Saketh Myneni

Saketh Myneni
Myneni at the 2015 Wimbledon Qualifying Tournament
Country (sports) India
ResidenceVisakhapatnam, India
Born (1987-10-19) 19 October 1987
Vuyyuru, India
Height1.93 m (6 ft 4 in)
Turned proNov 2011
PlaysRight-handed (two-handed backhand)
Prize money$515,299
Singles
Career record2–3
Career titles0
Highest rankingNo. 137 (12 September 2016)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian OpenQ3 (2016)
French OpenQ2 (2016)
WimbledonQ2 (2015)
US Open1R (2016)
Doubles
Career record20–26
Career titles0
Highest rankingNo. 74 (16 January 2023)
Current rankingNo. 101 (15 January 2024)
Grand Slam doubles results
Australian Open1R (2023)
French Open2R (2023)
Wimbledon1R (2023)
US Open1R (2023)
Medal record
Men's tennis
Representing  India
Asian Games
2014 Incheon Mixed doubles
2014 Incheon Doubles
2022 Hangzhou Doubles
South Asian Games
2019 Kathmandu/Pokhara Doubles
2019 Kathmandu/Pokhara Team event
2016 Guwahati Singles
2019 Kathmandu/Pokhara Singles
Last updated on: 19 January 2024.

Saketh Myneni (born 19 October 1987) is an Indian professional tennis player. He has a career-high doubles ranking of No. 74 achieved on 16 January 2023. He was conferred with the prestigious Arjuna Award in 2017 and represents India in the Davis Cup. He won a gold medal in Mixed doubles and a silver medal in the men's doubles event at the Incheon Asian Games 2014. He has won 10 ITF and 2 ATP Challenger singles titles. Also, 18 ITF and 14 ATP Challenger doubles titles.

Personal life

Myneni was born in a small town named Vuyyuru in Andhra Pradesh to Prasad Myneni and Saroja Myneni. He grew up entirely in Visakhapatnam (Vizag). He completed his schooling from Timpany Secondary School, Visakhapatnam, before moving to Hyderabad for tennis. He started playing tennis at the age of 11. His nickname is Saké or Saki.[1] He was selected on a sports scholarship in 2006 and graduated with a double major with degrees in Finance and Economics from the University of Alabama in 2010. His hobbies include listening to music, watching movies and TV shows.[2] He currently resides in Visakhapatnam and trains every now and then in Hyderabad.[3] He proposed his girlfriend Sri Lakshmi Anumolu during the official Davis Cup dinner on 14 September 2016. His compatriot Leander Paes described the scene as "First Marriage Proposal I have witnessed congrats to cute couple".[4][5] The couple married each other on December 22, 2016.

Professional career

2014: Challenger level success and Asiad gold and silver

He made his Indian Davis Cup Team debut at the 2014 Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Zone Group I Tie with Chinese Taipei, where he partnered Rohan Bopanna in the Doubles[6] He won both his doubles and Singles match as India successfully defeated Chinese Taipei 5–0.

Myneni win his first ever challenger title at the SBI Challenger where he partnered Sanam Singh. They defeated compatriots Divij Sharan and Vishnu Vardhan 6–3, 3–6, [10–4] in an all Indian final. Coincidentally both the pair in the finals entered the draw as a wildcards. A week later they won the Delhi Challenger where they upset top seeds Purav Raja and Divij Sharan 7–6 (7–4), 1–6, [10–4] in the 1st round and then 2nd seeds in the final to capture the title.

In the next Davis Cup tie against South Korea, he and Bopanna again won their match as India won the tie 3–1 to qualify for World Group play-offs.

At 2014 Incheon Asian Games he partnered with Sania Mirza to capture the mixed doubles Gold.[7] He also won the silver medal in men's doubles at same event where he partnered alongside Sanam Singh.[8]

Myneni won his first singles ATP Challenger title at the Indore Challenger where he upset top seed Aleksandr Nedovyesov 6–3, 6–7(4–7), 6–3 in the final.[9] He and Sanam Singh then won the KPIT MSLTA Challenger where they again defeated Sanchai Ratiwatana and Sonchat Ratiwatana of Thailand in straight sets. In the singles of the same tournament, he defeated players with much higher ranks namely Fabrice Martin, Hiroki Moriya and Aleksandr Nedovyesov respectively all in straight sets but lost to the eventual champion Yūichi Sugita in straight sets in semis.

2020-2021: Inactivity due to COVID-19, ITF doubles success

Saketh entered only two tournaments in 2020 and played only seven professional matches. The first tournament was Maharashtra Open where he entered singles qualifying draw as a wildcard and lost to Nikola Milojević in straight sets. The second tournament was Bengaluru Challenger where he reached third round in singles after defeating Russians Aslan Karatsev and Evgeny Donskoy in straight sets but lost to ninth seeded Thomas Fabbiano. In Doubles, he partnered Matt Reid and upset top seeds Hsieh Cheng-peng and Denys Molchanov before retiring in semi-finals against eventual champions Purav Raja and Ramkumar Ramanathan.

