Mahesh Bhupathi believes that Ramkumar Ramanathan's stunning straight-set upset of world no. 8 Dominic Thiem at the Antalya Open could snowball into something much bigger.
"It's very exciting. I'm sure it will give him a lot of confidence. It proves that he is capable of playing at a certain level. It will motivate him to keep working hard and move to the top 100," Bhupathi told ESPN.
"I think his ranking will be around 175 after this win. So hopefully he will use it to catapult into the top 100 as soon as possible. Today he is India's number 1 so let's hope for the best," Bhupathi said of Ramkumar, currently ranked 222 in the world.
Ahead of his match against Thiem, Ramkumar had spoken to his Davis Cup coach. Bhupathi had laid out for the youngster his limited options for the match. "I spoke to him before the match. I told him, when you get a chance to play guys like this, there are no easy points. Most of the time you will only get half chances. So when you do get half a chance, go for it. Don't wait for him to make mistakes because chances are he won't," Bhupathi said.
That simple game plan was executed to perfection, as Ramkumar pulled off a 6-3, 6-2 upset - the biggest of his career so far. As a lopsided service chart suggested, Ramkumar's big serve was key to the victory as Thiem's play disintegrated towards the end of the match.
"Of course Ram was serving so big today, that Thiem wasn't getting any points on his serve. That rattled him a little bit and that was why his standard got progressively worse."
Watching back in India, Bhupathi added that the changes Ramkumar had made ahead of the season were paying off.
"He is only 23 years old. He is on his way up. He is working with a new coach Emilio Sanchez and obviously the results are showing," he said of Ramkumar, who will play in his first ATP quarterfinal since the 2014 Chennai Open.