Rajeev Ram is still playing tennis at age 39, still grinding on practice courts and booking flights across eight time zones and waking up in a hotel in Rome or Atlanta or wherever he is now – Washington D.C., pretty sure – because that’s what his dad taught him.
You could say the renaissance of Rajeev Ram, owner of five major championships, all since age 35, started six years ago. He was 33 in 2017 when he stopped playing singles and poured every bit of his 6-4 frame and serve-and-volley game into doubles. That’s when his career took off. That’s why he’s still playing now as 40 approaches.
That’s what you could say.
Better to speak the truth, though, and the truth of Rajeev Ram’s dominance on the tennis court is that he wasn’t raised to dominate. That’s not what Raghav Ram taught his son. That’s not why Raghav let his only son, 3 years old at the time, grab that…