Ramkumar Ramanathan thread

[jaydeep]

It is dubbed as the worst error in Tennis History.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4CbRa_qxMU

[PKBasu]

All publicity is good publicity for a sportsman. Tommy Paul will never live this down, but RamRam too benefits from the fame.
Hopefully, the next time he is on live TV, commentators will know more about him -- including his win over Thiem this year.

[arjun2761]

At least on Tennis Channel, the commentators were quite positive on him. They liked his body language and his energy and noted how effective he was on his serve and volley efforts. I thought they praised his game a lot more than they praised Eubanks game, who has a very one dimensional big serve, big forehand game with very little variety.

[sameerph]

As expected, RamK is ranked at a new career high of #156 this week and back as India #1 just ahead of Yuki who is ranked 158.

[arjun2761]

They are also very close on the ATP race rankings (2017 performance) with Yuki at 131 and RamK at 134. Former top players Nicolas Almagro and Marcos Baghdatis are between them...

[sameerph]

The big difference is the number of tournaments played- Yuki has played only 17 tournaments this year while RamK has played a whooping 28. It shows RamK's supreme fitness but also underscores that Yuki is playing too little. Either he is extra cautious or is suffering from some niggles on and off. I think ideal scenario would be somewhere in between i,e 22-23 tournaments in 8 months.

[Prashant]

I think Sameer is absolutely right. I always have this perception that RamK plays too much & Yuki plays too little.

I went to the ATP site & looked at number of tournaments played for everyone currently ranked 101-200. I believe this is the tournaments in the last 12 months? The mean & median are 25 tournaments. The lowest is 9 (Duckworth). Yuki has 21, and RamK has the highest number (34). So, interestingly RamK is a lot further above the median than Yuki is below it. I'm sure there is better analysis waiting to be done here.

[PKBasu]

RamK definitely plays far more tournaments than is the norm for a pro, and the impact is clear in his career-high ranking of 156. At 22, he is making steady progress and well on the way to becoming one of the leading players in his age cohort, implying that he will soon be in the top-100 as he keeps chipping away at his perceived weakness (the backhand).

Yuki has NEVER played a full year on tour. This year, he has managed his body better than he had in any of the previous 8 years on the pro tour -- so that he is now into his 11th month on tour without a significant break (only minor injury breaks along the way). If he continues to play until the end of September, he would have completed a full year on tour without a significant injury break for the very first time in his career. It is no point straining yourself to break into the top-100 (eg, #88) and then spend 6-8 months on the sidelines recovering from an injury. This time, he has husbanded his time (implying that he hasn't made the surge in the rankings that have occurred in the past), taken short breaks after every 3-4 tournaments, and has steadily moved up. Had he played the Wimbledon qualifiers (which he missed by one slot because of a couple of poor/risky decisions that didn't pan out), Yuki would've have been closer to top-100 by now. The US Open qualifiers will be key to determining if he can make it back to top-100 by the end of September (ie, 12 months after his nominal return last year, although he wasn't really ready to play until about a month later).

[PKBasu]

The key for both is to make it to top-100, and then play at least the next 6 months with that ranking -- if you do, you consolidate your position and it becomes difficult to dislodge you from the top-100 (or probably top-60 if you've played 6 months on tour after breaking into the charmed circle). Both Yuki and (especially) RamK are young enough to be able to hold onto a top-100 ranking once they get in. It is a lot better to make it to top-100 when you are 25 or 22 than when you are 28; the key problem for Yuki when he was 23 and ranked 88 is that he couldn't then play for the next 6-9 months.

[sameerph]

It looks like neither RamK nor Yuki will be playing anywhere now till davis cup match in a couple of weeks time. Prajnesh is playing couple of challengers in South America as posted in his thread.

Post davis cup, all 3 - RamK/Yuki/Prajnesh are listed in $75K Columbus Challenger in Ohio in the week of September 18.

Post that, they can either continue in US where there are series of challengers in subsequent weeks- Tiburon,Stockton,Fairlfield,Las Vegas or return to Asia where they can play in ATP events qualies in China or alternately play series of challengers in Kaohsiung-Taipei, Tashkent- Uzbekistan, Ningbo, Suzai, Shenzhen-China, Ho Chi Minh City-Vietnam and finally 2 India challengers.

[Sin Hombre]

We finally see them in an EL so it appears like they are both doing the late sep/early oct American hardcourt/indoor CH circuit.

Week 38 in Columbus, OH
MAIN DRAW
Fritz,Taylor USA 108
Halys,Quentin FRA 122
Mmoh,Michael USA 145
Ramanathan,Ramkumar IND 155
Bhambri,Yuki IND 158

[sameerph]

RamK is at a new career high of 154 now. His next target has to be top 100 and direct entry into grand slams next year. But, for that he will need more than 200 points ( considering the points that he has to defend for rest of the year). Will need a couple of challenger titles to achieve that or 1 challenger title and going SF or better in 3-4 more of them.

Next up for him post davis cup this weekend will be US challengers - first $75K in Columbus, Ohio next week and $100K in Tiburon, California the week after. He will be a seed in both of them.

[Rajiv]

RamK is at a new career high of 154 now. His next target has to be top 100 and direct entry into grand slams next year. But, for that he will need more than 200 points ( considering the points that he has to defend for rest of the year). Will need a couple of challenger titles to achieve that or 1 challenger title and going SF or better in 3-4 more of them.

Next up for him post davis cup this weekend will be US challengers - first $75K in Columbus, Ohio next week and $100K in Tiburon, California the week after. He will be a seed in both of them.

This is 28th Aug ranking , the new rankings would be out later today or tomorrow and than his 7 points of R2 USO qualie would be added with that he will crack the top 150

And than post DC it is string of 3 challengers in USA culminating in Stockton and would be seeded amongst the top 4 in the first 2 challengers.

[Rajiv]

Apologies , I stand to be corrected , his 8 points of USO have been counted and yes he remains at 154

[PKBasu]

Live rankings have RamK at 151 and Yuki at 154 now.