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India’s highest ranked men’s singles player Somdev Devvarman has moved up two spots to 187th in the latest ATP rankings. Somdev last played in the ATP Tallahassee Challenger clay court tournament, where he went down fighting to 20-year-old American Denis Kudla in straight sets 6-7 (4), 4-6 in the first round.
Somdev had recently surged twenty-one spots in recent weeks following a creditable semi-final finish in the ATP Sarasota Challenger clay court tennis tournament, held in Florida, USA.
The Indian had prevailed over two higher ranked players en route to the men’s singles semi-finals, where he was shown the championship exit door by eventual champion American Alex Kuznetsov of USA. He toppled 93rd ranked Jesse Levine of Canada in the first round before disposing of 152nd ranked German Mischa Zverev in the quarterfinals.
The Indian is on a comeback trail after a serious shoulder injury put him out of action for more than nine months in 2012 and has been regularly taking part in ATP events since late last year. He had reached a career-high ATP ranking of 62 in July 2011. He recently locked horns with world number one Novak Djokovic in the third round of the Miami Masters and lost in straight sets to the Serb.
Among the other Indian men’s singles players, Prakash Amritraj, son of legendary Vijay Amritraj, surged fifty seven spots to 313th largely on the back of his semi-final finish in the ATP Karshi Challenger held in Uzbekistan.
Saketh Myneni, who won the recently-concluded Chandigarh ITF Futures, beating Vijayant Malik in the final, also moved up fifty spots to 341. Yuki Bhambri, who was given the top billing in the recent Chandigarh ITF Futures and was upset in the quarterfinals, fell five places to 273rd.
N Sriram Balaji dropped twenty five spots to 360th. Talented Sanam Singh retained his last week’s ranking of 340. Vishnu Vardhan, who slumped fifty eight places last week, fell four places to 408th.
Among the Indian women, Ankita Raina who became the country’s highest ranked women’s singles player, advanced two places to be ranked 461st in the latest WTA rankings.
Rishika Sunkara retained her last week’s ranking of 480. Prerna Bhambri – cousin of Ankita and Sanaa Bhambri – dropped five spots to 518th. Prarthana Thombare, who surged forty six spots last week, fell three spots to 581th. Nidhi Chilumula, slipped three places to occupy the 586th spot.
