When Ramkumar Ramanathan stunned Dominic Thiem

Ramkumar Ramanathan’s favourite. They are fast and Ram can bring his preferred serve-and-volley game to the fore. The 2017 Antalya Open was also played on grass.

It was the first edition of the tournament. Austrian Dominic Thiem, world No. 8 then, was the top seed.

He was fresh from playing the semifinals of the 2017 French Open, and had got a bye into the second round in Antalya – a coastal city in Turkey. Thiem was scheduled to face a qualifier. The qualifier turned out to be India’s Ramanathan, who was world No.

222 then. Ram beat Thiem in straight sets 6-3, 6-2 to pull off one of the biggest wins in Indian tennis history. It is arguably the most significant win by an Indian singles tennis player in the last decade.

Recalling the momentous feat, Ramkumar said, “That has been the highlight of my career. The pressure was there, but I was really focused. I was serving well and kept myself ahead throughout the match.

“Maybe the first game I was bit nervous, but I served really well with two aces and two first serves and had a love hold. After that I didn’t think that it was Dominic Thiem on the other side and I stuck to my plan.” Adding further, Ramkumar said, “It was crazy because I wasn’t even going to get into the draw. It was the last second that I got into the qualifiers, and then won two matches in the qualifiers, then won a good match in the first round and then played Thiem and beat him to reach the quarterfinals.

I almost defeated (Marcos) Baghdatis in the quarters. In that tournament, I did put in a lot of hard work but was also very patient. It clicked for me.” Ramkumar will be spearheading India in the Davis Cup tie against Denmark.