Ram earns first-ever win on clay at 31 years old

Rajeev Ram picked up his first main-draw win on clay at the ATP level when he beat Horacio Zeballos 6-4, 7-6(6) in round one of the Ecuador Open on Tuesday. And it was not merely his first such win of the season; it was the first clay-court win of his career–ever.

It took Ram more than 12 seasons on tour in order to emerge victorious on the slow stuff. The 31-year-old American held his booming serve 11 times in 11 tries while saving two break points, both of which came in his very first service effort. Zeballos got no more looks the entire rest of the match. Ram missed match points at 6-4 and 6-5 in the tiebreaker, the former on his own serve. But the world No. 81 seized a mini-break at 6-6 and closed things out on serve one point later.

Interestingly, Ram’s breakthrough match on clay came at the expense of one of just four men to ever beat Rafael Nadal in a final on this surface. Zeballos upset Nadal in the 2013 Vina del Mar title match (the other three players to do so are currently the top three in the world: Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, and Roger Federer).

Ram’s last clay-court match at any level had previously come in 2012 Belgrade qualifying.

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