ITF Kalaburagi Open: Ramkumar Ramanathan to face Pichler in final

Ramanathan did not break a sweat while winning the semifinal match 6-2, 6-1. In the final, he will face David Pichler of Austria on Sunday.

FILE PHOTO: Ramanathan took just 65 minutes to register his win over Taguchi at the Chandrashekhar Patil Stadium. | Photo Credit: PTI

India’s Ramkumar Ramanathan, seeded fifth, brushed aside Japan’s Ryotaro Taguchi to reach the final of the ITF Kalaburagi Open here on Saturday.

Ramanathan did not break a sweat while winning the semifinal match 6-2, 6-1. In the final, he will face David Pichler of Austria on Sunday.

The Austrian, seeded seventh here, ousted second seeded Japanese Matsuda Ryuki 6-2, 6-4.

Ramanathan, eyeing his second ITF M25K title, took just 65 minutes to register his win over Taguchi at the Chandrashekhar Patil Stadium.

Ramkumar, who won the ITF Mumbai Open last week, served and returned with aplomb.

In the first set, the first five games went with the serve. The Japanese was the first to yield as he lost his serve in the sixth game, giving the Indian a 4-2 lead.

The 29-year-old Ramanathan won the seventh game with a booming serve to take a 5-2 lead and then broke his rival again in the eighth game to clinch the set 6-2.

Ramanathan, the Indian Davis Cup team member and Asian Games silver medallist, went even better in the second set.

The best the Japanese could do was to hold his serve in the second game as Ramanathan sent a flurry of winners from either flanks.

With breaks in the fourth and the sixth games, Ramanathan wrapped up the second set at 6-1 and with that the match as well.

Ryuki, Taguchi win doubles

Meanwhile, Ryuki and Taguchi joined to lift the doubles crown.

The Japanese duo dropped a set against the Indo-Austrian pair of Nitin Kumar Sinha and Pichler before prevailing 6-4, 2-6, 10-7 to earn the winner’s cheque of USD 1,550 and 25 ATP points.

The runners-up settled for USD 900 and 16 ATP points.