Ravi Subramaniam - impressive record of 25 wins in 27 attempts

By Lal Gunesekera

TENNIS: Winning whatever title on 25 occasions out of 27 is quite an achievement. This was exactly what Ravi Subramaniam (48) achieved recently when he won the men's singles title for the 25th occasion (for 24 consecutive years at one stage) at the Travel Trade Tennis Championship and then announced his retirement to "give younger players an opportunity to come up".

Subramaniam who is Director-General Manager of Aitken Spence Travels, has been winning the Singles title since the inaugural Travel Trade Championship in 1980, except for 2005 and 2006 in which years he was the runner-up. He has won the Triple Crown on more than 15 occasions and the men's doubles on 15 occasions first partnered by "Roti" Sivaratnam and then by Ravi Thambiayah.

He was No.1 in the junior national rankings in 1977 and even No. 4 in the senior rankings in 1978 and 1979. His best performance at the National Championships was in 1977 when he lost to Ajith Perera, a former Davis Cup player, in a gruelling three setter. He was also runner-up with brother Suresh in the national men's doubles losing to an Indian pair in a five setter in 1980, but both Subramaniam brothers had the satisfaction of beating the same Indians in the men's open singles event.

Subramaniam has won the National over-35 singles title since 1994 (13 occasions) and the over-35 and over-45 doubles too with Aruna Seneviratne on numerous occasions. He has won the national over-45 singles title since 2004 as well. He was runner-up in both singles and doubles at the inaugural Mercantile Championships in 2001 losing the doubles with Aruna Seneviratne to Arjun Fernando and Sanjay Wijemanne of HSBC. He has won several titles in various tournaments all over the country.

An old boy of Royal College, he started the game at 13 years initially under the coaching of his father K. Subramaniam (who has also won several Veterans titles, a reputed coach and ITF official) and later by D.D.N. Selvadurai.

Ravi's brother Suresh won the national men's doubles title on three occasions and was a former President of the Sri Lanka Tennis Association (SLTA), while his younger brother Ganendran was a junior champion who represented the country at the Junior Wimbledon Championship and Davis Cup, but now a reputed coach. Their sister Keshini too represented the country at the South Asian Games.

Ravi is married to Suvendrini and they have two children, Ashwimi (13) and Anjaan (11).