Tennis rankings: Ramkumar Ramanathan rises 11 spots after good show in Shenzen
Indian tennis ace Ramkumar Ramanathan’s good show at the Shenzen Open last week hauled him up by 11 spots to 123 in the latest ATP World Rankings released on Monday, October 1, 2018. The 23-year-old is now 12 rungs below his career best ranking of 111th that he had achieved in July.
At the ATP 250 tournament in Shenzen, Ramkumar won three rounds to reach the Round of 16 from the qualifying stages. He started his campaign with a hard-fought 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(3) win over Australia’s Max Purcell in the first round, and then followed it up with an effortless 6-1, 6-1 win over China’s Yecong He.
In the first round of the main draw, he caused an upset by knocking out the World No. 90 Jiri Vesely 7-5, 6-1. However, he could not repeat his heroics against World No. 39 Damir Dzumhur and went down 4-6, 2-6.
Meanwhile, Yuki Bhambri continues to remain the best player from India. Bhambri, who hasn’t played since losing in Round 1 at the US Open, dropped one place to 98 this week.
Prajnesh Gunneswaran maintains his India No. 3 spot. The southpaw plummeted six spots to 170 following his first round defeat at the Chengdu Open last week.
Nedunchezhiyan back in top 80 of doubles
Doubles exponent Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan’s strong show at the Chengdu Open awarded him a rise of seven places to 80. The Chennai player is now five places shy of his career-best ranking of 75.
Nedunchezhiyan teamed up with Austin Krajicek with whom he has played for the better part of the last three months. The two have won a couple of Challenger titles, reached the final of another one, and also qualified for the Wimbledon Championships this year.
The two brought that confidence at Chengdu when they upset the Wimbledon quarter-finalists Divij Sharan and Artem Sitak to start their campaign at this ATP 250 tournament. They won two more matches after that to make it to the final, where they succumbed to the top seeds Ivan Dodig and Mate Pavic 2-6, 4-6.
Rohan Bopanna is 30th, Divij Sharan is 36th, Leander Paes is 74th, and Purav Raja is 93rd.
In WTA, Ankita Raina dropped five places to 203 while Karman Thandi too slid four spots to 210 in the latest singles world rankings.