Ramkumar Ramanathan thread

[arjun2761]

I think Somdev and Ramk made ATP tour event finals but no titles. NRI Rajeev Ram won at Newport, RI where LP won and Ramk made his final.

[Rajiv]

Prakash also made the Newport Finals in 2008

[jayakris]

LP's Newport title was the last one. 23 years

[sameerph]

RamK starts with a comfortable win this week.

At Antalya 3 Challenger 50, Turkey (Clay)

[R1] (2) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,186) d. (Q) Louis Wessels (GER,381), 62 63

Next,

[R2] (2) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,186) vs. (Q) Oliver Crawford (USA,368)

[vparam]

Appears the score is missing on Sameer’s post. Anyway, Ramk won 6-2, 6-3. Was worried about this match as he didn’t get the Wednesday start and played a qualifier who already had a couple of matches under his belt. Also, RamK has to quickly adjust to a different surface. So, this is a good win and he will play doubles tomorrow. I thought he was skipping doubles this week.

(Added the score above. Mod, Jay)

[Sanjay]

He should fancy his chances of winning this title too.
Seeded 2 and only real challenge is top seeded Cem İlkel.

[PKBasu]

Winning titles in successive weeks on different surfaces and countries is far from easy. One match at a time!

[Rajiv]

Playing on clay after nearly 3 months on hard courts,Ram makes a seamless transition to clay with zero practice and having to play his R1 within less than 24 hours of his arrival ,  and just a short while ago went on to record a facile R2 win in straight sets to move into the QF's

Having watched him over a period, one remarkable change noticed this year is his ability to come out on tops whenever a long rally takes place and has been winning majority rallying points even on hard courts, which is basically due to his improved court speed and anticipation, and this new strength combined with consistent BH and the big serve ,doesn't seem to have any difficulties in adjusting to the clay courts even with ZERO clay practice or any preparation whatsoever.

[jayakris]

And it is another win!

[R2] (2) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,186) d. (Q) Oliver Crawford (USA,368), 65 64
so
[QF] (2) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,186) vs Eduard Esteve Lobato (ESP, 336)

Also, in doubles:
[R1] (4) Vladyslav Orlov (UKR)/ Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) d. Filip Cristian Jianu (ROU)/ Nikolas Sanchez Izquierdo (ESP), 64 64
[QF] (4) Vladyslav Orlov (UKR)/ Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) d. (WC) Lucas Gerch (GER)/ Aleksandre Metreveli (GEO), 62 75
[SF] (4) Vladyslav Orlov (UKR)/ Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) vs Riccardo Bonadio (ITA)/ Giovanni Fonio (ITA)

he seems to be totally loving the dirt over there.... But I didn't know that old man Metreveli was still playing!

[PKBasu]

That is Alex Metreveli's grandson! The grandpa made the Wimbledon singles final in 1973, and made the SFs at 2 other Slams, so was ranked as high as 9th in the world. He played Davis Cup against India for the USSR in 1974, the year we made the final. The grandson plays Davis Cup for Georgia.

[PKBasu]

Is Ramkumar going to be the Aslan Karatsev of 2022? Definitely looking that way at the moment... although I don't want to jinx it! The backhand becoming a weapon makes a huge difference!

[jayakris]

That is Alex Metreveli's grandson! The grandpa made the Wimbledon singles final in 1973, and made the SFs at 2 other Slams, so was ranked as high as 9th in the world. He played Davis Cup against India for the USSR in 1974, the year we made the final.

Yep, I remember that from 1974. That is why the name immediately caught my attention. "Veli" mans "fence" in Malayalam. Some newspaper wrote "can we jump over the Metre veli?" iirc, so it stuck to my mind.

[Rajiv]

As I mentioned before the start, inspite the weak field at Antalya,  the Spaniards would be a huge threat on the clay surface, and expectedly Ram fell short and bowed out in his QF against a clay grinded Spaniard with a worrying 26 06 scoreline.

[jaydeep]

Tough loss, but Ram also be tired after winning last week and playing back to back singles and doubles Antalya.

Tennis TV published 10 videos of Alexander Bublik’s best moment of 2021 … Check 3rd video with Ram’s match

[PKBasu]

Surely just fatigue from playing two consecutive weeks (of singles -- all the way last week -- and doubles) on different surfaces in different countries.