Ramkumar Ramanathan thread

[jayakris]

Ramk wins Q1 of Nonthanburi with a decisive straight set victory over #392 Akita Santillan. Good win for Ramk and hope he qualifies into the main draw.

Just for the record, RamK, then ranked 475, won the Q2 over Makoto Ochi (JPN,487) 64 62 to make the Nonthabri main draw, but unfortunately ran into a red-hot Valendtin Vacherot (MON,219) and lost 46 36 in R1... RamK has been in India since then, in the challenger circuit in February (results in this thread) and a couple of M25/M15 (results in this thread)... He won the Delhi M25 and was the runner-up at the Chandigarh M15.

So his rank is expected to go up from #410 now to inside top-350 in the ATP update after 2 weeks on April 1st.

He was in the entry list for qualies at the Barcelona challenger next week, but just withdrew. Not sure where he will be playing next. I suppose he may wait for the new ranking to come up on Monday and be useful for challenger qualies seeding from the next weekend onward.

[sameerph]

^^^ Looks like RamK will only play in Shenzhen challenger, China starting from April 22. He is in the qualifying entry list there. There are 3 challengers in China starting from that week and a challenger in Taiwan in fourth week.

Have never seen RamK take this much of a break anytime in his career though. ( it will be 4 weeks if he plays directly in April 22 week). So, I wont be surprised if he turns up at one of the challenger qualies or something in next couple of weeks or maybe only doubles.

[jayakris]

I like that. One of RamK's problems (at least the way I felt it, with no direct info) has always been the constant playing for years, without a break to catch a breath and to also "have a life for himself" away from competition. Maybe I am exaggerating it, and I know that I am saying it without knowing anything about RamK or his personal life. But generally speaking, people need some time for personal reflection and personal growth too. One needs to take breaks from tennis. But more than anything else, RamK needed that for simple physical reasons. He was a workhorse for years, and finally it caught up with him 2 years ago with some physical ailments that affected his tennis. He seems to be out of it now, but all these breaks will only help keep him safe from running into "wear and tear" injury trouble too soon.

So, just get back in good health, ready to get some wins and points in challengers, RamK!

[sanjay8886]

I believe he is #8 in alt list for Madrid challenger qual. He is also in alt list for all ATP qual in the following week (likely, he will not make it in any ATP qual though).

[jayakris]

Since he withdrew from Barcelona where he could have played last week, I assume he would withdraw from Madrid this week too. Let us see.

[jayakris]

After a 4-week break, RamK gets back to action soon this weekend.

At the Challenger 75 in Shenzen Louhou,CHN (Hard)

[Q1] (9) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,358) vs Dominik Palan (CZE,375)

He is also playing doubles with Ray Ho (TPE) and they should be the 4th seeds when the draw comes out.

[jayakris]

RamK plays the Q1 today (Monday) at Shenzen. In doubles,

[R1] (4) Ray Ho (TPE)/ Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) vs Remi Bertola (SUI)/ Antoine Escoffier (FRA)

[arjun2761]

Ramk beats Palan 4&2. Up next, is the slightly higher ranked Rio Noguchi.

Mukund loses in Q1 to a Chinese WC.

[sameerph]

Disappointing loss for RamK in Q2.

At the Challenger 75 in Shenzen Louhou,CHN (Hard)

[Q1] (9) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,358) l. (3) Rio Noguchi (JPN,323) 26 67(5)

[sameerph]

Just read this on twitter from someone who watched today's match-

Ramkumar Ramanathan was just robbed of a match by a terrible chair umpire who in the tiebreak made a terrible correction call, two bad serves by Noguchi called in, and a shot off the line called in
Thats a four point swing .

That is bad luck for RamK.

[indiansportsfan]

And RamK didn't complain? That would be great sportsmanship from someone who was accused of behaving the complete opposite.

[jayakris]

RamK lost the doubles R1 too...

[R1] (4) Ray Ho (TPE)/ Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) l. Remi Bertola (SUI)/ Antoine Escoffier (FRA), 46 36

He is rusty, I guess.