Early promise, daily improvement: How Ramkumar Ramanathan is refining his game to climb up the ranks

Ramkumar Ramanathan made heads turn in his very first ATP World Tour match when he beat India No 1 Somdev Devvarman as a 19-year-old qualifier at the 2014 Chennai Open.

He has had hot-and-cold run on the tour in the four years since, losing four Challenger finals, not playing in the main draw of a Grand Slam yet but reaching the quarter-finals of three ATP 250 events.

Four years since that memorable win in Chennai, Ramkumar came into the India’s season-opening ATP competition this year as world No 148 after a season that gave him his first win over a Top-10 player, beating Dominic Thiem on grass at Antalya, as well as Masters 1000 debut.

And even though he lost to Marin Cilic in the second round, even his opponents had nice things to say about the Indian youngster’s spirited game, giving a succinct analysis of his game.

 “He is serving quite good, he has got good pace on the first serve and on second serve as well he was good today. His forehand is also quite good coming in, just off the backhand he was probably not as consistent as he could be and that’s obviously an area he can work still in his game. But overall he was fighting quite well and he had good mentality on court so obviously that’s important.”  

The cracking forehand, that big serve and the aggression has only improved since then, and it was on full display as he reached his first final on the ATP World Tour, going down fighting against Steve Johnson at the Hall of Fame Tennis Championship in Newport. Despite the runner-up finish, it was a good week of tennis from the 23-year-old who showed what he is capable of.

Despite coming off a five-match losing streak, he kept his cool, maintained a good physical level and employed the more refined elements to his game in the last year.

“I have been working a lot on my returns, focusing on being a lot more aggressive and working on my net game. It went well and I could do most of it during the matches.

“(Just before this tournament) I went to the courts, worked on my serve and took a few days off to get my mind refreshed. I think it worked out, I started to find the timing of my serves and my confidence went up. So it’s all these small things that worked really well,” Ramkumar told Scroll.in from US.

Early promise

For Thyagarajan Chandrasekaran, his first coach in Chennai who spotted the spark in Ramkumar, these small things are what have always set him apart.

“Ramkumar was very talented and promising, understanding the technical instructions well. I knew then itself that he would do well in his career. Even at that age I could make out how ambitious he was, he stayed longer on court and played more than the other, working very hard,” Chandra told Scroll.in.

The man who gave Ram his grounding in tennis technique always gets a special mention from the Chennai player. He was eight years old when he came to Chandra sir and continued to train with him till he moved to Spain to train with Emilio Sanchez at the Sanchez-Casal Tennis Academy in Barcelona at the age of 17. It’s the same academy where the likes of Andy Murray, Grigor Dimitrov have also trained in the past.

“He became very serious about tennis in his teens, he won the junior nationals when he was only 15 and went on to win many Under-18 titles which showed that he was serious about the game,” his first coach added.

From back then, Chandra, who was in charge of the National Tennis Academy, believes that Ram can be among the best players in the world and is very animated when he discusses his ward’s game. Having played tennis himself and coached 15 Davis Cup players including Leander Paes for six years, he had a wealth of expertise to share and a willing student.

Working on technique

For example, the strapping 6’2” player’s booming serve was not strong to begin with.

“He had little problems with serve when he was young, but we kept on making corrections, there were a lot of additions to the technique and then he started serving very light. The fact that he is tall helps, but we worked on generation of pace and spin.

“Ram can sometimes get aggressive on the second serve and it is an important aspect that you can’t mess. He said to me that if he reduces the pace, his opponents hits it back hard. I suggested that he should add more spin to it. But the safety on second serve is also important, you can’t scram it because if it is a double fault, then the pressure is on you. That is why you need both pace and safety on your second serve and that is what he has been doing, he is going for the second serve also,” Chandra explained.

In the final against Johnson, Ram won 75% points on his first serve and 51% on his second, which was better than Johnson’s. He also had 10 aces to four doubles faults compared to Johnson’s lone ace and six double faults. In a match where he was broken thrice, he still managed to score some very pretty points on serve.

His forehand stood out as well, as he put a lot more power behind it, attempting running shots. Having worked a lot on it, Chandra said that it is a devastating weapon that Ram has to keep improving. However, his former coach also admitted that his backhand is a chink that needs to be ironed out.

“His backhand is not weak but recently he has started slicing more on his backhand. You can slice the ball when you want to neutralise the point, but on a regular basis, if you use slice this much, the opponent’s position becomes solid.”

Support from Leander Paes

Ram himself had addressed these concerns back in Pune after his loss to Cilic and said he it is an aspect he is working on it. And apart from Sanchez and Chandra, the 23-year-old also has the guidance of Leander Paes, the last Indian to win an ATP singles title.

“We were together going out for dinner and he was always there to support me [in Newport, where he played doubles.],” said Ram, adding the experienced campaigner helped him a lot with strategy and planning.

With the right mentors, technical background, fitness and age on his side, Ram has the time to really come into his own on the ATP singles tour, a sight not seen in Indian tennis for a while.

Last year’s his best performance after Antalya quarters came at the Cincinnati Masters where he reached the second round as the lucky loser. And after a morale-boosting week like this, he will back himself to do better this hard court season.

But up next, is a tough first-round meeting with Gen Next star Taylor Fritz at the Atlanta Open. Given the week gone by, it would be understandable if Ram cannot maintain the same level. However, with his improved fitness and stronger mental ability, it is time that he finally crosses the threshold. From 160 to a career-best ranking of 115 this week, the onus is on him to maintain that push forward to break into the Top 100 and make more regular appearances on the ATP Circuit.