There have been quite a few international tennis tournaments at home in the first quarter of this season, especially for the men. Few capitalised on them the way Ramkumar Ramanathan did, with his exploits in both singles and doubles.
After winning the doubles titles in the first two Challengers in Chennai and Bengaluru with Saketh Myneni, the 29-year-old Ramkumar shone bright in the Pune Challenger, briefly though, by knocking out the champion of the Bengaluru event Stefano Napolitano of Italy.
Saketh Myneni and Ramkumar Ramanathan who won the doubles finals at the Chennai Open
| Photo Credit:
Ravindran R
Later, after helping his employer Indian Oil to a bunch of medals in individual and team events in the Petroleum inter-unit event, Ramkumar won the singles title in Delhi in the $25,000 ITF tournament and finished runner-up the next week in Chandigarh.
An amiable person with a cheerful smile, Ramkumar may have often been misunderstood, or as some may perceive, wrongly projected, but he opted to discuss a variety of topics, very frankly.
THE GIST
The Hangzhou Asian Games doubles silver with Myneni was a big morale-booster for Ramkumar, especially after all the criticism that he was chosen ahead of 10 better-ranked players
With child coach Chandrasekaran travelling with him for most of the tournaments, he says he feels at home
The Paris Olympics is round the corner and there are a few who believe Ramkumar will make the best partner for Bopanna
Momentum back
“I have enjoyed the pain and everything which comes with it, the wins and losses. I feel my fitness has picked up and my momentum is back with some good matches in the last six months. God willing, the best is yet to come,” said Ramkumar when congratulated for his good work.
Starting with the Davis Cup tie against Pakistan in Islamabad, followed by four Challengers, and two ITF events, it has been continuous tennis for many weeks. Ramkumar, who was ranked a career-best 111 in singles in 2018 and 58 in doubles in 2022, paced himself well to shine bright from start to finish.
“I am happy and have learnt a lot over these weeks. I had good wins along the way, and pushed myself to get some matches the last two weeks of singles. I feel that I can be there at the top again. I have been putting a lot of work back in Chennai. I have also been doing a lot of small things, like keeping a book and noting down points, reminding myself the way I want to approach every match. It helps me to stay in the…
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