(MOREPIC1)ISMANING (GERMANY)
Firing 12 aces and committing three double faults Ramkumar Ramanathan had to labour to overcome qualifIer Billy Harris of Great Britain in opening singles round match of the € 45,730 Wolffkran Open ATP Challenger.
In the closely contested and thrilling affairs, the Indian player from Chennai Ramkumar Ramanathan posted a hard-fought three-setter win, with each set deciding in tie-breakers 7-6 (4), 6-7(5), 7-6 (5).
Ramkumar won 81 percent points (56/84) on his first serve and 68 percent points (21/31) on second serve. Billy won 90 percent points (50/67) on this first serve and 57 percent points (24/42) on second serve The Great Britain player unleashed 13 aces and committed two double faults.
In the second round, 274th ranked Ramkumar will face top seed and 78th ranked Quentin Halys of France. Quentin Halys defeated his colleague Michael Greerts 7-6 (8), 6-4.
Ramkumar, who is seeded top with Great Britain player Jonny O'Mara, was upset in the doubles first round by Ivan Liutarevich and Vladyslav Manafov of Ukraine 7-6, 6-7 (5), 10-8.
Fourth seeded Indian pair of Purav Raja and Divij Sharan went down fighting to Szymon Walkow and Kacper Zuk of Poland 6-3, 3-6, 10-7.
YUKI-MYNENI MOVE UP: Top seeded Indian pair of Yuki Bhambri and Saketh Myneni easily beat Japenese pair of Shimabukuro and Seita Watanabe in the opening doubles round in straight sets 6-4, 6-4 in the in the $132,800 FILA Seoul Open Challenger, Seoul Korea. In the quarter-final Yuki and Myneni will meet Austrian duo Marc Polmans and Max Purell.
SUMIT DEFEATED IN SINGLES SECOND ROUND: Sumit Nagal of India was edged out by Alexandre Muller of France by 4-6, 1-6, 6-3 in the singles second round match in the $ 53,120 Rio de Janeiro Challenger in Brazil. In the match which lasted 73 minutes, Sumit converted two out of eight breakpoints while his rival converted five out of nine breakpoints
Earlier, qualifier Sumit had beaten Brazilian Daniel Dutra da Silva by 6-2, 6-3 in the singles first round of the main draw.
Sumit Nagal is pairing with Jan Choinski of Great Britain and plays their doubles opening round against Brazilian duo of Joao Lucas Reis Da Silva and Marcelo Zormann.
