rajeev ram

Jack Sock, Rajeev Ram Put Team USA Over The Top In Davis Cup Win Over Colombia In Reno

March 6, 2022 by tennisbloggers Leave a Comment

An American doubles team of Jack Sock and Rajeev Ram was too much for a Colombian doubles team missing Robert Farah, as the American tandem overwhelmed Juan Sebastian Cabal and substitute Nicolas Barrientos to clinch victory in this Qualifying tie and punch the USA’s ticket to the Davis Cup by Rakuten Finals Group Stages in September.

Sock and Ram won their second straight Davis Cup doubles match together, 6-4, 6-3, as Barrientos was tabbed to sub in for Farah, who had a neck injury. Tommy Paul finished the tie with a 7-5, 7-6(4) win over Nicolas Mejia in a dead singles match.

The Americans will be one of the 16 teams competing in the Group Stages of the 2022 Finals September 14-18 in a location yet to be announced. The top eight nations from the Group Stage advance to the knockout stage of the Finals November 23-27, also in a location yet to be announced, that will crown this year’s Davis Cup champion.

Friday Results

Sebastian Korda (USA) d. Nicolas Mejia (COL), 6-4, 1-6, 6-4

Taylor Fritz (USA) d. Alejandro Gonzalez (COL), 6-1, 6-0

Saturday Results

Jack Sock and Rajeev Ram (USA) d. Juan Sebastian Cabal and Nicolas Barrientos (COL), 6-3, 6-4

Tommy Paul (USA) d. Nicolas Mejia (COL), 7-5, 7-6(4)

U.S. Davis Cup Team In Reno (photo via Mike Lawrence / USTA)

Taylor Fritz, Tommy Paul, Sebi Korda Highlight U.S. Davis Cup Team For Face Colombia In Reno

February 2, 2022 by Randy Walker Leave a Comment

The USTA and United States Davis Cup Captain Mardy Fish today announced that Taylor Fritz, Tommy Paul, Sebastian Korda, Jack Sock and Rajeev Ram will represent the U.S. for its Davis Cup by Rakuten Qualifying tie vs. Colombia March 4-5 in Reno, Nevada.

Davis Cup is the World Cup of Men’s Tennis and is the largest international team competition in world sport, with nearly 150 nations competing each year. The Qualifier vs. Colombia is a best-of-five match series played over two days, beginning with two singles matches on Friday, March 4. A doubles match and two reverse singles matches will follow on Saturday, March 5. The first to win three of those matches will advance to the 2022 Davis Cup Finals – a 16-nation, multi-city competition held later this year with dates and locations to be announced.

Tickets are on sale and can be purchased at usta.com/daviscup or via Ticketmaster.

The U.S. team competing in Reno is full of the sport’s top young rising stars and established Grand Slam champions.

Fritz, 24, is the top-ranked American man at No. 20 and reached the final 16 at the Australian Open this year. The Californian has competed for the U.S. in Davis Cup since 2019, when, at 21 years old, he became the youngest American to debut in the Top 25 since Andy Roddick in 2004.

Paul, 24, is ranked No. 42 and will be making his second Davis Cup appearance. A former junior French Open champion and 2020 Tokyo Olympian, Paul earned his first career win over a Top 5-ranked opponent and won his first ATP singles title in 2021.

Korda, 21, is ranked No. 43 and will be making his Davis Cup debut. A former junior world No. 1 and one of the sport’s top young rising stars, Korda rose from outside the Top 300 to inside the Top 40 in a span of less than two years and won his first ATP singles title in 2021.

Sock, 29, has been ranked as high as No. 2 in doubles and No. 8 in singles and has been playing Davis Cup since 2015. A three-time Grand Slam doubles champion and 2016 Rio Olympic men’s doubles gold medalist, Sock is 9-4 overall in Davis Cup play with a 5-1 mark in doubles.

Ram, 37, is ranked a career-high No. 4 in doubles and is making his second consecutive Davis Cup appearance. A two-time U.S. Olympian and 2016 Rio silver medalist in mixed doubles, Ram won his second Grand Slam and third ATP Masters 1000 doubles titles last summer at the US Open and Toronto, respectively, and owns 22 career ATP doubles titles.

This is the first time Davis Cup has been played in Northern Nevada. Davis Cup has only come to Nevada once before, a 1995 matchup between the U.S. and Sweden at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas that the U.S. won en route to winning the title that year. The United States owns an all-time record of 114-19 when playing at home and last won the title in 2007.

The U.S. and Colombia have split their four Davis Cup meetings, with the Colombians winning the latest matchup in the group stages of the 2021 Finals last fall in Turin, Italy.

Deloitte is the official sponsor of the U.S. Davis Cup Team. Wilson is the official ball of the U.S. Davis Cup Team.

