Karan146;s feat on clay

After Ramesh Krishnan8217;s achievement in 1982, Karan Rastogi becomes the second Indian to win a professional clay-court title

Karan Rastogi created history on Saturday when he became the first-ever Indian to win a professional title in a clay court event abroad in 25 years. At the Futures F5 10,000 event in Khemisset, Morocco, top seed Rastogi beat third-seeded Spaniard Cesar Ferrer-Victoria 0-6, 7-6 5, 6-4 in the final.

Ramesh Krishnan was the last Indian to win a pro title on clay at the Stuttgart Outdoors on July 18, 1982. Another Indian, Prahlad Srinath came close with a runner-up finish in an Indonesian satellite leg on clay in 1997.

Interestingly Rastogi was not even aware of this record but the victory, he admits, is a big achievement for him. 8220;Yes, I played really well. I8217;m not a clay court player and the last time I had played on that surface was five months ago in February against Uzbekistan in a Davis Cup tie. So it was difficult to get my feet moving freely on the surface, yet I managed to win,8221; says the 20-year-old.

Krishnan too heaped praises on Rastogi8217;s victory. Talking to The Indian Express over the phone from Chennai, Krishnan said, 8220;I8217;m happy that Rastogi has done this. I know him; he is a hard worker and has some good results behind him. But to win on clay by any Indian, is a great achievement and it should be praised as we don8217;t have a clay culture here in our country,8221; said Krishnan. Elaborating further on this, Krishnan said that India had always ignored clay courts. 8220;We put more emphasis on Wimbledon and the US Open and really don8217;t give much importance to French Open. It8217;s sad,8221; opined the former Davis Cupper.

Meanwhile, with this title win Rastogi expects to move up the world rankings drastically. 8220;I need to be around 290 to be able to play the qualifiers at the US Open later. Now I8217;m going to play two tournaments in the United States 50,000 Challenger at Kentucky starting July 23 and then the ATP event in Washington and will try to put in my best efforts to garner the required points,8221; he said.

Rastogi will be training for a week at the prestigious Nick Bollettieri Academy in Florida this week. 8220;Last time I was there in late April, where I again had the opportunity to play players like Xavier Malisse and Tommy Haas. Now I8217;m going there with an aim to improve my ground strokes and serve. I also want to get physically more fit for the Kentucky event where I8217;ve already got an entry into the main draw.8221;

The victory capped a fantastic month-long run for Rastogi. The Mumbai lad had reached the final of three Futures events in India where he lost to another Indian Davis Cupper, Prakash Amritraj on all the three occasions.

Prakash jumps 132 places

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New Delhi: Prakash Amritraj reaped the rewards for reaching his maiden ATP quarter finals by registering a jump of 132 spots in his world ranking.

Karan Rastogi , who won the ITF Futures tournament in Morocco, is ranked 363rd, while Somdev Dev Varman, who reached the final of the Kennedy Funding Invitational in New York, is 1009 th. On the doubles side, Rohan Bopanna has jumped one spot up to 233 .

Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi took the week off after Wimbledon and stayed steady at ninth and 21st respectively. There were no WTA events staged last week and Sania Mirza8217;s singles and doubles rankings stayed at number 38. PTI