Ramkumar enters Challenger semifinals in Bahrain

Ramkumar Ramanathan recovered from the brink of defeat to beat Goncalo Oliveira of Portugal 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 in the quarterfinals of the $52,080 Challenger tennis tournament.

Ramkumar Ramanathan recovered from the brink of defeat to beat Goncalo Oliveira of Portugal 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 in the quarterfinals of the $52,080 Challenger tennis tournament in Bahrain on Friday.

Ramkumar was down 3-5 in the decider before he turned the tide in his favour.

In the $25,000 ITF women’s event in Italy, Karman Kaur Thandi beat Stephanie Wagner of Germany 7-6(3), 1-6, 6-4 in the semifinals. She had earlier won another three-hour duel against Erika Andreeva of Russia.

Karman will play fifth seed Susan Bandecchi of Switzerland in the final.

The results$52,080 Challenger, Manama, Bahrain Singles (quarterfinals): Ramkumar Ramanathan bt Goncalo Oliveira (Por) 6-3, 4-6, 7-5. Doubles (quarterfinals): Arjun Kadhe & Ramkumar Ramanathan bt Alexander Cozbinov (Mda) & Marek Gengel (Cze) 6-4, 6-2. $25,000 ITF women, Ortisei, Italy Singles (semifinals): Karman Kaur Thandi bt Stephanie Wagner (Ger) 7-6(3), 1-6, 6-4; Quarterfinals: Karman bt Erika Andreeva (Rus) 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.