 Ramanathan Krishnan and Ramesh Krishnan with Union Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports, Dr. M.S. Gill inNew Delhi, 2009. | |
| Country (sports) |  India |
|---|---|
| Residence | Chennai,Tamil Nadu. India |
| Born | (1937-04-11)11 April 1937 (age 88) |
| Turned pro | 1953 (amateur) |
| Retired | 1975 |
| Plays | Right-handed (one-handed backhand) |
| Singles | |
| Career record | 512–176[3] |
| Career titles | 69[3] |
| Highest ranking | No. 3[4] |
| Grand Slam singles results | |
| French Open | QF (1962) |
| Wimbledon | SF (1960,1961) |
| US Open | 3R (1957,1959) |
| Doubles | |
| Grand Slam doubles results | |
| Wimbledon | QF (1955, 1958, 1959, 1961, 1965, 1967) |
| Team competitions | |
| Davis Cup | F (1956,1959,1962,1963,1966Ch,1968) |
Ramanathan Krishnan (born 11 April 1937)[1][5][2] is a retiredtennis player from India who was among the world's leading players in the 1950s and 1960s. He was twice a semifinalist at Wimbledon in1960 and1961, reaching as high as World No. 3 in Potter's amateur rankings.[4] He led India to the Challenge Round of the1966 Davis Cup against Australia and was the non playing captain whenVijay Amritraj andAnand Amritraj[6] led India into the1974 Davis Cup finals against South Africa.[7] He was active from 1953 to 1975 and won 69 singles titles.[3]
Krishnan honed his skills under his father, T. K. Ramanathan, a veteranNagercoil[2] based player. He soon made his mark on the national circuit, sweeping all the junior titles. He as a 13-year-old school student sought and got special permission from the Principal Gordon ofLoyola College to take part in the Bertram Tournament open only to college students and won it in 1951.[8][9] Krishnan qualified for1953 Wimbledon and reached final of Boys' singles title losing toBilly Knight. Later he joined and as a student ofLoyola College won Junior Wimbledon in 1954.[10] In 1954, he became the first Asian player to win the boys' singles title at Wimbledon,[11] beatingAshley Cooper in the final.
In 1957, Krishnan reached the singles final at theNorthern Lawn Tennis Championships at Manchester, defeatingRoy Emerson andRobert Bédard, but losing the final toLew Hoad in straight sets. Krishnan reached the final at the Canadian Open in 1957, losing a close final to Bédard, whom Krishnan had beaten several times in Britain that season.
Krishnan would win the Northern Lawn Tennis Championships tournament in 1958, which included a close match win overRod Laver. The same year he also won theAix-Les-Bains International Tournament againstPatricio Rodríguez.
In 1959, Krishnan won theQueen's Club Championships title, defeating bothAlex Olmedo andNeale Fraser in the final two rounds. He played in the men's singles competition at the 1959 Wimbledon losing in the third round to Olmedo. Krishnan rejected a record three-year $150,000 guarantee offer fromJack Kramer in 1959 after winning at Queen's Club.[12][13] Later that same year, playing for India in the Davis Cup, Krishnan defeated Laver (the Wimbledon runner-up) in four sets.[14] Krishnan also defeated Laver at the 1959Pacific Southwest tournament in three straight sets. Krishnan won the 1959 U.S. Hard Court Championships in Denver with wins overGardnar Mulloy in the semifinal andWhitney Reed in three straight sets in the final. Krishnan ranked World No. 3 in Potter's annual rankings for 1959 inWorld Tennis.[4]
These performances gained Krishnan seventh seeded status at Wimbledon in 1960, where he reached the semi-finals losing to the eventual champion Fraser.[15] Krishnan defeatedAndrés Gimeno in five sets on his way to the semifinal.[16][17] Instead of Krishnan, Kramer signed Gimeno after Wimbledon for a much smaller guarantee than Krishnan had been offered.
Krishnan won the 1961 Wiesbaden tennis tournament, including a win overWilhelm Bungert. In 1961, Krishnan again reached the Wimbledon semi-finals by beating Emerson in straight sets in the quarter-finals but lost in the semis to eventual champion Laver. The following season, he reached the quarterfinals at the French Open in 1962, where he led Emerson two sets to one, but strangely lost the fifth set at love. Krishnan received his highest seeding at Wimbledon at No. 4 in 1962 but had to withdraw after three matches due to an ongoing ankle injury.[18]
Krishnan won the 1963 Antwerp International Championships tournament on red clay with a four-set win in the final overNicola Pietrangeli. Krishnan won the 1965River Oaks International Tennis Tournament at Houston, Texas with wins over Osuna, Emerson in the semi-final in four sets, and Richey in the final in four sets. He was reportedly given a winner's hug of congratulations by future President George H. W. Bush after the victory.[19] In 1967 Krishnan won the Antwerp International Championships on red clay a second time by beating Emerson in the final in three straight sets. He won theNational Lawn Tennis Championships of India a record eight times,[20] and reached ten finals.
Krishnan, like Emerson, Stolle, Santana, Okker and other prominent "amateur" tennis players, became a registered professional with a national tennis association. He was under contract to his national tennis association, and not to an independent professional tour, and was therefore eligible to represent India in Davis Cup competition, but also received money earnings in designated tournaments approved by his national association.
