New Delhi: In spite of failing to rewrite history what Leander Paes had done 20 years ago – winning ATP single’s event, Ramkumar Ramanathan leapfrogged 46 places to be 115th in the in the men’s single’s rankings.
Ramjumar finished runner-up at the Hall of Fame Open tennis tournament – an ATP 250 event, after losing the summit clash to American Steve Johnson 5-7, 6-4, 2-6 in a match that lasted close to two hours, Sunday night. The 23-year-old Chennai lad earned 150 points for a massive jump in his ranking and got richer by USD 52,340.
The last Indian to win an ATP singles trophy was Leander, who had won on the grass courts of the same Hall of Fame tournament in 1998.
“I was disappointed for not winning the final but it is tough to reach this far. I just fell short. I will watch the match (recording) again and see (what went wrong) but it’s a learning experience. And nothing can buy this moment, so I will take positives out of it,” Ramkumar said to this agency from Newport.
Yuki Bhambri continued to be the best-ranked Indian at No.86 in spite of a loss of one place. Prajnesh Gunneswaran dropped two places to 186 and was followed by Sumit Nagal (269), Saketh Myneni (339) and Arjun Kadhe (345).
In the doubles, Rohan Bopanna was the top-ranked Indian at unchanged 27 and was followed by Divij Sharan (38), Leander Paes (80), Purav Raja (83), Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (87), N Sriram Balaji (96) and Vishnu Vardhan (98).
In the women’s singles rankings, Ankita Raina returned to the top 200 following her title win in an ITF event in Thailand.