Rajeev Ram

Rajeev Ram
Country	USA
Residence	Carmel, Indiana, United States
Born	March 18, 1984 (age 27); Denver, Colorado, U.S.
Height	1.93 m (6 ft 4 in)
Weight	82 kg (180 lb)
Turned pro	2004
Plays	Right-handed (one-handed backhand)
Career prize money	$US$ 1,274,974; (January 16, 2012);
Singles
Career record	22-40
Career titles	1
Highest ranking	No. 78 (November 16, 2009)
Current ranking	No. 147 (January 16, 2012)
Grand Slam results
Australian Open	1R (2008, 2010)
Wimbledon	1R (2009, 2010)
US Open	1R (2004, 2005, 2009)
Doubles
Career record	77–80
Career titles	6
Highest ranking	No. 33 (February 22, 2010)
Current ranking	No. 43 (January 16, 2012)
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open	QF (2010, 2012)
French Open	QF (2011)
Wimbledon	QF (2007)
US Open	2R (2004, 2008, 2009)
	Last updated on: January 24, 2012.

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Rajeev Ram (born March 18, 1984 in Englewood, Colorado) is an American professional tennis player on the ATP Tour. Rajeev is a tall, lanky player with a serve-and-volley style who is known best as a doubles specialist. He has advanced as far as the quarter-finals in doubles at three Grand Slams, most recently with Scott Lipsky at the 2012 Australian Open. He won his only ATP singles tournament in Newport, Rhode Island in 2009 -- winning seven straight matches to claim the title (two in qualifying and five in the main draw). He also acheived the rare feat of winning both the singles and doubles title for that tournament on the same day.

Ram has claimed six ATP doubles titles in his career, with several different partners. His career high singles rank was No. 78, achieved on November 16, 2009. He reached as high as No. 33 in doubles on February 22, 2010.

[edit] Personal

Rajeev is the son of Raghav and Sushma Ram. Ping pong, cricket (in particular, off spin bowling), and music are some of Ram's pastimes. His favourite cricket batsman is Lala Amarnath. His parents are from Bangalore, India.^[1]

[edit] Career

[edit] Before professional career

In his junior career, Ram won a total of nine national junior titles, including singles and doubles. Amongst his titles were the National Claycourt 14-and-under singles title, the boys 16 and under national championship, the 18 and under Easter Bowl title, Kalamazoo doubles and the Target Cup tournaments. In addition to his nine junior titles, Ram played high school tennis at Carmel High School, earned All-State honors, became the state singles champion, and earned a scholarship in both 1998 and 1999.

Ram then delayed enrollment at the University of Illinois until the second semester so that he could continue to play tennis as an amateur on the pro circuit. During his one semester at Illinois, he won the national doubles title with Brian Wilson and helped the Fighting Illini go undefeated (32–0) and win the NCAA team championship.

Rajeev earned a wild card entry into the Juniors' 2001 US Open. Ram participated in all of the Grand Slam junior tournaments [1]. He was the runner-up in juniors doubles at the 2002 Wimbledon, partnered with Brian Baker.

[edit] Professional years

At the 2005 US Open, he lost in five tough sets to Stanislas Wawrinka. At the 2006 US Open, he lost in the second qualifying round to former college teammate Amer Delic. Rajeev made the 2007 Wimbledon doubles quarterfinals as qualifiers with Harel Levy before losing to eventual champions Arnaud Clément and Michaël Llodra. Along the way, Ram and Levy upset the 15th seeded team of Martín García and Sebastián Prieto. In 2007, he won 5 doubles challenger titles partnering Bobby Reynolds, and reached 3 other finals on his way to a career high doubles ranking of 62.

On July 5, 2008, Ram won the Nielsen USTA Pro Tennis Championship in Winnetka, Illinois for his first career challenger-level singles title.

He won his first ATP doubles title in Chennai, India 2009 with compatriot Eric Butorac.

On July 10, 2009, Ram accomplished the unusual feat of winning four professional-level tennis matches in one day. At the Campbell's Hall of Fame Tennis Championships in Rhode Island, the tournament had been rained out early in the week, pushing back many scheduled matches. On July 10, Ram advanced to the singles semi-finals with wins over Samuel Groth and Jesse Levine and then partnered with Jordan Kerr to advance to the doubles semi-finals with wins over Arnaud Clément/Olivier Rochus and Nicolas Mahut/Fabrice Santoro. Mahut, Santoro, and Rochus each played three matches that day, though none of them won all their matches. Ram then went on to beat Rochus and world no. 39 Sam Querrey on consecutive days to capture his first ATP title.^[2] He also captured the doubles title, thus doubling up at the event.

