Saketh Myneni (born 19 October 1987) is an Indian professional tennis player. He has a career-high doubles ranking of No. 74 achieved on 16 January 2023. He was conferred with the prestigious Arjuna Award in 2017 and represents India in the Davis Cup. He won a gold medal in Mixed doubles and a silver medal in the men's doubles event at the Incheon Asian Games 2014. He has won 10 ITF and 2 ATP Challenger singles titles. Also, 18 ITF and 14 ATP Challenger doubles titles.

Saketh Myneni
Myneni at the 2015 Wimbledon Qualifying Tournament
Country (sports) India
ResidenceVisakhapatnam, India
Born (1987-10-19) 19 October 1987 (age 37)
Vuyyuru, India
Height1.93 m (6 ft 4 in)
Turned proNov 2011
PlaysRight-handed (two-handed backhand)
Prize money$515,299
Singles
Career record2–3
Career titles0
Highest rankingNo. 137 (12 September 2016)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian OpenQ3 (2016)
French OpenQ2 (2016)
WimbledonQ2 (2015)
US Open1R (2016)
Doubles
Career record20–26
Career titles0
Highest rankingNo. 74 (16 January 2023)
Current rankingNo. 101 (15 January 2024)
Grand Slam doubles results
Australian Open1R (2023)
French Open2R (2023)
Wimbledon1R (2023)
US Open1R (2023)
Medal record
Men's tennis
Representing  India
Asian Games
Gold medal – first place 2014 Incheon Mixed doubles
Silver medal – second place 2014 Incheon Doubles
Silver medal – second place 2022 Hangzhou Doubles
South Asian Games
Gold medal – first place 2019 Kathmandu/Pokhara Doubles
Gold medal – first place 2019 Kathmandu/Pokhara Team event
Silver medal – second place 2016 Guwahati Singles
Silver medal – second place 2019 Kathmandu/Pokhara Singles
Last updated on: 19 January 2024.

Personal life

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Myneni was born in a small town named Vuyyuru in Andhra Pradesh to Prasad Myneni and Saroja Myneni. He grew up entirely in Visakhapatnam (Vizag). He completed his schooling from Timpany Secondary School, Visakhapatnam, before moving to Hyderabad for tennis. He started playing tennis at the age of 11. His nickname is Saké or Saki.[1] He was selected on a sports scholarship in 2006 and graduated with a double major with degrees in Finance and Economics from the University of Alabama in 2010. His hobbies include listening to music, watching movies and TV shows.[2] He currently resides in Visakhapatnam and trains every now and then in Hyderabad.[3] He proposed his girlfriend Sri Lakshmi Anumolu during the official Davis Cup dinner on 14 September 2016. His compatriot Leander Paes described the scene as "First Marriage Proposal I have witnessed congrats to cute couple".[4][5] The couple married each other on December 22, 2016.

Professional career

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2014: Challenger level success and Asiad gold and silver

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He made his Indian Davis Cup Team debut at the 2014 Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Zone Group I Tie with Chinese Taipei, where he partnered Rohan Bopanna in the Doubles[6] He won both his doubles and Singles match as India successfully defeated Chinese Taipei 5–0.

Myneni win his first ever challenger title at the SBI Challenger where he partnered Sanam Singh. They defeated compatriots Divij Sharan and Vishnu Vardhan 6–3, 3–6, [10–4] in an all Indian final. Coincidentally both the pair in the finals entered the draw as a wildcards. A week later they won the Delhi Challenger where they upset top seeds Purav Raja and Divij Sharan 7–6 (7–4), 1–6, [10–4] in the 1st round and then 2nd seeds in the final to capture the title.

In the next Davis Cup tie against South Korea, he and Bopanna again won their match as India won the tie 3–1 to qualify for World Group play-offs.

At 2014 Incheon Asian Games he partnered with Sania Mirza to capture the mixed doubles Gold.[7] He also won the silver medal in men's doubles at same event where he partnered alongside Sanam Singh.[8]

Myneni won his 1st ever singles challenger title at the Indore Challenger where he upset top seed Aleksandr Nedovyesov 6–3, 6–7(4–7), 6–3 in the final to capture his 1st singles challenger title. He and Sanam Singh then won the KPIT MSLTA Challenger where they again defeated Sanchai Ratiwatana and Sonchat Ratiwatana of Thailand 6–3, 6–2. In the singles of the same tournament, he defeated players with much higher ranks namely Fabrice Martin, Hiroki Moriya and Aleksandr Nedovyesov respectively all in straight sets but lost to the eventual champion Yūichi Sugita in straight sets in semis.

