Bengaluru Open tennis: Ramkumar kicks off Indian challenge on a winning note

Bengaluru, Feb 12 (IANS) Wildcard entrant Ramkumar Ramanathan fought back from a set down to pack off Frenchman Maxime Janvier 6-7(4), 7-5, 6-4 to advance to the second round of the Bengaluru Open 2024 being played at the KSLTA Tennis Stadium here on Monday.

The 29-year-old Indian kept his nerve despite his serve being put under pressure in the opening two sets, by his higher-ranked opponent, to pull off a sensational victory in two hours and 26 minutes to give the home crowd a lot to cheer.

Also biting the dust on the opening day of the main draw was Croatian third seed Duje Ajdukovic, who went down against Tunisia’s Moez Echargui 6-2, 6-4 in an hour and 30 minutes.

But the main attraction of the opening day was the show-off between Ramkumar and Janvier and the former rode on home support to make a winning start to his campaign. The opening set was a neck-and-neck battle with Janvier relying on his first serve percentage to put pressure on the Indian and pocketed the first set through a tiebreaker.

Ramkumar was again under pressure in the second set and managed to save four break-points and then broke Janvier in the 11th game before wrapping the set in the next to force a decider. With the momentum in his favour, the Indian then broke Janvier early in the third set and then held on to his service games to wrap up the match.

He will now face the winner of the match between top seed Luca Nardi of Italy and Lucky Loser Dan Added of France.

The Bengaluru Open is being organised by the Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association (KSLTA). The ATP Challenger event began on January 12 and will conclude on January 19.

Results:

Singles (Main draw): Ramkumar Ramanathan (Ind) bt Maxime Janvier (Fra) 6-7 (4), 7-5, 6-4; Moez Echargui (Tun) bt 3-Duje Ajdukovic (Cro) 6-2, 6-4; Gauthier Onclin (Bel) bt Giovanni Fonio (Ita) 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (5)

Qualifying: 1-Bernand Tomic bt Jonas Forejtek 6-4, 6-2; 3-Chun-Hsin Tseng bt Yun Seong Chung 7-5, 4-6, 6-2; 4-S Vincent Ruggeri bt K Van Wyk 6-0, 6-2.

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