Ramkumar Ramanathan thread

[arjun2761]

RamK is at a career high of 60 in doubles. In the singles, he is in the 230s. If this gap in ranking grows further especially if he can make it into the top 40 in doubles, he'll perhaps need to consider focusing more on doubles where he can have a much longer career. That said, he could still be a competitive singles player for a few more years....

[vparam]

Haven’t seen RamK in a tournament recently. Hope he’s just taking a break and not injured.

[jayakris]

^^^ Yeah, after we counted the chickens at the Atlanta ATP qualies, and he won 2 good matches in a row against my expectations, he lost 26 57 in singles and 36 36 in doubles in the first round. He has not played the last 2 weeks (and now not this coming week either). RamK does not stay away from court for more than 3 weeks like that. What is up?? Maybe Rajiv can try to find out...

[sameerph]

He had posted on his insta or somewhere that he is taking a break and going back to India before coming back for USO.

He needs such breaks but looks strange time to take a break.

[jayakris]

Yes, for other players, this would be normal. But not RamK, who simply doesn't take breaks! There were many occasions when we wished he would take a break, but he wouldn't. This was certainly a strange time for it though.

[Rajiv]

Following his R1 loss in Dbls, Ram crashes out in singles as well and goes down to a in form player Adrian Andreev 46 61 26

The only hope Ram had over his opponent who got in as a SE was Bulgarian's fitness condition as he was playing in Genova until Sunday.
And the Bulgarian played smart Tennis to overcome the fitness issue, After being broken early in S2, didn't put in any effort to conserve his energy and allowed Ram race to a 5 nil lead, but cleverly held at 5-1, so that after tanking S2, he cruicially starts serving first in the the decider which the Bulgarian emphatically closed out at 2.

So now later tonight a 20 hour flight to Tokyo and after few days again a 20 hour flight return flight back to Europe, since he is committed for Europe until the end of the season. Going to Japan from France would have been reasonable if ensuing weeks would be spent in Korea and Japan, and even though there might be some extra $$ at a 500, but going back and forth in 20 hour plane rides within a space of 1 week, simply affects the game and the playing rhythm.

[sameerph]

Really hard to understand why is he coming back to Europe after criss crossing to Japan. Imo, would have been better if he had stayed back and played Japan and Korea challengers. Maybe bigger Korean challengers he would have had to play qualies but later Japanese challengers should have an easier field. He needs some points badly as he 80 points from challenger title last year falling odd towards end of the year.

[arjun2761]

Besides the tennis negatives of constantly flying around the globe, there is also the cost aspect. He does not earn all that much from tennis, so I wonder what his motivation is to fly around the world like he does. Does he have a sponsor that covers his travel, so the cost isn't something he worries about?

[vishalg]

He will play WR600 (ALT) Ryota Tanuma in the first round of qualifying at Tokyo ATP500.
And Yuki(not our Yuki, just some Japanese guy) is also there in the qualifying draw.
Go Ramk and Go Japanese Yuki.

[jayakris]

In the doubles draw at the ATP 500 at Tokyo (Hard),

[R1] Alexei Popyrin (AUS)/ Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) vs (2) Matthew Ebden (AUS)/ Max Purcell (AUS)

His singles Q1 is later on Saturday, after 4 pm or so (IST 12 or 1 pm).

Besides the tennis negatives of constantly flying around the globe, there is also the cost aspect. He does not earn all that much from tennis, so I wonder what his motivation is to fly around the world like he does. Does he have a sponsor that covers his travel, so the cost isn't something he worries about?

If it is to ATP events and even higher challengers, you do end up positive in cash flow. ATP events give hospitality (many challengers do too), so the airfare is basically the main expense. At Tokyo, he gets at a minimum $4,380 for single Q1 and $4,190 for the doubles R1. Guaranteed $8,570 is not bad money at all. So this made perfect sense to do. Make some money also when your ranking allows you some guaranteed entry amount. Drawing the second seeds in the first round itself was a raw deal though.

[sameerph]

He started with a decent win.

At Tokyo ATP 500 (Hard)

[Q1] (6) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,299) d. Ryota Tanuma (JPN,600) 75 63

Next,

[Q2] (6) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,299) vs. (2) Elias Ymer (SWE,124)

[Rajiv]

After a tight first set which could have gone either way,Ram seals a straight sets win and in the process earned 10 valuable points.

QR2 will be tough and the real test against 124 ranked Elias Ymer, but Ram out of the blue has the ability to surprise everyone when you least expect, so fingers crossed.
Way back in 2015 in Turkey ,Ram has a win over the Swedish with excellent crucial topspin lobs in S3 to break Ymer and went on to win the decider.

[jayakris]

Decent start so far against Ymer, at 3-3 in the first. No BPs for either. Ymer had 4 aces in the first couple of games and RR also had a couple. RamK needs to hit his first serves though. First serve percentage is some sort of a key for him. Pretty low so far at 55% but he is not running into trouble yet. 4-4 even now and facing serve. Now 5-5 and still no BPs or deuces on either player... RamK has lost only 1 point on his 15 first serves but has lost 7 on his 13 second serves. AT 5-6, RR hit 5 or 6 first serves and had one ace too, but Ymer took three points off RR's first serve suddenly after goig 1 of 15 till then (did RR start rushing to the net like a man possessed, for no reasons? I don't know). At deuce, he hit two second serves and Ymer picked up points on both. So, there you go. First deuce, first BP, a second serve, and the set is gone. 5-7

[sameerph]

Why he keeps rushing to the net on second serves even at breakpoint ?

[jayakris]

^^^ I am not watching it. Are you? I just know what he usually does, so I am guessing that is why he lost three first serve points in the 12th game all of a sudden.

Anyway, he breaks Ymer right away, also helped by a DF from him. 57 10 and serving... Faces a 30-40 BP but saves it and holds. Good job. 57 20... Stays out of trouble with an ace in the 7th game (ace #7) and takes it to 3-1 now.