Ramkumar Ramanathan thread

[sameerph]

RamK and Purav have made the doubles SF this week.

At Cary Challenger 75, US (Hard)

[R1] Purav Raja (IND) / Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) d. Scott Duncan (GBR) / Alex Lawson (US) 64 64

[QF] Purav Raja (IND) / Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) d. (WC) Casey Kania (USA) / Benjamin Kittay (USA) 64 76(2)

Next,

[SF] Purav Raja (IND) / Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) vs. Mikelis Libietis (LAT) /Adam Walton (AUS)

[sameerph]

They lost in SF.

At Cary Challenger 75, US (Hard)

[SF] Purav Raja (IND) / Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) l. Mikelis Libietis (LAT) /Adam Walton (AUS) 36 06

Still, this semi final run will get RamK back into top 200 in world rankings.

[Sanjay]

I agree too. I have not noticed a slump like RamK's in tennis. Even more an indication that a lot of it is probably caused by his own mind and his poor and immature decision making (both on court and in tour scheduling).

Yes, I think it is a combination of a lack of motivation, and loss of self-confidence. Or maybe some worry that he has in his personal life that is distracting him from tennis. He should probably get some "easy wins" at a level that he can handle now and build up. It isn't fun to lose every match and look forward to playing. Maybe back to Futures for a few months, maybe win a few tournaments, and then increase the level. I think he is just going through the motions. He also needs another person who do some strategic thinking for him.

Today:
CHALLENGER MEN - SINGLES Todi (Italy) - Qualification, clay(Tennis)
Draw
10:00
Erhard M.
Ramanathan R.

[Rajiv]

Even when he was in good playing form, clay never was his first choice , and here when the form is rock bottom he still makes a trek across the atlantic to play on Clay one of the least favorable surface as far as revival of his form is concerned and this despite getting into the qualies of the Stanford Uni hard courts Challenger.

And in the process records his 13th straight loss a 46 26 in QR1 at Todi to create an unwanted record by a player for most consecutive losses in the last 10 years which he has achieved it twice.
Donald Young with 17 losses in 2012 ,and as per articles his(Donald's) parents were blamed for his slump & Vince Spadea with 21 losses in 2000 are the 2 players above Ram , but this was achieved over 10 years.

[jayakris]

Another loss... 46 26 to the top seed Mathys Erhard (FRA,335) in the Q1 at the Challenger 75 in Todi, Italy (clay).. I saw the match. RamK has become even worse in court movement. He was never super quick, but is even slower now. More importantly, he has NO forehand now. I mean, he has a ZERO forehand now. No power at all. I think he has lost most of his core abdominal strength to be able to generate power. It was not really too much of mental issues today. He has no confidence in his forehand, which can be called a mental issue, but it is actually a physical issue. He simply has no power shots anymore, so no amount of mental strength would help. He needs to get his groundies back. To start with, he was never too strong on the BH side groundies but he could hit a forehand occasionally. Not that the FH ground strokes were ever too accurate or reliable but he could go for some shots before and hit some 5 or 10 power shots a match. Now he doesn't have even that, which means he does not know what shot to hit to win a point. It is sad to see, because you know it is coming at the crunch point. You know he is all at sea and is incapable of doing anything to win a point. So he forces some drop shots and lobs and all that but that is not going to work against any decent player.

With today's form, I don't expect RamK to win against any top-1000 players unless the opponent gives him 30 unforced error points.

[vparam]

Thanks for that honest assessment Jay. It was so sad to read what has become of Ram’s game. Even before I read your post, I noticed he only had 1 ace in 36 first services that were good. That in itself is amazing as Ram consistently puts at least 8-10 aces in a 2 set match. As you noted Jay, it’s just as if his forehand and game in general have left him. He days of even playing in challenger qualifies are going to get limited very soon at this rate.

[Rajiv]

Also, playing with well past his prime Purav Raja isn’t much better. Tough situation all around for Ram.

Absolutely and if you saw today's match in their R1 loss at Todi you could see how difficult it was for him (Raja) to bend and retrieve, dumping balls in the net regularly and getting broken easily, and their opponents today were not some pair on a hot streak , but some mediocre opponents as their year activity would show but still they proved difficult to overcome
And then both of them to scream loudly even for winning routine points was more of a cry for help.
And Ram still looking for some consistent results and stabilty in dbls having played with14/15 different partners this year and now Asian Games also looks worrying with such loses against tame opponents.

[Sanjay]

I think he's lost his confidence. He should go to the Futures and try to win there and then come back.

[Rajiv]

Ramu backs out of his R1 singles qualifying match at Augsburg and is replaced by a unranked Ukranian.
He is there in the dbls with Purav and they are the 4th seeds.

[Sanjay]

Ramkumar playing singles against Beague.
He has a chance to win a singles match after 13 consecutive losses.
His last W was in April in Chennai.

Cmon RR!

[Sanjay]

RR trying his best to screw it up.

[Atithee]

Screw what up?

[jayakris]

At the Challenger 75 in Cassis, FRA (Hard)

[Q1] (12) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,583) d. Maxence Beauge (FRA,751), 64 76(6)

It is 6-4 5-6 and RR is down 15-30... He held at 30 with an ace and a service winner. 6-6 and a tiebreaker starting. Saved 3 set points (two on his serve, and one with a really good crosscourt near-mistake )... 6-6 in the TB. Wow, he won it, with 5 straight points from 3-6 to 8-6 in the TB.

I am stunned. I cannot believe it. RamK won a match!!! He won a match. He won a match. I want to cry. Go RamK.

[vparam]

The streak is over! Congrats Ram! Thought for sure it was going to a 3rd set!

[Rajiv]

Phew.. scrapes through after a scare to avoid a 14th loss.

Will wait till tommorow to see if there is any return to normality as today's match a better player than this 750 ranked Frenchman would have made the result look differently, and hope he rides on this win, as today a 1500 ranked Arjun who rarely plays singles took out a 700 ranked Chinese at his home ground in Shanghai.