After the COVID-19 pandemic had shut down tennis in March, Myneni decided to remain inactive for the rest of 2020 even when tennis came back in August.

2022: Return to Challenger level, doubles success

2023: Australian and Wimbledon debuts and first major win

He made his Major debut at the 2023 Australian Open as a wildcard pair with Yuki Bhambri. He won his first Grand Slam match at the 2023 French Open with Bhambri defeating wildcards Arthur Rinderknech and Enzo Couacaud.[10] He made his debut at the 2023 Wimbledon Championships as an alternate pair with Bhambri.

ATP Challenger Tour finals

Singles: 5 (2–3)

Legend
Grand Slam (0–0)
Olympic Games (0–0)
ATP Tour Masters 1000 (0–0)
ATP Tour 500 series (0–0)
ATP Tour 250 series (0–0)
ATP Challenger Tour (2–3)
Titles by surface
Hard (2–3)
Clay (0–0)
Grass (0–0)
Carpet (0–0)
Result W–L    Date    Tournament Tier Surface Opponents Score
Win 1–0 Oct 2014 Indore, India Challenger Hard Aleksandr Nedovyesov 6–3, 6–7(4–7), 6–3
Win 2–0 Oct 2015 Vietnam Open, Vietnam Challenger Hard Jordan Thompson 7–5, 6–3
Loss 2–1 Oct 2015 Ağrı, Turkey Challenger Hard Farrukh Dustov 4–6, 4–6
Loss 2–2 Feb 2016 New Delhi, India Challenger Hard Stéphane Robert 3–6, 0–6
Loss 2–3 Nov 2018 Bangalore, India Challenger Hard Prajnesh Gunneswaran 2–6, 2–6

Doubles: 27 (20–7)

Legend
Grand Slam (0–0)
Olympic Games (0–0)
ATP Tour Masters 1000 (0–0)
ATP Tour 500 series (0–0)
ATP Tour 250 series (0–0)
ATP Challenger Tour (20–7)
Titles by surface
Hard (18–6)
Clay (2–0)
Grass (0–0)
Carpet (0–1)
Result W–L    Date    Tournament Tier Surface Partner Opponents Score
Win 1–0 Feb 2014 Kolkata, India Challenger Hard Sanam Singh Divij Sharan
Vishnu Vardhan
6–3, 3–6, [10–4]
Win 2–0 Feb 2014 New Delhi, India Challenger Hard Sanam Singh Sanchai Ratiwatana
Sonchat Ratiwatana
7–6(7–5), 6–4
Win 3–0 Oct 2014 Pune, India Challenger Hard Sanam Singh Sanchai Ratiwatana
Sonchat Ratiwatana
6–3, 6–2
Win 4–0 Sep 2015 İzmir, Turkey Challenger Hard Divij Sharan Malek Jaziri
Denys Molchanov
7–6(7–5), 4–6, 0–0 (ret)
Win 5–0 Oct 2015 Bangalore, India Challenger Hard Sanam Singh John Paul Fruttero
Vijay Sundar Prashanth
5–7, 6–4, [10–2]
Loss 5–1 Feb 2016 New Delhi, India Challenger Hard Sanam Singh Yuki Bhambri
Mahesh Bhupathi
3–6, 6–4, [5–10]
Loss 5–2 Mar 2016 Shenzhen, China Challenger Hard Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan Luke Saville
Jordan Thompson
6–3, 4–6, [10–12]
Win 6–2 Apr 2016 Nanjing, China Challenger Hard Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan Denys Molchanov
Aleksandr Nedovyesov
6–3, 6–3
Loss 6–3 Aug 2016 Granby, Canada Challenger Hard Sanam Singh Guilherme Clezar
Alejandro González
6–3, 1–6, [10–12]
Win 7–3 Oct 2017 Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Challenger Hard Vijay Sundar Prashanth Ben McLachlan
Go Soeda
7–6(7–3), 7–6(7–5)
Loss 7–4 Apr 2018 Taipei, Taiwan Challenger Carpet(i) Prajnesh Gunneswaran Matthew Ebden
Andrew Whittington
4–6, 7–5, [6–10]
Loss 7–5 Jun 2018 Fergana, Uzbekistan Challenger Hard Vijay Sundar Prashanth Ivan Gakhov
Alexander Pavlioutchenkov
4–6, 4–6
Win 8–5 Jul 2019 Chengdu, China Challenger Hard Arjun Kadhe Nam Ji-sung
Song Min-kyu
6–3, 0–6, [10–6]
Loss 8–6 Nov 2019 Pune, India Challenger Hard Arjun Kadhe Purav Raja
Ramkumar Ramanathan
6–7(3–7), 3–6
Win 9–6 Feb 2022 Bangalore, India Challenger Hard Ramkumar Ramanathan Hugo Grenier
Alexandre Müller
6–3, 6–2
Loss 9–7 Feb 2022 Bangalore, India Challenger Hard Ramkumar Ramanathan Alexander Erler
Arjun Kadhe
3–6, 7–6(7–4), [7–10]
Win 10–7 Apr 2022 Salinas, Ecuador Challenger Hard Yuki Bhambri JC Aragone
Roberto Quiroz
4–6, 6–3, [10–7]
Win 11–7 May 2022 Prostějov, Czech Republic Challenger Clay Yuki Bhambri Roman Jebavý
Andrej Martin
6–3, 7–5
Win 12–7 Jul 2022 Porto, Portugal Challenger Hard Yuki Bhambri Nuno Borges
Francisco Cabral
6–4, 3–6, [10–6]
Win 13–7 Aug 2022 Lexington, USA Challenger Hard Yuki Bhambri Gijs Brouwer
Aidan McHugh
3–6, 6–4, [10–8]
Win 14–7 Aug 2022 Mallorca, Spain Challenger Hard Yuki Bhambri Marek Gengel
Lukáš Rosol
6–2, 6–2
Win 15–7 Jan 2023 Nonthaburi, Thailand Challenger Hard Yuki Bhambri Christopher Rungkat
Akira Santillan
2–6, 7–6(9–7), [14–12]
Win 16–7 Apr 2023 Girona, Spain Challenger Clay Yuki Bhambri Íñigo Cervantes
Oriol Roca Batalla
6–4, 6–4
Win 17–7 Feb 2024 Chennai, India Challenger Hard Ramkumar Ramanathan Rithvik Choudary Bollipalli
Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha
3–6, 6–3, [10–5]
Win 18–7 Feb 2024 Bangalore, India Challenger Hard Ramkumar Ramanathan Constantin Bittoun Kouzmine
Maxime Janvier
6–3, 6–4
Win 19–7 Nov 2024 Seoul, South Korea Challenger Hard Ramkumar Ramanathan Vasil Kirkov
Bart Stevens
6–4, 4–6, [10–3]
Win 20–7 Nov 2024 Yokohama, Japan Challenger Hard Benjamin Hassan Blake Bayldon
Calum Puttergill
6–2, 6–4

