Jakarta Men's ITFs 2023

[Dinesh]

Week 1: Ramkumar, Digvijay Paratap Singh in singles main draw. Parikshit Somani in doubles.

Matches:
(1) Yuta Shimizu (JPN,247) vs Digvijay Pratap Singh (597)
(5) Ramkumar Ramanathan (414) vs Q

(2) Parikshit Somani (351)/ Kelsey Stevenson (CAN,245) vs Tomohiro Masabayashi (JPN,610) / Naoki Tajima(JPN,586)

Unfortunate draw for DVPS whose opponent shouldn’t be playing in a $25K tournament having reached the finals of an ATP 100 Challenger just last month.

[jayakris]

It didn't matter. DPS retired at 2-3 in the first set.

And RamK is tanking the match, at 16 14.

Why does RamK even bother to go there? For that matter, should we bother to even follow where he goes? So sad to see a guy with so much talent and abilities throwing it all away like this.

[jayakris]

RamK made a little bit of effort in the final few games, breaking back to 4-5 in the second set, but then lost serve at 30-40 at the second match point on his serve. 16 46 loss to a 19 year old kid qualifier Yunseok Jang (KOR,846). Decent player, who had reached an M25 semi in India, but somebody that RamK has no business losing to.

Basically, his game is totally off, and it is very clear that it is a mental issue (unless he has a wrist issue that is bothering him). He simply picks the wrong shot to hit very often. But the very clear thing is that he gives up on many points soon after the ball leaves the other guy's racket. Didn't try to move to many balls that he could've gotten to. Very clearly because he thinks that he has already lost the point when he hasn't. Like thinking, "oh, here I go, everybody hits all these perfect shots against me that I cannot handle; I am unlucky; I give up; whatever". Then there is this issue that he won't even wait for the ball boy to get off the court before starting his service motion - like he cannot wait to just finish the misery. Then sometimes he seems to just hit the ball way too hard like he is mad suddenly and want to hit his way out of trouble, and it goes 5 feet out. What is he doing out there? How can you win anything if you are this negative about your game?

I beg you, RamK. Please stop playing like this. Don't make your game even worse than the shambles it is in. Stop playing for a month. Don't do anything except physical training and wall practice (I am serious; the wall practice that school kids do - You need it; things are that bad now; You have lost your feel for the ball itself). Clear your mind. Then try to play again. What you are doing now is useless. You won't get out of the funk unless you take a break and refocus.

[knarayen]

RamK is facing a crisis it looks like. I think it is his personal life and unless that crisis is addressed the tennis can’t be addressed. He has to find a girl, get married to a girl who is willing to support his continu8ng to play on the tour. Finding such a girl is tough these days - you have to give a lot to get that kind of support. I’m almost 100 percent sure this is the crisis he is facing.

[prasen9]

[jayakris]

The losses continue... At the Jakarta M25

[R1] Digvijay Pratap Singh (IND,525) l. Jake Delaney (AUS,810), 76(4) 67(2) 36

A long 3 hour 10 minutes match. Jake had 8 aces and one double fault. DPS had 5 aces and 10 DFs. You cannot win matches if you double fault like that. What is with this double faultitis disease that keeps hitting all our players?

[jayakris]

And one more...

[R1] (4) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,404) l. (Q) Yuta Kawahashi (JPN,1134), 26 Ret.

He was playing okay, and rather positively till 2-2 on serve, when I watched... I stepped out and came back, and it was 2-5 and the umpire and he were talking (or arguing?). He dropped serve once more with rather negative play (wild serves, 2 aces, and random shot-making with no purpose when he dropped serve at 30-40 on a crazy move to the net and a muffed volley). 2-6. Then he went up and said he was retiring to the ump and gave a congratulatory pat to Yuta. That was that! I don't know if there was any actual physical issue. It didn't seem like that. He seemed to be moving fine and serving like there was no injury. Maybe he just gave up and decided to get out of there? I don't know, as I didn't see the match for 3 games there. But RamK's career spiraling into the toilet continues...

[Rajiv]

Not only looked perfect in the initial stages , but also the whole week must have practised as per standard routine procedure for few hrs daily and could have immediately noticed the problem , and not at a time by a dreadful coincidence right in the middle of the game when the errors started creeping in and eventually had to give up.
anyway with the sights of sprawling on the ground getting treatment with a trainer has to get the benefit of the doubt
And that begs the all important question which we have been asking since the first M25, then what is the need to stay in Jakarta , should have left last week itself which only would have given him sufficient time to recover both mentally and physically.

[jayakris]

Oh, so he had called the trainer? I missed that part. Okay then... Normally, I would hope and pray that it is not a physical issue, but I would rather he be injured, than think that his tennis has fundamentally deteriorated to such an appalling level.

[Rajiv]

^^^ didn't mean to say he suffered injury during play , sprawling on the ground ,meant that he called for the trainer immediately when he got broken and then went to the umpire's chair sprawled on the ground over a towel to receive treatment.

[Rajiv]

Even the lower Futures level players manage and plan their schedules objectively and accurately which is based on a fixed calculated time management or they quickly bail out if the desired results are not forthcoming.

As a result after 2 weeks the complete top rung of the Jakarta M25 has withdrawn and left Jakarta, but Ram continues his fruitless journery and now has suddenly become the top #1 seed for the 3rd leg, which is all the more surprising that he had to withdraw with an MTO , in his last match but still has decided to remain in Jakarta.

So now as a top seed can he make it count or a will it be a hattrick of R1 losses.

[sameerph]

In his current form I do not expect anything from RamK. Any wins from him will be a bonus.

But, yes the field has become weak for next week's futures. Digivijay will also be a lower seed and hope he also at least justifies his seeding.

[Dinesh]

In his current form I do not expect anything from RamK. Any wins from him will be a bonus.

You got that right. Somehow I thought he would turn the tables this week being seeded #1 and all but just lost the first set 6-0 to someone who’s ranked #759 in the world. Dude needs to quit tennis and find some peace of mind.

[prasen9]

He needs a break, play some club tennis, etc. and then come back later when he is winning at least in club tennis, etc. and his mind is clear.

[Rajiv]

These loses to no names would indicate that some injuries is ailing him and even a school going kid will understand that it is time to take a break from such humiliation rather than continue aimlessly for 3 weeks.

It is just baffling that he can't even win a set against mediocre opposition leave aside winning the match and whether it's deliberate or the game has reached its lowest nadir.,God alone knows.