How top three Indian Tennis players progressed in ATP rankings so far in 2018

1. 
   

   As we are already into the second Grand Slam (French Open) of the year and the third one (Wimbledon) is not so far, let us review the mid-year performance and progression of India's top-ranked singles players. India may have never been a champion side in the Davis Cup or had produced a Grand Slam singles winner, but it always had one or two individual players who excelled at the world stage. In today's scenario, we do have three seasoned campaigners who are gradually showing improvement with every passing game. All these players have already spent years on ATP circuit and gained good enough experiences at the highest level of the sport. This year they all are looking forward to taking their careers to a new height and set the newer examples.

   Yuki Bhambri (India's No.1 and World No 94):Although Yuki is only 25 years old, he is already a veteran in world tennis circuit. He became a professional tennis player way back in 2010 and had many difficulties in his career. If we consider the performance of 2018 and the latest ATP rankings, he is the lone Indian in top 100 bracket with a world ranking of 94. He started the year at 118 and climbed 24 places already to find himself at 94. Bhambri qualified for the Australian Open main draw after winning all three-qualification rounds and eventually losing out to Marcos Baghdatis in the first round. His next major success came when he reached Round of 32 & Round of 64 in BNP Paribas and Miami Open respectively and came through very tough qualification rounds. Yuki got 61 & 41 valuable ATP points from those two major tournaments, added to that he won Santaizi Challengers in Taipai and finished as a runner-up in Chennai Open. Currently, he is playing in the main draw of Roland Garros as a lone Indian representative and already has his name visible in the entry list of Wimbledon. We must say that it is so far so good for Yuki apart from an injury scare, which led him to withdraw from the all-important Davis Cup tie against China. We hope he will continue his good work in later half of the year & continue to make us proud by reaching top 50.

   Ramkumar Ramanathan (India's No 2 & World No. 121):Known as the busiest Indian in the ATP circuit who has already played 15 tournaments so far in 2018. The hard-working Indian started the year with a ranking of 148 and climbed up 27 places so far to find himself at 121. First three months of the year went against his plan, as he could not qualify for the Australian Open and losing out in the third qualification round. The same trend continues for next few world tour tournaments like Mexicano open, BNP Paribas Open and Miami open where he could not qualify for the main draw. However, things got to brighten up in next few months when Ram decided to play more challenger tournaments and eventually ended up as a finalist at Santaizi. This effort took him to 121st place in ATP world rankings but it is clear that he is still trying to find the rhythm and the desired consistency level. As Ram is only 23, he can still have time to fine-tune his net play and return and climb the ladder in the ATP rankings. We wish him a better second half of the year where he should able to break into top 100 brackets in the ATP ranking.

   Prajnesh Gunneswaran (India's No.3 & world No.183):No one had given this 28 years old Indian lad a chance at the beginning of the year but he is the best mover so far among the top three Indian tennis stars. With the help of some terrific performances, he had moved up to the 183rd position from 243, an improvement of 60 places as per the latest published world singles rankings. We must not forget to mention the special performance in Davis Cup when he rescued India in a deciding rubber against China and took the nation to world group playoffs. This year he registered his first ever ATP challenger win in Kunming open and received 125 valuable points. Last week also Prajnesh came very close to qualify for the Roland Garros but unfortunately was ineligible to take the final lucky loser spot since he was already in the main draw of next week's Vicen Challenger. He too can do wonder in ATP rankings if he can stay injury free throughout the season.