By reaching the final of the Hall of Fame Tennis Championship in Newport, Ramkumar Ramanathan has achieved what only a select few Indians have been able to do so. By doing so, he became only the sixth Indian in the open era to have at least reached the final of a ATP Tour tournament.

In the ATP 250 Series Hall of Fame tournament, he reached the final in style to eventually go down fighting to 3rd seed and World No. 48 Steve Johnson in 3 sets.

Let us have a look at the key takeaways from this significant achievement.

1. Elite Club – Only Vijay Amritraj, Ramesh Krishnan, Leander Paes, Prakash Amritraj and Somdev Devvarman have at least reached the finals of ATP Tour tournaments. Of the above players, all of them have a ATP Tour Title except for Prakash Amritraj and Somdev Devvarman.

2. Exclusive Distinction – While many will argue that Yuki Bhambri is still the best Singles player in the country, Ramkumar Ramanathan is still the only player from among the active Indian players to have achieved this rare distinction.

Ramkumar Ramanathan at the Hall of Fame, Newport – Chasing down bigger dreams.

3. Grass is Sweet – Both his best appearances in the ATP tour have been on grass. Last year he created ripples by reaching the quarter final of the Antalya Open where he beat the then World No. 8 Dominc Thiem on the way.

4. Highest Ranking – With this great run at Hall of Fame, Ramkumar has equaled his best ever ranking of 115 on the ATP.

5. Improved Game – He has shown that he is a good learner. Apart from making his net game stronger which otherwise has been decent he has shown good improvement with his backhand which has been on the weaker side.

6. Depth in Indian Tennis – His performance has enhanced the belief that India has some good depth in Singles. Yuki Bhambri, Prajnesh Gunneswaran and Ramkumar Ramanathan have proved that Indians can be world beaters in the circuit. With players like Sumit Nagal and Sasi Kumar Mukund, India has a good future in store.

This best ever performance should set an ideal platform for Ramkumar to set higher targets. With his new found confidence, he should be able to crack top 100 in sometime and take his career to the next level.