Ramkumar battles past Alexander Kudryatsev

Davis Cupper Ramkumar Ramanathan battled past Alexander Kudryatsev of Russia 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 in the first round of the €43,000 Challenger tennis tournament in Recanti, Italy, on Tuesday.

The 22-year-old Ramkumar, ranked a career-best 184, served nine aces and converted three of eight breakpoints to get past the 31-year-old Russsian who had a best rank of 117 two years ago.

Fresh from a memorable outing on grass in Antalya Open ATP Tour event, Davis Cupper Ramkumar Ramanathan battled past Alexander Kudryatsev of Russia 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 in the first round of the €43,000 Challenger tennis tournament in Recanti, Italy, on Tuesday.

The 22-year-old Ramkumar, ranked a career-best 184, served nine aces and converted three of eight breakpoints to get past the 31-year-old Russsian who had a best rank of 117 two years ago.

In the ITF Futures in China, Vishnu Vardhan sailed past Sam Matheson of New Zealand 6-3, 6-1 in the first round.

Vishnu, however, failed to capitalise on seven matchpoints in the doubles pre-quarterfinals in partnership with Toshihide Matsui, as the Indo-Japanese top seeds got beaten 1-6, 7-6(8), 13-11 by Hao Wu and Zihao Xia of China.

Vishnu and his partner had five matchpoints in the second set tie-break in which they led 6-2 at one stage, and later had two more matchpoints at 9-8 and 11-10 in the super tie-break. Both the times the Chinese played better to win the last three points.

In the ITF grade-1 junior tennis tournament on grass in Roehampton, the Indian players continued to digest the hard lessons, as Siddhant Banthia, Zeel Desai, Mahak Jain and Mihika Yadav could not win a set in doubles between them in the first round. They had all lost in the first round of singles earlier.
 

Meanwhile, Zeel’s father Mehul Desai clarified from Roehampton that Zeel’s racquet only fell next to the spectator, leading to a default by the referee.