Ramkumar Ramanathan, unintentionally, had his great doubles season last year. But that’s not enough incentive for him to have doubles as his core than peripheral focus. He still emphatically claims that he’s primarily a singles player.
He partnered with Rohan Bopanna to clinch the doubles title at the Adelaide International 1 ATP 250 event and encouraged by that, he again joined with Bopanna to win at the Tata Open Maharashtra ATP 250 event. He then won at a Bengaluru Challenger event with Saketh Myneni. Besides this, he made it to six doubles quarterfinals, four semifinals, and three finals on the ATP Tour. The icing on the cake was his breaching into the top-100 in the doubles rankings - he got to his career-high doubles rank of 58 in August.
Even the reigning US Open and ATP Tour Finals doubles champion Rajeev Ram felt that he had the potential to shape up as a very good doubles player.
All this, and he apologetically says, “Don’t get me wrong, but I definitely wanna play more singles,” at the B.R. Adityan Memorial ITF men’s futures in Gandhi Nagar Club (GNC) on Thursday.
“I enjoy playing doubles also.” Doubles for him is an afterthought. That’s why he’s played with a lot of different doubles partners and who he partners with depends on where he goes to play singles.
It’s as if he keeps telling himself hand-over-heart, year-after-year: “One more shot.”
“I just don’t want to play doubles every week. So, at least give it another shot, try, you know. Because, I’m not like 1000 (in singles rankings), I’m like 400 (414). I’m pretty sure if I put in the work I can get it back slowly.”
The singles results haven’t been great so far this year, yet he remains bullish. And he admits he’s been “rusty.”
“I mean I started off pretty well in Pune (Tata Open Maharashtra). I had a couple of good wins. That gave me a little boost. But I wasn’t able to capitalise on the Indian Challengers. I lost a tough match in Chennai where I could have won. Bengaluru was a pretty tricky situation, I just played one (match) and I had to go to Dubai the week after. So, those three weeks were good learning for me, and at least now I’m more clear on what I want.”
“It’s all about grinding and fighting for every point because obviously, I am a little rusty, but match-by-match I’m trying to get better and trying to use every bit of my experience and get my rhythm back.”
So, what’s his immediate aim in the singles?
“I want to try to do well in the coming three or four futures; try to get some matches, 10-15 good matches, so that I can start playing on grass which I really like.
“Then, play the grass season, challengers hopefully, and also if I can make it to the Wimbledon qualifiers, I will be very happy.
“I know that my doubles rank will drop a little bit. I’m not too worried about that because I honestly think I can get that back whenever I want to. If I can play the grass stretch and the US stretch that’ll be really good for me. It’ll really help my confidence.”
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