For more information, including access to player and historical records, visit www.usta.com/daviscup or www.daviscup.com.

Roberta Vinci Becomes Oldest Top 10 Debutant – Passing Shots with Kevin Craig

February 22, 2016 by tennisbloggers

by Kevin Craig

@KCraig_Tennis

The WTA event in Dubai this week was the first time that all eight seeds of a WTA or ATP event lost in their first matches.
The final in Rio de Janeiro between Guido Pella and Pablo Cuevas had the highest combined ranking of the two finalists in the history of ATP 500 level events. The final was also the first all-unseeded final since Valencia in 2011.
Roberta Vinci became the oldest player on the WTA to reach the Top 10 for the first time in their career. At 33 years and 4 days, Vinci leaps previous record holder Betty Stove who was 31 years and 100 days old when she cracked the Top 10 for the first time.
In Nick Kyrgios’ title run in Marseille, he became the first player aged 20 years old or younger to win consecutive matches against Top 10 players (Gasquet and Berdych) since Juan Martin Del Potro did so in the semifinals and finals of the 2009 US Open (Nadal and Federer).
Thiago Monteiro, a 21 year old Brazilian, made his ATP World Tour debut as a wild card in Rio de Janeiro, and became the first player ranked outside the Top 300 to beat a Top 10 player in his ATP debut since Corrado Borroni beat Yevgeny Kafelnikov in Rome in 1995.
In Rajeev Ram’s run to the final in Delray Beach, he beat Grigor Dimitrov along the way, increasing his unexpected head-to-head record against the Bulgarian to 4-0.
In John Isner’s loss to Pella in Rio de Janeiro, Isner hit the most aces in a best-of-three set match on clay that he has ever hit in his career, 31.
Oliver Marach and Fabrice Martin won the doubles title in Delray Beach, beating Bob and Mike Bryan in the final. Marach and Martin saved six match points in the final, including coming back from 5-9 down in the match tiebreak.
Sander Groen played in the doubles event in Delray Beach this week. Groen has been in the ATP rankings for 27 consecutive years now, and helped Roger Federer win his first professional title, winning the doubles title in Segovia in 1999. Groen also holds the record for most partners played with throughout his career, as he has played with 172 different partners on the challenger circuit and World Tour level.
Marco Chiudinelli won the Wroclaw challenger this week, his first challenger title since 2009. In doing so, he won his 10^th consecutive tiebreak.

Sam Querrey Beats Rajeev Ram In Delray Beach Final

February 21, 2016 by tennisbloggers

by Kevin Craig

@KCraig_Tennis

In the first all-American final on the ATP tour since April of 2015, Sam Querrey defeated Rajeev Ram 6-4, 7-6 in the Delray Beach Open final. Playing in good conditions with a neutral crowd, Querrey proved to be the better player on the day, crushing his serve and simply playing at a more consistent level throughout the match.

The first set saw Ram jump out to a quick lead by breaking Querrey in the first game of the match. This was a surprise in itself as Querrey came from not facing a single break point in the semifinals against Juan Martin Del Potro, to being broken in the first game of the final. Querrey was not phased, though, as he managed to break right back in the next game to get back on serve. Aside from one game at 3-3 where Querrey was taken to deuce, the set was straightforward until Ram served at 4-5. After going up 40-15 in the game, Ram dropped four consecutive points as Querrey managed to break to win the set, 6-4.

The second set got off to a similar start as the first as Ram opened it up by breaking Querrey, this time at love. Ram was able to consolidate in his first service game of the set, but came across trouble serving at 2-1. Querrey managed to fight back from 40-30 to win three points in a row to get the break and level the set at 2-2. This time, both servers were able to see things through to the tiebreak with only a few hiccups along the way. Ram saved a break point at 2-3, while Querrey double faulted on consecutive points after going up 40-15 in his 5-5 service game. Both players were able to hold their nerve in those respective situations, though, sending the second set to a tiebreak.

Ram got off to a good start in the tiebreak, jumping out to a 3-0 lead and eventually holding a 5-2 lead. From there, Querrey managed to win three points in a row to get back on serve in the tiebreak, before saving a set point with an ace at 5-6. After the second change of ends with the score at 6-6, Querrey earned a match point and took advantage of it by hitting an impressive running forehand passing shot that just barely clipped the baseline to win the title.

Querrey and Ram both stated in their press conferences that they felt a little nervous throughout the match, mostly because of the fact they know each other so well. Querrey claimed that what got him through the match and to the title was simply the willingness to win, as he claimed that he had to resort to “ugly tennis” to get the win. Playing at a level below his best yet still managing to win a tournament gives Querrey loads of confidence as he heads into an important part of the season with the Indian Wells-Miami double coming up.

The title for Querrey is his eighth on the ATP World Tour, six of which have come on American soil, but his first since the summer of 2012. The win will cause Querrey’s ranking to jump to No. 43 in the world, the highest his ranking has been since September of 2015.