2020: Inactivity due to COVID-19

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Saketh entered only two tournaments in 2020 and played only seven professional matches. The first tournament was Maharashtra Open where he entered singles qualifying draw as a wildcard and lost to Nikola Milojević in straight sets. The second tournament was Bengaluru Challenger where he reached third round in singles after defeating Russians Aslan Karatsev and Evgeny Donskoy in straight sets but lost to ninth seeded Thomas Fabbiano. In Doubles, he partnered Matt Reid and upset top seeds Hsieh Cheng-peng and Denys Molchanov before retiring in semi-finals against eventual champions Purav Raja and Ramkumar Ramanathan.

After the COVID-19 pandemic had shut down tennis in March, Myneni decided to remain inactive for the rest of 2020 even when tennis came back in August.

2021: ITF doubles success

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2022: Return to Challenger level and success

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2023: Major debut at Wimbledon, the Australian and first win at the French Opens

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He made his Major debut at the 2023 Australian Open as a wildcard pair with Yuki Bhambri. He won his first Grand Slam match at the 2023 French Open with Bhambri defeating wildcards Arthur Rinderknech and Enzo Couacaud.[9] He made his debut at the 2023 Wimbledon Championships as an alternate pair with Bhambri.

ATP Tour finals

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Singles: 5 (2–3)

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Legend
Grand Slam (0–0)
Olympic Games (0–0)
ATP Tour Masters 1000 (0–0)
ATP Tour 500 series (0–0)
ATP Tour 250 series (0–0)
ATP Challenger Tour (2–3)
Titles by surface
Hard (2–3)
Clay (0–0)
Grass (0–0)
Carpet (0–0)
Result W–L    Date    Tournament Tier Surface Opponents Score
Win 1–0 Oct 2014 Indore, India Challenger Hard   Aleksandr Nedovyesov 6–3, 6–7(4–7), 6–3
Win 2–0 Oct 2015 Vietnam Open, Vietnam Challenger Hard   Jordan Thompson 7–5, 6–3
Loss 2–1 Oct 2015 Ağrı, Turkey Challenger Hard   Farrukh Dustov 4–6, 4–6
Loss 2–2 Feb 2016 New Delhi, India Challenger Hard   Stéphane Robert 3–6, 0–6
Loss 2–3 Nov 2018 Bangalore, India Challenger Hard   Prajnesh Gunneswaran 2–6, 2–6

Doubles: 23 (15–8)

