NEW YORK — Rajeev Ram has staying power. A former junior standout from Carmel, Indiana, he spent an NCAA championship season playing under coach Craig Tiley for Illinois and then turned pro in 2004. Twenty years later, he remains, at age 40, one of the best doubles players in the world. He has won six Grand Slam titles, including three US Opens in a row from 2021 to 2023 with partner Joe Salisbury.
Last month, Ram won his second Olympic silver medal, partnering with American compatriot Austin Krajicek in Paris and losing by a painfully narrow margin to Matt Ebden and John Peers of Australia.
Though Ram and Salisbury were unable to continue their US Open streak, Ram bounced back quickly, making the long-haul trip to China and teaming up with Krajicek again to help the United States Davis Cup squad qualify for the Finals.
In 2022, Ram was snubbed and left off the US team despite being ranked No. 1 in the world: a decision that still rankles. But he continues to take pride in competing in Davis Cup, even in its diminished state and even if he finds some elements of its new format “insane”.
Ram and I spoke twice recently: once from Paris and once from New York. In my recent New York Times story, he talked about his US Open run with Salisbury and the pain of falling just short of gold at the Olympics. For Tennis & Beyond, we went in depth on many topics. Our interviews have been condensed and lightly edited for clarity.
On playing Davis Cup in China a couple of days after the US Open:
It's insane, to be honest. That's the best way to put it. The fact that we're going to China to not even play China, is ridiculous and feel free to quote me on saying that. I feel like this new format has its good and its bad, and you can argue it both ways. But this is a step past that, to go to a place where we are not even playing a team from there, wherever there might be. The fact that it's halfway around the world is a little insignificant. I feel like it really takes away from what Davis Cup is all about, which is playing in front of or against a home crowd. I realize with this new format when we had the groups in a single place that would only happen once, but at least it would happen once. But four teams that aren't China playing in China? It doesn’t make any sense.
On not being picked for the knockout round of the Davis Cup Finals by former captain Mardy Fish in 2022 when Ram was the No. 1 doubles player in the world (the US team lost in the quarterfinals):
The biggest problem I had with that situation was actually not that I didn't get selected, because at the end of the day, that's not my choice. That's the decision of the captain, and if he feels like I'm not the best option regardless of my ranking or my results, that's what he's there for. The thing that I had the biggest problem with, and the reason I feel like we didn't do very well, is because we didn't take a complete team. That's something I'm honestly still probably not over, because I worked my butt off to try and help us get to the stage of qualifying for the final. I went to Scotland the day after winning the US Open and was part of winning a crucial match against Britain to get us through. And then we go to the Davis Cup finals, and you can take five guys on the team, and our captain chose to take four. That, to me, is not trying your hardest, and I don't really have any time for not trying your hardest, and I think that's a big problem. Do I think I should have been picked? Yeah, I do. That year, we had three players competing in the World Tour Finals. We had Taylor Fritz, Austin Krajicek and myself, and we left two on the bench. I don't think any other country would have done that.
On whether Fish or anyone from the USTA eventually apologized:
Mardy's blocked me on social media, so I'm gonna say no (laughs). We've not had a conversation since that day. The USTA, I did have a chat with them. It wasn't so much of an apology. It was more of an explanation, saying that the captain has basically full autonomy. And I told them exactly what I told you that I just don't understand full autonomy to not pick a full team. And we sort of disagreed on that. The USTA didn't say, ‘Yeah, you're right. Sorry. We shouldn't do that, or we won't do that again.’ I didn't hear any of that, but it hasn't happened since. So I'm very happy about that.
On what it means to have become a big part of the US Davis Cup team since then under new captain Bob Bryan:
Davis Cup is one of the most important things in my career. I'm a little older, obviously, than most of the guys on my team. I grew up watching Davis Cup in I'm not going to say its absolute heyday, but in certainly a great time for it. It was always a massive goal of mine to be on a Davis Cup team and to compete for my country in this format. It's been something I've really strived for.
I will play for my country any time I’m asked and play with passion as hard as I can. I think our whole team did an amazing job of that in China and to be honest I think all the teams there did a great job. But I’m a big proponent of it being how it used to be where it’s home-and-away matches, and this wasn’t that for anyone.
On how he began playing tennis:
My dad grew up in India and played cricket as a kid. Then he was a scientist, a botanist by trade. He wasn’t a tennis player in the least. He started when I started really. I'm an only child, and he would come home from work, and tennis was our thing that we did together. We lived in California for a bit. Then we lived in Wisconsin, and we'd go to the local park, or when we got to the colder weather, we’d go to the local club: a small, little tennis club in Madison, and we'd just go there every day after he got home from work. It was like the highlight of my day. I always thought as a kid that he couldn't wait to get home to play with me. I'm sure he got some enjoyment out of it. But now, as an adult, I realize how difficult that must have been at times. But it wasn't to make me a professional. It wasn't to make me a good or great player. It was just what we did together that was a lot of fun. I tried every sport as a kid. I was a little better at tennis and enjoyed it more than the others, and so that was it.