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In the season that just finished recently, Indian tennis has been on the upswing in terms of rankings. Last year had couple of the biggest upsets in Indian tennis history, with Yuki Bhambri and Ramkumar Ramanathan beating Monfils and Thiem.
But, the average rankings of the country has gone up this year, especially in the last 8 months. Yuki achieved a ranking of 83 in early April and in the same month Prajnesh Gunneswaran propelled himself into the top 175.
Ramkumar too achieved a career high ranking of 111 late this July while Saketh Myneni has gone up to around 200 from being placed 620th last year. Arjun Kadhe is now placed about 168, a monumental climb of nearly 450 points from January.
All of India's top players have improved their performances this year. Even though the best match results came last year, this time around they have been better in terms of consistency.
Today we see the best upsets of 2018 by Indian tennis players:
3. Yuki Bhambri v Taylor Fritz, Queen's Club Championship
Yuki Bhambri has had a mixed year as he reached his career-high ranking in the middle and dropped by about 40 places nearing the end, partly due to a knee injury. But still, he improved his year-end ranking and, along the way, he pulled off a few great victories.
During the Queen's Club Championships in London, Yuki faced current Top-50 player Taylor Fritz in the qualifiers. The American was ranked in the 60s at that time.
The Indian was compact in the first set, breaking in the first game. He was broken back but broke again to take the first set 6-4. In the second, he turned it on and raced to a 5-0 lead, eventually winning it 6-2 to qualify.
The Delhiite won 51% of his return points with a conversion rate of 76% off Fritz's 2nd serves. Although serve hasn't been his strong suit, Yuki Bhambri has always found a way to work around it.
2. Prajnesh Gunneswaran v Denis Shapovalov, Stuttgart Open
Prajnesh Gunneswaran qualified for his first ATP World Tour event at Stuttgart after winning his qualifier. A maiden Challenger title earlier made sure he could compete for a place in the main draw. He faced Denis Shapovalov, who burst on the the scenes when he reached Round 4 of the US Open in 2017.
A good player at juniors himself, Gunneswaran found himself playing a player 9 years younger, but ranked 23rd. It might've brought back the painful memories of his injury struggles that prevented his senior career from blooming at the right time. He showed that he'd put that behind when he broke the Canadian in the very first game.
Prajnesh broke yet again after his opponent tied things up. But, he gave a break when serving for the set, eventually winning it in the tie-break 8-6. However, he was destroyed 2-6 in the second set.
The Chennaite then raced ahead to a 4-0 lead in Set 3. He was broken back once but held his nerve to serve out the match. With that, he completed a shock Top-30 victory.
1. Yuki Bhambri v Lucas Pouille, Indian Wells Masters
Yuki Bhambri's second appearance in this article is India's best match result of this year. After beating Nicolas Mahut in the first round of the Indian Wells Masters, he set up a contest with the-then No.12 Lucas Pouille. He got off to the perfect start as he broke his serve twice, including the first game of the match, to go 4-1 up.
Yuki took the 1st set 6-4 after being broken back once. In the second set too, he got an early break, but this time Pouille broke back to level things up at 3-3.
In the 9th game, Bhambri was relentless on the Frenchman's serve, picking up another break after 5 deuces! He showed no nerves whatsoever, holding to love to complete a memorable upset for him and for the Indian tennis enthusiasts.
Yuki Bhambri had a lot more first serves in with 76% of them landing inside the service box and that was one of the factors in his victory.
