Ramkumar Ramanathan

Ramkumar Ramanathan (born 8 November 1994) is a professional Indian tennis player. He is the first Indian player to reach an ATP world tour singles final since Somdev Devvarman. He achieved his highest singles ranking of 111 on 30 July 2018, and represents India in the Davis Cup.

Ramanathan started playing tennis at the age of five. He was introduced to the sport by his father Ramanathan. His mother's name is Alagammai and sister's name is Uma. Both his parents are into the textile business. He speaks English, Spanish and Tamil. He trains at Sanchez-Casal Academy in Barcelona, Spain. He is currently pursuing B.A. in Economics at Loyola College.

2014-2016: Early career

In 2014, Ramanathan hit the headlines when he qualified for the main draw of the Chennai Open and beat then Indian No.1 Somdev Devvarman in the first round. He eventually lost to Marcel Granollers in second round.

In 2015, Ramanathan played mostly on Futures and Challenger level. He entered Chennai Open where he lost in first round to Tatsuma Ito in straight sets. In April, he reached his first doubles final at a challenger event at Mersin Cup in Turkey. Partnering with Riccardo Ghedin, the pair lost final to Mate Pavić and Michael Venus. He entered his second ATP world tour event of the year at Malaysian Open where he lost in first round to Mikhail Kukushkin.

In the 2016 season Ramanathan entered Chennai Open and reached the quarterfinals. This was the first time he reached to quarterfinals at an ATP World Tour event. He defeated Daniel Gimeno Traver and Alexander Kudryavtsev in first and second rounds respectively. He eventually lost to Aljaž Bedene in quarterfinals. In October, Ramanathan partnered with Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan. The pair reached the final at Vietnam Open Challenger where they lost to Sanchai Ratiwatana and Sonchat Ratiwatana from Thailand to finish as runners-up.

2017: Challenger breakthrough and first top-10 win

In April, Ramanathan reached his first singles challenger final at Tallahassee challenger. He lost the final to Blaž Rola from Slovenia to finish as runner-up.

Ramanathan entered 2017 Antalya Open where he produced a big upset by defeating world No. 8 and top seed Dominic Thiem in the second round. This was his first match against a top-10 player. Ranked world No. 222, Ramanathan defeated Thiem in straight sets 6–3, 6–2. He progressed till the quarterfinals where he lost to Marcos Baghdatis in a third set tie break.

In July, he reached his second singles challenger final at Nielsen Pro Tennis Championships. But here too he had to be content as runner-up. He lost the final in straight sets to Akira Santillan from Japan.

In August, Ramanathan qualified for the first time in main draw of a Masters 1000 tournament at Cincinnati Masters. He defeated Christopher Eubanks in first round but lost to Jared Donaldson in second round. Ramanathan entered qualifying draw of US Open. He defeated Paul-Henri Mathieu in first round but lost to Nicolas Mahut in second round. He finished year with singlesranking of 148.

2018: First ATP world tour final

Ramanathan opened his new season by entering Maharashtra Open as a wild card. He lost in round 2 to top seed Marin Cilic in straight sets. He then entered qualifying draw of Australian Open where he lost in final qualifying round to Vasek Pospisil.

In April, Ramanathan reached his first challenger singles final of the season at Taipei Challenger. He was defeated in the finals by compatriot Yuki Bhambri.

In July, Ramanathan reached his first ATP world tour final at Newport. He lost in the final to Steve Johnson from USA. He became first Indian player to reach an ATP world tour singles final since Somdev Devvarman who had reached the final at Johannesburg in 2011.

In November, he won his first doubles ATP Challenger title at Pune Challenger. He paired with compatriot Vijay Sundar Prashanth and defeated team ofHsieh Cheng-peng and Yang Tsung-hua from Taipei in the final. He finished the year with singles ranking of 133.

Singles: 1 (1 runner-up)

Singles: 26 (16–10)

Doubles: 38 (20–18)

Updated through the 2019 Wimbledon Championships.