In his return to Newport in July 2010, Ram lost to 417th-ranked qualifier Raven Klaasen after defeating Iván Navarro in the first round. Having raced to a 5–0 lead in the third set, Ram wasted several match points while serving at 5–1 before eventually losing 7–5 1–6 6–7(3).

In Atlanta in July 2010, partnering with American Scott Lipsky, the two won their first doubles title together defeating Rohan Bopanna and Kristof Vliegen for the outdoor hard court Atlanta Tennis Championships.^[3]^[4] In the semifinals, Lipsky and Ram had defeated John Isner and James Blake, 7–6 (5), 7–6 (5).^[5] In November, they won a tournament in Eckental, Germany.^[6]

Ram started 2011 strong, partnering with Lipsky in February to take the indoor hard court San Jose Open (over Christopher Kas from Germany and Alexander Peya from Austria) and the outdoor hard court Delray Beach titles (over Alejandro Falla from Colombia and Xavier Malisse from Belgium).^[3]^[7]^[8] In March, he and Lipsky won the Challenger of Dallas.^[7] In June, he and Lipsky advanced as far as a Grand Slam quarterfinal appearance at the 2011 French Open, before being defeated.^[9]

[edit] Career titles

[edit] Singles : 1 (W-L/1-0)

Legend (Singles)
Grand Slam (0-0)
Tennis Masters Cup / ATP World Tour Finals (0-0)
ATP Masters Series / ATP World Tour Masters 1000 (0-0)
ATP International Series Gold / ATP World Tour 500 (0-0)
ATP Tour / ATP World Tour 250 (1-0)

Finals by surface
Hard (0–0)
Clay (0–0)
Grass (1–0)
Carpet (0–0)

No.	Year	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the Final	Score in the Final	Outcome
1.	2009	July 12, 2009	Newport, USA	Grass	Sam Querrey	6–7^(3–7), 7–5, 6–3	Winner

[edit] Doubles : 6 (W-L/6-2)

Legend (Doubles)
Grand Slam (0-0)
Tennis Masters Cup / ATP World Tour Finals (0-0)
ATP Masters Series / ATP World Tour Masters 1000 (0-0)
ATP International Series Gold / ATP World Tour 500 (0-0)
ATP Tour / ATP World Tour 250 (6-2)

Finals by surface
Hard (3–2)
Hard (i) (2–0)
Clay (0–0)
Grass (1–0)
Carpet (0–0)

No.	Year	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponent in the Final	Score in the Final	Outcome
1.	2005	August 22, 2005	New Haven, USA	Hard	Bobby Reynolds	Gastón Etlis Martin Rodríguez	6–4, 6–3	Runner-up
2.	2009	January 11, 2009	Chennai, India	Hard	Eric Butorac	Jean-Claude Scherrer Stanislas Wawrinka	6–3, 6–4	Winner
3.	July 12, 2009	Newport, USA	Grass	Jordan Kerr	Michael Kohlmann Rogier Wassen	6–7^(6–8), 7–6^(9–7), [10–6]	Winner
4.	October 4, 2009	Bangkok, Thailand	Hard (i)	Eric Butorac	Guillermo García-López Mischa Zverev	7–6^(7–4), 6–3	Winner
5.	2010	July 25, 2010	Atlanta, USA	Hard	Scott Lipsky	Rohan Bopanna Kristof Vliegen	6–3, 6–7^(4–7), [12–10]	Winner
6.	2011	February 6, 2011	Johannesburg, South Africa	Hard	Scott Lipsky	James Cerretani Adil Shamasdin	6-3 3-6 [10-7]	Runner-up
7.		February 13, 2011	San Jose, USA	Hard (i)	Scott Lipsky	Alejandro Falla Xavier Malisse	6–4, 4–6, [10–8]	Winner
8.		February 27, 2011	Delray Beach, USA	Hard	Scott Lipsky	Christopher Kas Alexander Peya	4–6, 6–4, [10–3]	Winner