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Legend
Grand Slam (0–0)
Olympic Games (0–0)
ATP Tour Masters 1000 (0–0)
ATP Tour 500 series (0–0)
ATP Tour 250 series (0–0)
ATP Challenger Tour (15–8)
Titles by surface
Hard (13–7)
Clay (2–0)
Grass (0–0)
Carpet (0–1)
Result W–L    Date    Tournament Tier Surface Partner Opponents Score
Win 1–0 Feb 2014 Kolkata, India Challenger Hard   Sanam Singh   Divij Sharan
  Vishnu Vardhan
6–3, 3–6, [10–4]
Win 2–0 Feb 2014 New Delhi, India Challenger Hard   Sanam Singh   Sanchai Ratiwatana
  Sonchat Ratiwatana
7–6(7–5), 6–4
Win 3–0 Oct 2014 Pune, India Challenger Hard   Sanam Singh   Sanchai Ratiwatana
  Sonchat Ratiwatana
6–3, 6–2
Win 4–0 Sep 2015 İzmir, Turkey Challenger Hard   Divij Sharan   Malek Jaziri
  Denys Molchanov
7–6(7–5), 4–6, 0–0 (ret)
Win 5–0 Oct 2015 Bangalore, India Challenger Hard   Sanam Singh   John Paul Fruttero
  Vijay Sundar Prashanth
5–7, 6–4, [10–2]
Loss 5–1 Feb 2016 New Delhi, India Challenger Hard   Sanam Singh   Yuki Bhambri
  Mahesh Bhupathi
3–6, 6–4, [5–10]
Loss 5–2 Mar 2016 Shenzhen, China Challenger Hard   Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan   Luke Saville
  Jordan Thompson
6–3, 4–6, [10–12]
Win 6–2 Apr 2016 Nanjing, China Challenger Hard   Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan   Denys Molchanov
  Aleksandr Nedovyesov
6–3, 6–3
Loss 6–3 Aug 2016 Granby, Canada Challenger Hard   Sanam Singh   Guilherme Clezar
  Alejandro González
6–3, 1–6, [10–12]
Loss 6–4 Apr 2018 Taipei, Taiwan Challenger Carpet(i)   Prajnesh Gunneswaran   Matthew Ebden
  Andrew Whittington
4–6, 7–5, [6–10]
Loss 6–5 Jun 2018 Fergana, Uzbekistan Challenger Hard   Vijay Sundar Prashanth   Ivan Gakhov
  Alexander Pavlioutchenkov
4–6, 4–6
Win 7–5 Jul 2019 Chengdu, China Challenger Hard   Arjun Kadhe   Nam Ji-sung
  Song Min-kyu
6–3, 0–6, [10–6]
Loss 7–6 Nov 2019 Pune, India Challenger Hard   Arjun Kadhe   Purav Raja
  Ramkumar Ramanathan
6–7(3–7), 3–6
Win 8–6 Feb 2022 Bangalore, India Challenger Hard   Ramkumar Ramanathan   Hugo Grenier
  Alexandre Müller
6–3, 6–2
Loss 8–7 Feb 2022 Bangalore, India Challenger Hard   Ramkumar Ramanathan   Alexander Erler
  Arjun Kadhe
3–6, 7–6(7–4), [7–10]
Win 9–7 Apr 2022 Salinas, Ecuador Challenger Hard   Yuki Bhambri   JC Aragone
  Roberto Quiroz
4–6, 6–3, [10–7]
Win 10–7 May 2022 Prostějov, Czech Republic Challenger Clay   Yuki Bhambri   Roman Jebavý
  Andrej Martin
6–3, 7–5
Win 11–7 Jul 2022 Porto, Portugal Challenger Hard   Yuki Bhambri   Nuno Borges
  Francisco Cabral
6–4, 3–6, [10–6]
Win 12–7 Aug 2022 Lexington, USA Challenger Hard   Yuki Bhambri   Gijs Brouwer
  Aidan McHugh
3–6, 6–4, [10–8]
Win 13–7 Aug 2022 Mallorca, Spain Challenger Hard   Yuki Bhambri   Marek Gengel
  Lukáš Rosol
6–2, 6–2
Win 14–7 Jan 2023 Nonthaburi, Thailand Challenger Hard   Yuki Bhambri   Christopher Rungkat
  Akira Santillan
2–6, 7–6(9–7), [14–12]
Win 15–7 Apr 2023 Girona, Spain Challenger Clay   Yuki Bhambri   Íñigo Cervantes
  Oriol Roca Batalla
6–4, 6–4

Other finals

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Asian Games

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Finals: 2 (1–1)

Singles finals: 0 (0–0)

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Doubles inals: 2 (1–1)

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Result W–L    Date    Tournament Tier Surface Partner Opponents Score
Silver 0-1 29 September 2014 2014 Asian Games Asian Games Hard   Sanam Singh   Hyeon Chung
  Lim Yong-kyu
5–7, 6–7(2–7)
Gold 1-1 29 September 2014 2014 Asian Games Asian Games Hard   Sania Mirza   Peng Hsien-yin
  Chan Hao-ching
6–4, 6–3

South Asian Games

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Finals: 3 (1–2)

Singles Finals: 2 (0–2)

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Result W–L    Date    Tournament Tier Surface Opponent Score
Silver 0-1 12 February 2016 2016 South Asian Games South Asian Games Hard   Ramkumar Ramanathan 5–7, 2–6
Silver 0-2 9 December 2019 2019 South Asian Games South Asian Games Hard   Manish Sureshkumar 4–6, 6–7(6–7)

Doubles finals: 1 (1–0)

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Result W–L    Date    Tournament Tier Surface Partner Opponents Score
Gold 1-0 8 December 2019 2019 South Asian Games South Asian Games Hard   Vishnu Vardhan   Sriram Balaji
  Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan
7–5,3–6,[10–5]

References

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  1. ^ "Saketh Myneni ITF profile".
  2. ^ "Saketh Myneni ATP bio".
  3. ^ "Challenger Stars Reaping Rewards At US Open".
  4. ^ "Indian tennis player proposes to girlfriend at Davis Cup dinner, she says yes". 14 September 2016. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  5. ^ "Indian tennis star Saketh Myneni proposes to girlfriend at Davis Cup dinner". Retrieved 17 September 2016.
  6. ^ "Saketh Myneni Davis cup profile".
  7. ^ "Asian Games 2014: Sania Mirza-Saketh Myneni Win Mixed-Doubles Gold".
  8. ^ "Asian Games: Sanam Singh, Saketh Myneni Settle for Silver in Men's Tennis Doubles".
  9. ^ https://olympics.com/en/news/french-open-2023-tennis-roland-garros-india-doubles-first-round-results [bare URL]
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