Other finals

Asian Games

Finals: 2 (1–1)

Singles finals: 0 (0–0)

Doubles inals: 2 (1–1)

Result W–L    Date    Tournament Tier Surface Partner Opponents Score
Silver 0-1 29 September 2014 2014 Asian Games Asian Games Hard Sanam Singh Hyeon Chung
Lim Yong-kyu
5–7, 6–7(2–7)
Gold 1-1 29 September 2014 2014 Asian Games Asian Games Hard Sania Mirza Peng Hsien-yin
Chan Hao-ching
6–4, 6–3

South Asian Games

Finals: 3 (1–2)

Singles Finals: 2 (0–2)

Result W–L    Date    Tournament Tier Surface Opponent Score
Silver 0-1 12 February 2016 2016 South Asian Games South Asian Games Hard Ramkumar Ramanathan 5–7, 2–6
Silver 0-2 9 December 2019 2019 South Asian Games South Asian Games Hard Manish Sureshkumar 4–6, 6–7(6–7)

Doubles finals: 1 (1–0)

Result W–L    Date    Tournament Tier Surface Partner Opponents Score
Gold 1-0 8 December 2019 2019 South Asian Games South Asian Games Hard Vishnu Vardhan Sriram Balaji
Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan
7–5,3–6,[10–5]

References

  1. ^ "Saketh Myneni ITF profile".
  2. ^ "Saketh Myneni ATP bio".
  3. ^ "Challenger Stars Reaping Rewards At US Open". ATP World Tour.
  4. ^ "Indian tennis player proposes to girlfriend at Davis Cup dinner, she says yes". Hindustan Times. 14 September 2016. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  5. ^ "Indian tennis star Saketh Myneni proposes to girlfriend at Davis Cup dinner". 14 September 2016. Retrieved 17 September 2016.
  6. ^ "Saketh Myneni Davis cup profile".
  7. ^ "Asian Games 2014: Sania Mirza-Saketh Myneni Win Mixed-Doubles Gold".
  8. ^ "Asian Games: Sanam Singh, Saketh Myneni Settle for Silver in Men's Tennis Doubles".
  9. ^ "Myneni Wins First ATP Challenger Title". 19 October 2014.
  10. ^ "French Open 2023: Rohan Bopanna-Matthew Ebden crash out in first round". 31 May 2023.