CINCINNATI – Following their thrilling victory at the Western & Southern Open, Rajeev Ram sat down with Sarika Reddy of Indian Tennis Daily to discuss the final match, key moments, and what this title means to him. Ram, partnering with Croatia’s Nikola Mektić, triumphed over the formidable Italian duo of Lorenzo Musetti and Lorenzo Sonego in a hard-fought final, clinching the title with a comeback score of 4-6, 6-3, [10-5].
Sarika Reddy: What are your overall thoughts on the match today?
Rajeev Ram: I mean, look, when you get to the finals of an event, especially this big, everyone’s going to be playing well. I thought the one thing I was super happy and proud of is I thought we did a great job making small adjustments to raise our level. You know, we wanted to stay aggressive, take the game, I guess, take the feeling to our opponent. I thought we did a much better job of that and started to apply pressure regularly. And I don’t know if either one of us has played a better tiebreaker than that. So just to play that level in that stage is something I’m very proud of.
Sarika Reddy: Any key moments?
Rajeev Ram: We didn’t start great, but I think we started to add, you know, build some pressure in the second set. I feel like we started to hold a bit easier, and then we had a couple of chances on their serve. Even though we didn’t break, we had a couple of deuce points that didn’t quite go our way. But it’s not easy to always feel under pressure on your serve. And I think the more you put yourself in the situation, the more chances you have for it to pay off. So I feel like, yeah, obviously the break was the pivotal moment, but I think it started, you know, we started to get momentum a little bit before that, which I think is key.
Sarika Reddy: You were up against two accomplished singles players. What was the strategy coming into it?
Rajeev Ram: We didn’t really think about our opponents too much. You know, a lot of the doubles guys we know really well, you know, their patterns, you know, their tendencies. These guys a little different and both super talented. And so we thought it’s really best to focus on ourselves and what we were going to do and then make adjustments as we go along. I think that’s something that we did really well all week was make small adjustments during the match, not get caught up in the moment too much and let it overwhelm us, but actually try and think our way out of the match.
Sarika Reddy: This is your first title since January 2024. How special is the win for you? What does it mean at this stage?
Rajeev Ram: It’s been a long time. I mean, I lost a really tough match last year in the Olympics in the final and that, you know, I’m not gonna lie, it took a while to get over that. And then, you know. It’s been a tougher year for sure. But to win a title at home after so long, I mean, you can’t really write a better story than that for me.