A gutsy Ramkumar Ramanathan buried a sluggish start to eke out an inspiring win over Alexander Kudryavtsev and enter the men’s singles quarterfinals of the Chennai Open here on Thursday.
Wild card Ramkumar worked his way to a 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 win over higher-ranked Russian, who had entered the event as a lucky loser. He next plays world no.45 Aljaz Bedene, who defeated luca Vanni 5-7, 6-3, 6-4. With the win on Thursday he has entered the quarterfinals of an ATP Tour event for first time in his career.
The Russian hit an exquisite forehand service return winner in the first point of the fifth game. Ramkumar struggled with his footwork and two consecutive forehand errors cost him the game. Serving to stay in the set, Ramkumar committed another error to be down by a set point and hit a cross court backhand wide to hand Kudryavtsev the first set.
Nevertheless, Ramkumar was all pumped up, never lacking in energy but could not put his game together. The Russian kept his cool and demeanour as he went about his business calmly.
At 3-3 in the second set, a forehand error handed the Indian second breakpoint in the deuce and a double fault by the Russian was all the local hero needed. He was now up a break and consolidated with an easy hold for a 5-3 lead.
Once again in the seventh game, a crushing forehand winner after a long rally sealed it for the Chennai lad.
There was no stopping him now and he closed the match easily.
Earlier, Italian qualifier Thomas Fabbiano created the biggest upset of the tournament when he ousted sixth seed Gilles Muller of luxembourg 6-4, 7-5.
Paes pulls out
Indian tennis great leander Paes will not take further part in the the Aircel Chennai Open with his men’s doubles partner, Marcel Granollers, falling ill.
The second seeds were to face Austian Krajicek and Benot Paire in the quarterfinals on Thursday night.
“It is a huge disappointment for me that I won’t be able to play in front of my home crowd. I hope Marcel gets fit in time for the Australian Open,” said Paes.