India's top singles player Ramkumar Ramanathan on Tuesday recorded the biggest win of his nascent singles career - a stunning straight-set 6-3-6-2 victory over world No 8 Dominic Thiem in the pre-quarter finals of the Antalya Open in Turkey.
The unheralded Ramkumar ranked 222 in the world, brushed aside the Austrian challenge in only 59 minutes to make it to the last eight of the USD 439,000 prize-money tournament. This was his first-ever victory over a top-10 player in the ATP rankings.
Here's all you need to know about Chennai boy -
1. Born on November 8, 1994, Ramkumar was introduced to tennis at the age of five by father Ramanathan. His father and mother, Alagammai, are both in the textile business. His sister, Uma, is a student of Masters of Science. Ramkumar is studying BA Economics.
2. Growing up Roger Federer and his coach Juan Balcells inspired Ramkumar.
3. By the age of 16, Ramkumar had won junior nationals twice and third place in Junior Davis Cup. He turned pro in 2009.
4. Ramkumar trained at Sanchez-Casal Academy in Barcelona, Spain. Maybe this is why it comes as no surprise that clay is his favourite surface to play on and Barcelona being his favourite football club.
5. If not tennis player, Ramkumar has said that cricket would have been the next sport one would have seen him play.
6. Winning his first Futures title in Raipur on his birthday, November 8, 2014, is his best memory on the circuit.
7. His career high singles ranking was 196 on July 25, 2016, and for doubles, it was 214 on October 10, 2016.
8. Ramkumar Ramanathan is not part of India's Davis Cup team and has most singles win.
