Purav Raja, at 37, is a father figure in Indian tennis, perhaps second only in achievements among the active players to the more senior Rohan Bopanna, who is 41 and still going strong on the ATP Tour.

The Mumbaikar has a staggering 39 doubles titles to his credit — two of them on the ATP Tour, 21 from Challengers and 16 from the Futures circuit. In recent months, he has shared his insights on the game during major events on the Indian television.

He was on the verge of hanging up his boots at the end of 2022 season but an unexpectedly good run with compatriot Divij Sharan, in whose company he clinched his two ATP titles in their first partnership, has infused fresh enthusiasm for matches and travel.

The pair has got a wildcard entry to the Tata Open Maharashtra and Raja took time out on Saturday and Sunday to watch Ramkumar Ramanathan’s successful qualifying campaign. Raja has won three Challenger titles with the Chennai lad and shares a camaraderie with the 28-year-old, as he does with most players on the circuit.

Ramkumar has had a challenging season in 2022 in which his doubles ranking has gone up after winning two ATP Tour titles with Bopanna at the start while his singles ranking has steadily slipped to outside 400.

Raja shared his views on Ramkumar and what he would like the see from the big-serving lad in the coming weeks as the latter gets ready for a make-or-break season in singles:

When you talk about Ram, the first thing I look at is how well he’s serving, how well is his mental status. It seems that he’s come out of a good off-season and it seems that he is mentally in a much fresher state. We forget in tennis that you travel pretty much 40 weeks a year. So, to now come back to play a full season is not easy, in terms of the mental state. What I would like to see more from him is with his big game … when he’s on, he’s going to be very, very hard to beat. You know, his game is very high-risk high-reward type game. He plays with a huge serve and I would like to see that more on weeks, which is when we can get Ram to be successful. Like he did in Newport, like he did by winning the Bahrain Challenger. We rarely see the consistent result, we either see it the first round or the title. And that happens to all big servers and guys with big games, and honestly, you only need five weeks, five good weeks to be top 100. So, I think he definitely has the game to do it. And he showed it today. I mean, why can’t this guy be top 100? I have no reason.

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Firstly, tennis is an extremely tough sport, I think we often forget that if he was (among) the 200 best cricketers in the world, he’d be in a slightly different status. But he’s not, he’s a tennis player. And the thing is, he’s got such a big game, it’s about him utilising his weapons, and going about losing the same way every single day.

It’s about how you lose, it’s not about how you win. So I keep telling him that lose on your racket, lose on your way, and you will be successful. As long as you lose the way you wanted to play the match, it’s fine. But a lot of times I think he has admittedly struggled to find the plan he wants to execute with. So, then you lose new ways every week, and then you struggle to find the way that you really want to play.

So, I think this year will be all about Ram’s growth and to see how he can hold his game and how he wants to win and how he wants to lose tennis matches.

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He is a very is a very dear friend, obviously I have my career. I’ll try and help him if he ever asked for my help, like I do with a lot of guys. But with Ram, I’ve known him so closely because we spent two-three years playing together. We had won multiple titles together. So, I mean, we have had a good I treat him like, you know, like somebody who I can help and mentor and I hope he sees it that way.

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No, he doesn’t have to make a decision right now. I mean, to his credit, he’s a very, very good doubles player. He got up there by chance. He just played with Bops and he won that 250. And then he plays again with Bops, and won another 250. And all of a sudden, he’s sitting at 70 in the world. Saying that, his singles has gone a little bit lower in the rankings. He’s had an average season in 2022, by his own admission, and I think that coming back will be the key. Yes, his doubles ranking could suffer in the process. But I think he’s the type of guy who is going to try and push singles. And I think he has the game still in singles. I mean, if he doesn’t feel that way, that’s a different story. But I think he really believes and you saw it today he beat two guys 150 in the world consistently. So there’s no reason why he can’t be there. Like I said that we just need to see more of this tennis.

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Could his volleying be better? Of course, it can be better. Yeah, he’s been working on it. I think he volleys extremely well, but tennis is so tough for serve and volleyer today that you need to be that much better at it because the courts are slower, the balls are bigger. It’s not like back in the day where you could just serve yourself out and just hit one volley and win the point. Now you have to play two or sometimes three volleys to win a point. So yeah, serving and volleying has got that much tougher, and he needs to be that much better at it.