Ramkumar Ramanathan thread

[S_K_S]

Great that he will be at Mysuru and Chennai!

Mysuru? My hometown! Where and when is this?

https://www.itftennis.com/en/tournament ... -03a-2023/

[jayakris]

Now that RamK lost 36 16 to Siddharth Rawat at the Chennai M15, we are truly at a point of despair about what has happened to his singles game... He was really good in the previous three rounds, so what happened?

I am assuming it wasn't injury or illness that caused the loss today. It seemed more like an inability to do what is needed on 11 break points. 6 on Sid's serve and 5 on his own serve. RamK was successful in only ONE of ELEVEN crunch points. 1/11, if you can believe it!!!

Take those points away, and it was 37 points to RamK and 51 points to Sid in the rest of the match. So, he was 42% successful at other points but only 9% successful at truly crunch points. The data points are not that few to make a statistical conclusion.

Sid is a good player but he is not some Federer or anything, is he? Nothing but mental issues can explain the simple stats.

@Rajiv, does RamK have a coach at all now? Do you know who, if anybody, he considers his coach now, or gets advice from?

I am guessing that he doesn't even have a coach anymore. If he has one, he simply has to change the coach, whoever it is.

[Rajiv]

So the worst fears came true about Jakarta when he was struggling with mediocre compition in Chennai and bows out in straight sets to a random unknown opponent.

Not so long ago a match up against a qualifier was a gaurented straight sets win filled with a clinical all round play filled with power groundies,monster serving and all round play, but ever since he created a world record of R1 losses his game has never recovered.
Saw him play today and looked so lackadaisical in his approach with dropped shoulders and wonder whether he is not bothered about the problem on hand or his game has totally decimated , so totally confused about his approach.

Has planned 3 weeks in Jakarta, but at this rate don't see him doing a semi or a final and at the most a win or two which will fetch him 3 to 4 points and spending 3 weeks for meagre 3 or 4 points is not at all worthwhile and better he withdraws from the remainder and goes to the Academy in Spain or Florida to sort out the major complicated dilemma he is in.

[jayakris]

Yeah, I was typing my thoughts on RamK's match today in the Jakarta thread in this post and this post... I too think he should withdraw from the other Jakarta M25s. Go away somewhere and refocus. Don't play tennis for at least 3 or 4 weeks.

[Rajiv]

^^^ Yes there is no other solution other then this and as per our PM.
7 years ago planned to spend 3 weeks for Hkg futures, and when he lost in the first Futures to a 900 ranked Chinese in the opening round, after that loss a brainstorming session in the evening and promptly withdrew from the remainder and after that we saw a gradual upswing to a CH 111 in the coming 2 years.

[sameerph]

But what is really the reason why he is playing such a manner. I mean last year even in a loss after loss, he was able to win some matches at ATP qualies level and at least those losses were at challenger main draw level. Current losses are at futures level. So, his game has gone from bad to worse.

Rajeev, do you talk to him to find out the reason ? Because the fall is so drastic and abrupt. Even his serve has no sting left now it seems.

[jayakris]

His serve has a good amount of sting (i.e., velocity), but it is inaccurate and purposeless. He just goes up there, does not even think about anything, winds up and serves something. It might get returned for a winner, or he is just not ready to hit the next shot. You can't serve aces if you have lost your instincts on where to serve, and you are not using your mind to start thinking where to serve. He is just going through the motions. No confidence, no positive thinking, nothing.

[vparam]

Glad to see Ram taking a break from tennis. Doesn’t appear he entered any upcoming tournaments.

[Rajiv]

He has entered Skopie next week and is in the dbls with Lucas Margaroli and for the singles qualies is 6 out and hopefully should make the cut.
After Jakarta spent time at home for a much needed break, and was sounding very much positive during my talk with him.

[vparam]

Thanks Rajiv. Somehow I missed his entry to Skopie.

[Dinesh]

At the M25 Martos ITF, Spain (Hard court)

R1 (3) Ramkumar Ramanathan (506) 4-6 6-7 (WC) Pedro Vives Marcos (ESP,1795)

New low! Ramkumar and Parikshit Somani are in the doubles QF, after winning their R1 match 6-4 6-4 yesterday.

[Sanjay]

Another tournament, another bad loss to someone who is barely starting off.

[Atithee]

These losses just don’t make ANY sense at all. Wonder what’s going on? Even bookies will not offer odds on this matchup.

[jayakris]

RamK took only 9 points out of 58 on the opponent's serve. Only *one* point came from an AD court serve. That means he was simply not able to do much in his return game. It is a wonder that he got broken only once in 10 service games, after facing so many deuces and BPs on his own serve.

I am pretty sure his back problem has not gone away. Otherwise RamK wouldn't lose like this. He was fighting all the way today, and it was very clear. Not one of the matches where he folded.

[Atithee]

Then why is he continuing to play? What’s he trying to prove and to whom?