Ramanathan Ramkumar was born on November 8, 1994. He is an Indian professional tennis player. His highest singles ranking was world No. 111, which he reached in July 2018. His highest doubles ranking was No. 58, achieved in August 2022. He has played for India in the Davis Cup.
Personal and early life
Ramkumar was born to Ramanathan Chettiar and Alagammai Aachi in a Nattukottai Nagarathar family in Karaikudi, Tamil Nadu. His parents work in the textile business. He has a sister named Uma. He began playing tennis when he was five years old. His father introduced him to the sport. He trains at the Sanchez-Casal Academy in Barcelona, Spain. He earned a B.A. in economics from Loyola College in Chennai. He speaks Tamil, English, and Spanish.
Career
Ramanathan started playing tennis at age five and became a professional player in 2009.
In 2014, he qualified for the main draw of the Chennai Open. He won his first-round match against the then-Indian No. 1 player, Somdev Devvarman. He lost in the second round to Marcel Granollers.
In 2015, Ramanathan played mostly on Futures and Challenger-level tournaments. He entered the Chennai Open again but lost in the first round to Tatsuma Ito in straight sets. In April, he reached his first doubles final at the Mersin Cup in Turkey. He played with Riccardo Ghedin and lost the final to Mate Pavić and Michael Venus. He also entered the Malaysian Open, where he lost in the first round to Mikhail Kukushkin.
In 2016, Ramanathan entered the Chennai Open and reached the quarterfinals, his best result at an ATP World Tour event. He defeated Daniel Gimeno Traver and Alexander Kudryavtsev in the first and second rounds. He lost to Aljaž Bedene in the quarterfinals. In October, he partnered with Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan. The pair reached the final at the Vietnam Open Challenger but lost to Sanchai Ratiwatana and Sonchat Ratiwatana.
In April 2016, Ramanathan reached his first singles Challenger final at the Tallahassee Challenger. He lost to Blaž Rola.
In 2017, Ramanathan entered the Antalya Open. He defeated world No. 8 player Dominic Thiem in the second round, marking his first win against a top-10 player. He was ranked world No. 222 at the time and won the match in straight sets, 6–3, 6–2. He progressed to the quarterfinals but lost to Marcos Baghdatis.
In July 2017, he reached his second singles Challenger final at the Nielsen Pro Tennis Championships. He lost in straight sets to Akira Santillan.
In August 2017, Ramanathan entered the Cincinnati Masters as a lucky loser. He defeated qualifier Christopher Eubanks in the first round but lost to Jared Donaldson. He entered the US Open qualifying draw, defeating Paul-Henri Mathieu in the first round but losing to Nicolas Mahut in the second. He finished the year with a singles ranking of No. 148.
At the start of 2018, Ramanathan entered the Maharashtra Open as a wildcard. He lost in the second round to top seed Marin Cilic in straight sets. He then entered the Australian Open qualifying draw but lost in the final qualifying round to Vasek Pospisil.
In April 2018, Ramanathan reached his first Challenger singles final of the season at the Taipei Challenger. He lost to compatriot Yuki Bhambri.
In July 2018, he reached the final at Newport but lost to Steve Johnson. This made him the first Indian to reach an ATP World Tour singles final since Somdev Devvarman in 2011.
In November 2018, Ramanathan won his first doubles ATP Challenger title at the Pune Challenger. He partnered with compatriot Vijay Sundar Prashanth and defeated Hsieh Cheng-peng and Yang Tsung-hua in the final. He finished the year with a singles ranking of No. 133.
Ramanathan won doubles titles in Japan, France, Italy, and two in India.
In 2019, Ramanathan entered the men’s singles qualifying draw of Wimbledon. He defeated Jozef Kovalík and Tomás Martín Etcheverry in the first and second rounds but lost to Marc Polmans in the final qualifying round in a five-set match. He made his Grand Slam main draw debut in mixed doubles after a last-minute withdrawal. He partnered with Ankita Raina and lost to compatriots Rohan Bopanna and Sania Mirza in straight sets. This was the first all-Indian match at a Grand Slam level.
In 2021, Ramanathan won his first singles Challenger title at the Manama Challenger by defeating Evgeny Karlovskiy in straight sets. He ended the year by reaching the quarterfinals of the Antalya Challenger III in singles and the semifinals of doubles with Vladyslav Orlov.
In 2022, Ramanathan had a successful start with a title win in Adelaide. He partnered with Rohan Bopanna and defeated top seeds Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo in the final. This was his first ATP Tour title. A month later, he won his second ATP title with Bopanna at the Maharashtra Open, defeating Australian pair Luke Saville and John-Patrick Smith. He reached a career-best doubles ranking of World No. 94. He received a singles main draw wildcard at the same tournament but lost to Stefano Travaglia in the first round.
In singles, he lost to Holger Rune in the 2022 Adelaide qualifiers and Gian Marco Moroni in the Australian Open qualifiers.
At the 2022 Bengaluru Open, Ramanathan lost in the first round to Max Purcell but won the doubles title with Saketh Myneni, defeating Hugo Grenier and Alexandre Müller in straight sets. He lost to Mathias Bourgue at Bengaluru Open 2 but reached the doubles final with Myneni again, losing to Arjun Kadhe and Alexander Erler in a tiebreaker.
At the 2022