Somdev Devvarman skids one spot to 188 in ATP rankings

India’s highest ranked men’s singles player Somdev Devvarman dropped one spot to be ranked 188th in the latest ATP rankings.

It may be worth recalling that Somdev had 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 opening round.

The Indian had recently surged twenty-one spots after reaching the semifinals of the ATP Sarasota Challenger clay court tennis tournament.

Somdev had put it across 93rd ranked Jesse Levine of Canada in the first round before toppling the 152nd ranked German Mischa Zverev in the quarterfinals. He is on a comeback trail after a lingering shoulder injury forced him on the sidelines for more than nine months in 2012.

Somdev has been regularly taking part in ATP events only since late last year. He had reached a career-high ATP ranking of 62 in July 2011.

Earlier this year, he took on world number one Novak Djokovic in the third round of the Miami Masters and lost in straight sets to the Serb.

Among other Indian men’s singles players, Prakash Amritraj, son of legendary Vijay Amritraj, who clambered fifty-seven spots last week largely on his recent semifinal finish in the ATP Karshi Challenger in Uzbekistan, slipped two places to occupy the 315^th position.

However, Yuki Bhambri’s slump in rankings came as a dampener.

Yuki, who was the top-seed in the Chandigarh ITF Futures where he was ousted in the quarterfinals, plunged 138 spots to be placed 411^th. From being the second highest ranked Indian singles player, Yuki has indeed plumbed a new low.

Saketh Myneni brought some good news for Indian tennis. The 25-year-old, who won both the Chandigarh and Rohtak Futures, scaled up 41 spots to be placed 300^th making him the country’s second highest ranked singles player.

Sanam Singh advanced two spots to occupy the 338^th position while N Sriram Balaji moved up twelve places to be ranked 348th.

Vishnu Vardhan fell fourteen places to be ranked 422nd.

Vijayant Malik, who was runners-up in the Chandigarh ITF Futures, edged up fourteen places to be placed 484^th.

Among the Indian women, Ankita Raina moved up one notch and continues to be the country’s highest ranked women’s singles player at 461.

Rishika Sunkara advanced five places to be ranked 475^th.

Prerna Bhambri – cousin of Ankita and Sanaa Bhambri – jumped three spots to be ranked 515th.

Prarthana Thombare advanced three spots to be placed 578th.

Nidhi Chilumula climbed two spots to occupy the 584th spot.