Eighth seed Ramkumar Ramanathan was beaten 7-6(4), 6-2 by sixth seed Mitchell Krueger of the US in the final of the $52,080 Challenger tennis tournament in Cary, US.
The 26-year-old Ramkumar, an officer with Indian Oil in Chennai, was pleased with his fighting performance as he had won his first four rounds in three sets each. It included a victory over second seed and compatriot Prajnesh Gunneswaran.
‘’It was a long week for me, but a good week here in North Carolina. I could sustain good game thanks to the grace of God. Also, I was in touch coach T Chandrasekaran sir before every match, and he guided mewell. I am grateful to him’’, said Ramkumar.
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Incidentally, it was Krueger who had beaten Ramkumar in the second qualifying round of the Newport ATP event last week.
After the heart-breaking 9-11 loss in the fifth set of the final qualifying round in Wimbledon, the 227th ranked Ramkumar has stepped up his performance with enhanced confidence.
He did get the taste of playing in his first Grand Slam as he got into the mixed doubles draw with Ankita Raina, and ended up playing Rohan Bopanna and Sania Mirza in the first round.
‘’It was a wonderful feeling, playing first time in Wimbledon. It was an extremely tight last round of qualifying event, but I will take the positives and keep working hard’’, assured Ramkumar.
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