Krishnan won theCanadian Open[21][22] in 1968 overTorben Ulrich in the final. Krishnan lost toJohn Newcombe at the inaugural U.S. Open that year. However, Krishnan had a notable win over the hard-hittingClark Graebner, a semifinalist at the 1968 U.S. Open, in Davis Cup play later that season, in which Graebner "was completely befuddled by the junk-balling tactics of Krishnan...losing decisively."[23] Also that year, Krishnan won theStuttgart tournament on red clay, which included a win overJürgen Fassbender. After 1968, Krishnan played sporadically. Krishnan's last tournament was a first round loss at Calcutta in 1975 to Tom Gorman.[24]
Krishnan was a key member of the Indian team. In 1961, Krishnan had singles wins over both Chuck McKinley (Wimbledon finalist in 1961) and Whitney Reed (U.S. No. 1 for 1961), although India lost the tie 3 to 2. Krishnan led the India team to the Challenge Round of the Davis Cup in 1966, whilst also reaching the Inter-Zonal final with the team on five other occasions, in 1956, 1959, 1962, 1963 and 1968. India surprisedWest Germany in the inter-zonal semi-finals with Krishnan beatingWilhelm Bungert (a Wimbledon finalist later that year). AtCalcutta, in the semi-finals against Brazil, the two sides won two matches each and it all came down to Krishnan's match against the Brazilian champion,Thomaz Koch. Koch was leading two sets to one and was up 5–2 in the fourth set when Krishnan staged one of the most memorable comebacks by winning the set 7–5 and then the match. In the final against Australia, Krishnan andJaidip Mukerjea won the doubles rubber (againstJohn Newcombe andTony Roche), but Krishnan lost both singles matches (againstFred Stolle and Roy Emerson) as India were defeated 4–1.[25] Krishnan was a regular player on the Indian Davis Cup team between 1953 and 1975, compiling a 69–28 winning record (50–19 in singles and 19–9 in doubles).[26]
| Result | Year | Championship | Surface | Opponent | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Loss | 1953 | Wimbledon | Grass |  Billy Knight | 5–7, 4–6 |
| Win | 1954 | Wimbledon | Grass |  Ashley Cooper | 6–2, 7–5 |
Krishnan's playing style was known as "touch tennis".[27] Critics hailed Krishnan as a marvel, Lance Tingay ofThe Daily Telegraph described his tennis as "pure oriental charm" while another described his style as "Eastern magic".[28] More recently, Robert Philip wrote that "each and every Krishnan rally was a thing of rare beauty".[29] According to veteran sports journalist C.V. Narsimhan, "His service was never a powerful weapon, he did not have any powerful groundstrokes either. He won with consistency, angled volleys, and a graceful half volley drop shot now and then".[28]Rafael Osuna,Nicola Pietrangeli and Krishnan's sonRamesh were some of the other notable exponents of this style, emphasizing finesse.[30]
Krishnan received theArjuna award in 1961, thePadma Shri in 1962 and thePadma Bhushan in 1967.[31]
Krishnan has written, with his son Ramesh Krishnan and Nirmal Shekar, a book titledA touch of tennis: The story of a tennis family.[32] The book covering the achievements of three generations of tennis-playing Krishnans, was released by Penguin Books India.[33]
Krishnan now lives inChennai,[34] where he manages a gas distribution agency.Ramesh Krishnan emulated his father's achievement of winning the Wimbledon junior title, and went on to become a leading Indian tennis player in the 1980s.[citation needed]On 25 July 2012, Ramanathan Krishnan re-launched India's premier English-language weekly sports magazine,Sportstar, at a function in Chennai.[35][better source needed]Krishnan runs a tennis training center in Chennai together with his son.[36]
| W | F | SF | QF | #R | RR | Q# | DNQ | A | NH |
| Tournament | 1953 | 1954 | 1955 | 1956 | 1957 | 1958 | 1959 | 1960 | 1961 | 1962 | 1963 | 1964 | 1965 | 1966 | 1967 | 1968 | SR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| French Open | A | 1R | A | A | 3R | 2R | A | A | A | QF | A | A | 4R | A | 3R | 1R | 0 / 7 |
| Wimbledon | 1R | 3R | 3R | 3R | 2R | 4R | 3R | SF | SF | 3R | 4R | A | 3R | A | 1R | 1R | 0 / 14 |
| US Open | A | A | A | A | 3R | A | 3R | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | 2R | 0 / 3 |
| Win–loss | 0–1 | 2–2 | 2–1 | 2–1 | 5–3 | 4–2 | 4–2 | 5–1 | 5–1 | 6–0 | 3–0 | 0–0 | 5–2 | 0–0 | 2–2 | 1–3 | 0 / 24 |
| Tournament | 1954 | 1955 | 1956 | 1957 | 1958 | 1959 | 1960 | 1961 | 1962 | 1963 | 1964 | 1965 | 1966 | 1967 | 1968 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wimbledon | 1R | QF | 3R | 2R | QF | QF | 1R | QF | 2R | 2R | A | QF | A | QF | 1R |
