have seen him playing since the last 2 months as he has played on all possible surfaces possible and many of them with some noteworthy result which included a challenger final , couple of Futures title ,and now a Main Draw Entry of an ATP.

In the Month of May he was playing the Green Clay in USA and than immediately flew to Europe to play challengers in Karshi ,Samarkand and French Open ,
after the French Open it was straight to hard courts in Singapore
after competing for 2 weeks of Hard-court Tennis in Singapore, 2 days days later next stop in Italy and to notch up the R1 win on Red clay over the Austrian opponent ,
Then finally after 2 weeks in Europe on Red Clay ,immediately After completing his doubles match hopped on to the plane to Antalya and in less than 15 hours was playing on Grass an opposite surface to clay and finished that match in 30 minutes, and finally today without any grass court practice completes a second win for a Main draw entry.

All of this quick and instant adjustment to different and opposite playing surfaces with some of them happening even in less than 24 hours , points to his remarkable natural ability and endurance level.

[PKBasu]

Very good win for RamK, over an opponent who is comfortable on grass. Ironically, with this ranking, RamK would comfortably have made the Wimbledon qualifiers but his ranking was temporarily lower just on the weeks that the Wimbledon Q draws are based on.

RamK is much more professionally managed than Yuki, but still not ideally so: RamK has played too many consecutive weeks of pro tennis (I think this is 10th successive week). The results on a variety of surfaces have been good, but a week off after this will do him no harm.

[Sin Hombre]

And RamK gets lucky and is placed in a R1 match against Dutra Silva. Winnable.

[PKBasu]

Rogerio Dutra Silva is a 33-year-old who has just reached his career-high ranking of 68. He will be playing his first match since the French Open, and is clearly uncomfortable on grass. He has won a round of Wimbledon qualifying at least on a couple of occasions, and played in the main draw at Wimbledon in 2013 and 2016. So, while uncomfortable on grass, he isn't a complete novice on the surface. Given that RamK has played two matches over the weekend, he certainly should have the edge going into the match.

[Rajiv]

The Last time these two met was couple of years ago at a challenger in Italy where the Brazilian due to injury had dropped to around 500 and in that tournament had to go thorough the qualies where he beat Ram in the R1 and than eventually went on to reach the Finals of that Challenger .
And ever since that day , that tournament he is a completely changed player from 500 his ranking has always constantly headed North week after week to present day 68.

But as PKB mentioned on grass he is a suspect and the Surface will be a great leveller , plus since the last time these two met , Ram's game too has improved , So a top flight ATP player with shortcomings on grass against an much improved Ram should be an even match and hoping for 3rd straight win for Ram in this tournament.

[sameerph]

RamK had the biggest win of his career and the biggest win by an Indian in a long time today at Antalya ATP second round with a over world #8 Dominic Thiem.

This followed win over world #68 Dutra Silva in the first round,

With that win he will move inside top 200 for the first time in his career. Hope he keeps going this week in Antalya.

[jaydeep]

Rajiv,

Moved your post, it opted for our ongoing Grass court tournament thread.

[Rajiv]

Rajiv,

Moved your post, it opted for our ongoing Grass court tournament thread.

No Problem Boss

[PKBasu]

His previous career high was 196, so this won't be the first time he is in the top 200. But he should indeed be at a new career high of 184.

[Sandeep]

Ramkumar Ramanatham is in a red hot form. He won the first set 7-6 with a perfect 7-0 score in the tie breaker against Baghdatis. Go boy

[Sandeep]

For the first time I am watching him live (on TV), he has an excellent serve

[Sandeep]

Baghdatis wins the second set 6-3. Have a feeling that Ramanathan Ramkumar is getting tired. His stamina needs to go up if he has to compete at the highest level