Ask anyone for the current top Indian tennis players and you are likely to get one of the following answers - Somdev Devvarman, Sania Mirza, Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi or Rohan Bopanna. Some might even mention Yuki Bhambri, the 19 year old former world #1 junior, who is now trying to break into the professional ranks.
No one would likely mention Karan Rastogi. But while no one was watching, this 24 year old Mumbai lad has become India’s #2 singles player on the men’s side in a span of 16 months that saw him go from unranked in October 2009 to a place in the top 300 in the world rankings for the first time this week, up 44 positions to #284.
Rastogi has not exactly bolted out of the blue. He reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open Junior Championships in 2004 and was ranked #4 in the junior world rankings that same year. Within a couple of years, he started having modest success on the lower rung ITF Futures circuit and reached #329 in the rankings in June 2006. But soon, poor form and injuries began to take their toll. In 2008, he suffered a severe back injury which required surgery and meant that he would not play competitive tennis for 16 months – half-a-lifetime in the career of a tennis player. Having to start from scratch without a ranking or a sponsor, Rastogi pursued his comeback earnestly and started trotting the globe again in October 2009 in search of valuable ranking points and match fitness. He struggled in the initial months – unable to string together enough wins to give him confidence that he would be able to compete again with the world’s best. However in March 2010, things finally started coming together again. He battled through five opponents to win the ITF Futures title in India, including three matches that went to three sets for his first title in his comeback. In May, he reached the final of back-to-back Futures events in India – the results good enough to put him back into the top 500 in the rankings. Rastogi struck another purple patch in October last year when he reached back-to-back Futures finals in Nigeria, wining one of them for his second title in 5 months. Those results put him inside the world’s top 330, nearing his career best ranking from 2006.
Last month, Rastogi was beaten in the first round of qualifying at the ATP Chennai Open and in the second round of the Singapore Challenger but a week ago, he went on to win another Futures title in Cambodia – which has now seen his ranking move to his new career best of #284.
Inspite of all the hard work an success, Rastogi is yet to receive the recognition that he has toiled so hard for. He was not given a wild card for the main draw of the ATP Chennai Open and instead had to play the qualifying draw. Organizers chose instead to give the wild card to Rohan Bopanna, at best a part-time singles player, as a reward for his Davis Cup win over world #75 Ricarod Mello, of Brazil in the deciding match of the Davis Cup tie in September – that win put India into the prestigious World Group for the seond year running. And it is unlikely that Rastogi will get a chance to play singles when Inda takes on defending chapions Serbia in March with Bopanna once again to likely get the nod.
But Rastogi is not complaining. He will continue to focus on himself and his game in the coming months and aim to break into the top 200 by end of the year. That will enable him to play the qualifying draws of the Grand Slams as well. And we at Tennis Chronicles will be there - following him all year round as he continues his journey on the professional circuit.
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