Today Ramkumar Ramanathan can become the first Indian to win an ATP title in 20 years when he squares off against the USA's Steve Johnson in the Newport ATP final. The last Indian to win a title was Leander Paes when he famously beat Pete Sampras (ranked number 2 at the time) 6-3, 6-4 at the New Haven ATP tournament back in 1998.

Courtesy of Indian Express

India has also had a long wait to see one of their own represent them even in an ATP tour final, the last tennis player to do so was 7 years ago!

The big question is, Is Ramkumar Ramanathan capable of beating Steve Johnson in the final? The simple answer is absolutely! Ramanathan is only 23 years old so he is really just coming of age in tennis. He will never be a world beating tennis player. But last year he defeated Dominic Thiem 6-3 6-2, to enter the quarterfinals of the Antalya Open in Turkey. He's had a good run to the Newport final taking out Tim Smyczek in straight sets in the last round who was on a great run himself having defeated ranked 43 in the world Matthew Ebden on his way to face Ramanathan.

Ramanathan is a good outside bet against Johnson with odds of 4.33 to win!

Johnson who has an excellent powerful forehand is weak on his back hand opting to slice the ball a lot. But Ramkumar who plays a very unorthodox style of tennis in general also has a weak backhand, so expect this to be won by either player on their forehand with some big hitting.