Ramkumar Ramanathan served big and stroked with intelligence to turn the tide in the nick of time in both the sets as he knocked out the champion of last week’s Bengaluru Open - Stefano Napolitano - 7-6(5), 7-6(5) in the first round of the $133,250 Maha Open Challenger tennis tournament at the Balewadi Stadium on Tuesday.
After the champion of the Chennai Challenger, Sumit Nagal had perspired to a 7-6(6), 6-4 victory over Yu Hsiou Hsu of Chinese Taipei on the centre court, the hard core home fans stayed on to cheer Ramkumar.
The 28-year-old Ramkumar, who was ranked a career best 111, as against his current 462, did have a slow start. However, he stepped it up whenever required, especially with his serve.
Ramkumar fired 15 aces in the match to stay afloat, and his imaginative stroke play and uncanny sharpness on the big points won him the match against the 204th ranked Italian.
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Ramkumar converted one of nine break points in the match, while Napolitano won one of two break points, early in the match.
A quarterfinalist in Bengaluru last week, Ramkumar will play qualifier Alexey Zakharov in the second round. Sumit will play compatriot Niki Poonacha.
The woes of Sriram Balaji and Andre Begemann of Germany continued in doubles, as the fourth seeds lost their first round, despite having a match point.
“When confidence is low, matches slip from match point. Balaji and partner did not play the tie-breaks well, and their return games could have been better”, observed coach M Balachandran.
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