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Following his second round appearance at last week’s Cincinnati Masters, Ramkumar Ramanathan surged 24 spots to become the new India No. 1 in the latest ATP World Rankings released on Monday, 21st August 2017. The massive jump saw him overtaking the Citi Open star Yuki Bhambri, who lies two rungs below at 158th.
This is the career-best ranking for the 22-year-old Ramanathan.
Both Ramanathan and Bhambri will be in action in the qualifying rounds of the US Open this week along with the 225th ranked Prajnesh Gunneswaran.
The young Ramkumar’s rise came as a result of his maiden main draw match win at any Masters tournament. He first beat the fourth-seeded Dusan Lajovic in the first round of qualifying before bowing out to the World No. 121 Maximillian Marterer of Germany in the final round.
But Gael Monfils’ late withdrawal due to illness opened up an opportunity for him and he got through as a lucky loser. He then came back from a set down to prevail over Christopher Eubanks of the USA in three sets in the first round.
His run was finally ended by American Jared Donaldson, who edged him in a three-set battle.
In men’s doubles, Rohan Bopanna remains static at 17th. One week after reaching the final of the Montreal Masters, the Indian and his Croatian partner Ivan Dodig lost in the quarter-finals at Cincinnati.
Divij Sharan and Puraj Raja, who have temporarily split, have ascended one rung higher. While Divij is now at 67th, Raja is 68th.
97th ranked Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan rounds off the top 100 in men’s doubles.
Sania drops one place
In women’s doubles, Sania Mirza dropped one place to eighth after failing to defend her Cincinnati Open title that she had won last year. Mirza and Peng Shuai fell in straight sets in the semi-finals to the eventual runners-up Su-Wei Hsieh and Monica Niculescu.
Mirza has been struggling to form a stable partnership this year after quite a few of her partners got injured this season. Even Peng hurt her knee the week before at the Rogers Cup and the two had to pull out of the Toronto event after making it through to the quarter-finals.
The Indian will be looking to get some much-needed momentum before the US Open as she hopes to defend her Connecticut Open title this week.