After a down season in 2015 in which Querrey lost in the first round of half the events he played in, he has been able to get off to a decent start this season, making the veteran American feel great about where his game is right now. The title in Delray Beach was preceded by a semifinal run in Memphis where he was only stopped by Kei Nishikori in a three-setter. Looking forward, Querrey has plenty of room for his ranking to improve in 2016 as he has very little to defend. Other than trying to defend two finals appearances, both of which will come before Wimbledon, he only has second round points to defend for the rest of the year, which Querrey is one bright side of “having a crappy year.”

For Ram, he is disappointed to have lost in the final, but making it that far was surely a pleasant surprise for him. Battling past Bernard Tomic in the first round, fighting back from a set and a break down in the quarterfinals against Benjamin Becker, and beating Grigor Dimitrov in the semifinals will be enough for Ram to look back at this week as a huge positive, although he did state that “you never come into a tournament hoping to lose in the first round” when asked if he was pleased with his run this week.

Not only are the match results impressive for Ram, but he will also now jump to a new career high ranking of No. 60, blowing past his previous career high of No. 78. This run will give Ram the confidence needed to continue his success throughout the rest of the 2016 season as he will look to defend his title in Newport in the summer and attempt to finish in the Top 100 in back-to-back years for the first time in his career.

Ram stated that he feels as if he is currently playing the best tennis of his career and has high hopes for the rest of the 2016 season. His plan for the rest of the year is to see where he is ranked after Miami and schedule accordingly his events in Europe. He wants to be well rested for the grass court season and North American hard court swing in the summer, the time of the year in which he feels that he plays his best tennis.

After an event in which many people around the tennis world expected Kevin Anderson, Del Potro, and Dimitrov to have the best weeks, it is two Americans who come out on top and head into the rest of their seasons with confidence.

Keeping Score: How American Men Fared in Melbourne

January 18, 2013 by Chris Skelton

Ryan Harrison led a legion of American men into Melbourne this fortnight.

With all of the American men gone by the third round of the Australian Open, we look back on how each of them fared. Interestingly, the greatest accomplishments came from some of the least expected names, while the more familiar figures often fizzled.
Ryan Harrison: Avenging his Olympics loss to Giraldo with a four-set victory, he relied on defensive tennis to a startling degree and could not trouble Djokovic at all in the second round. Harrison’s serve looked sharp, but he appears to have improved his game little over the last year or so.
Sam Querrey: The last man to fall fulfilled the expectations for the 20^th seed, falling only to the higher-ranked Wawrinka. That straight-sets loss ended a reasonably good week for Querrey, although he benefited from Baker’s retirement and did not defeat anyone of note.
Brian Baker: Perhaps the saddest story of the tournament, he injured his knee in the second round against Querrey and may miss the next four months. That said, Baker impressed by battling through a tight five-setter against former American Bogomolov, and he had won the first set from Querrey in a match that looked like an upset before his injury.
Michael Russell: He drew Berdych in the first round and unsurprisingly had no answer for the Czech’s offensive arsenal, unable to match him hold for hold in a straight-sets defeat.
Tim Smyczek: The most pleasant surprise of the tournament among American men, he entered the draw as a lucky loser when Isner withdrew and made the most of his opportunity. Smyczek somehow tamed the towering serve of Ivo Karlovic in the first round, not even losing a set, and he snatched a set from world #5 David Ferrer in the second round before succumbing gallantly. Especially impressive was his comeback from losing the first nine games of that match to make Ferrer earn his victory.
Steve Johnson: Making his main-draw debut at the Australian Open, this former UCLA star qualified for the main draw and then received the unpleasant tidings of an opener against Almagro. But Johnson rose to the occasion with panache, firing first strikes with abandon through five entertaining sets as he stood toe to toe with a top-15 opponent despite his inexperience. His passion captivated and suggested that he can score an occasional surprise if he can refine his game.
Rajeev Ram: More noted for his doubles expertise, this serve-volley specialist surprised by winning his first match over baseliner Guillermo Garcia-Lopez. Falling meekly to Cilic in the next round, Ram still probably overachieved by reaching that stage.
Rhyne Williams: The winner of the Australian Open wildcard playoff, he deployed his booming serve and forehand to brilliant effect in claiming a two-set lead over top-30 opponent Florian Mayer. Williams later would hold match points in the fourth-set tiebreak before the German wriggled out of the trap to complete a comeback in five. But the experience should help this promising young star evolve into a fitter, more tenacious competitor, which could prove a dangerous combination with his obvious talents.
All things considered, the American men produced respectable results in view of prominent absences like Fish, Isner, and the retired Roddick. With expectations especially low, they competed with credit and, in some cases, produced results on which they can build.