After the ouster of National champion Vishnu Vardhan and Prakash Amirtraj in the first round, the Indian interest at the Chennai Open will now revolve around Rajeev Ram.
Unfortunately, that is unlikely to last for long as the 6'4" tall Ram, with Indian roots, has set up a tough second round meeting with top seed and world No 2 Rafael Nadal. The darling of the crowds here, the Spaniard, for once, may have the crowd rooting for his opponent on Thursday.
Born to Indian parents — father hails from Bangalore and mother from outside of Delhi — Ram came through his opening round clash against Russian Yuri Schukin on Tuesday night in two tough sets. “I'm really excited about playing Nadal,” Ram said after his opening round victory. “It'll be good to see how I measure up against top players.”
Ram, who grew up playing in Indianapolis, admitted his win over Schukin should rank as one of his best. “My best run was at the Indianapolis event in 2005, where I made the pre-quarterfinals. But coming through the qualifiers here and making the round of 16, this performance should rank high up there.”
Playing on the outside courts at the Nungambakkam Tennis stadium, Ram was made to feel at home with his family and friends rooting for him.
“It's unbelievable. I live half a world away, but my dad's brothers, sisters, their husbands, cousins and their kids were there supporting me.
“It's a very close family and I'm getting to know them. Playing in front of them was great. Playing in India is like playing at home,” the 23-year-old Ram explained.
As the topic veered towards Davis Cup, Ram said: “The thought (playing for India) has crossed my mind and it would be an honour to play Davis Cup. I'm proud of my heritage. But I can't. Being an American-born, being helped by the USTA in my formative years, I feel pretty strongly about that too. It is a tough thing, but right now, I like playing for the US,” he said matter-of-factly.
Ranked 252 in the world, Ram ranked above the top-two Indians – Rohan Bopanna (267) and Prakash Amritraj (279). While Bopanna is currently playing or India in the Hopman Cup at Perth, Amritraj went down fighting in three tough sets to Alexandre Kudryavtsev of Russia here on Tuesday night.
As regards his visit to the country, the American said: “It is only my third visit. I played here once, but I can't say that I know it very well. But I have done a lot of reading and seen pictures and things that parents told me about the country. After my tennis, I would like to come here and visit some places and get to know my family.”
But for now, it is only Nadal who is in his radar.
