3. Ramanathan Krishnan (Tennis)
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Lawn tennis is a widely followed sport around the globe and Indians are keen followers of it. But there have been hardly any Indian tennis players in the individual category who have made a mark at the world level. Ramanathan Krishnan is one of them, and he was the first player to glorify India’s name in the global tennis fraternity.
Krishnan played the quarterfinals of the French Open in 1962, but his most memorable achievements were reaching the semifinals of two consecutive Wimbledons Championships – in 1960 and 1961. At the 1960 Wimbledon, he was the seventh seeded player and lost to the eventual winner Neale Fraser. The following year, the Indian defeated Roy Emerson to reach the semifinal but failed to get the better of the legendary Rod Laver in the next match.
The Nagercoil-born tennis ace was once ranked 6th in the world. Players like Vijay Amritraj, Leander Paes, Sania Mirza and Mahesh Bhupathi have made it big in recent times, but Ramanathan Krishnan was a true path-breaker for Indian tennis.
