Ramkumar Ramanathan on his approach to a glowing victory over Stefano Napolitano of Italy within the Maha Open Challenger tennis event in Pune on Tuesday.| Photo Credit: Kamesh Srinivasan

Ramkumar Ramanathan served huge and stroked with intelligence to show the tide within the nick of time in each units as he knocked out the champion of the final event Stefano Napolitano 7-6(5), 7-6(5) within the first spherical of the $133,250 Maha Open Challenger tennis event on the Balewadi Stadium on Tuesday.

After the champion of the Chennai Challenger, Sumit Nagal, had perspired to a 7-6(6), 6-4 victory over Yu Hsiou Hsu of Chinese Taipei on the centre courtroom, followers stayed on to cheer Ramkumar. 

The 28-year-old Ramkumar, who was as soon as ranked 111, as towards his present 462, did have a gradual begin. However, he stepped it up every time required, particularly together with his serve.

Ramkumar fired 15 aces and his imaginative stroke play and uncanny sharpness on the massive factors gained him the match towards the 204th ranked Italian.

Ramkumar transformed one of many 9 break factors within the match, whereas Napolitano gained one in every of two break factors, early within the match.

A quarterfinalist in Bengaluru final week, Ramkumar will play qualifier Alexey Zakharov within the second spherical. Sumit will play compatriot NIki Poonacha.

The woes of Sriram Balaji and Andre Begemann of Germany continued in doubles, because the fourth seeds misplaced their first spherical, regardless of having a match level.

“When confidence is low, matches slip from match point. Balaji and partner did not play the tie-breaks well, and their return games could have been better”, noticed coach M Balachandran.

The outcomes:

Singles (first spherical): Sumit Nagal bt Yu Hsiou Hsu (Tpe) 7-6(4), 6-4; Maks Kasnikowski (Pol) bt Seongchan Hong (Kor) 6-4, 6-2; Dane Sweeny (Aus) bt Maxime Janvier (Fra) 4-6, 6-1, 7-6(4); Valentin Vacherot (Mon) bt Vasek Pospisil (Can) 6-3, 7-5; Enzo Couacaud (Fra) bt Bernard Tomic (Aus) 6-4, 6-2; Felix Gill (GBr) bt Coleman Wong (Hkg) 7-6(4), 4-6, 6-3; Adam Walton (Aus) bt Raphael Collignon (Bel) 7-6(1), 6-2; Alexey Zakharov bt Oliver Crawford (GBr) 7-6(4), 6-3; Ramkumar Ramanathan bt Stefano Napolitano (Ita) 7-6(5), 7-6(5); Tristan Boyer (USA) & Oriol Roca Batalla (Esp) 6-2, 4-6, 6-2; Duje Ajdukovic (Cro) bt Sebastian Fanselow (Ger) 5-7, 7-6(1), 6-3.

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Siddhant Banthia & Parikshit Somani bt Luca Margaroli (Sui) & Goncalo Oliveira (Por) 5-7, 7-6(5), [10-5]; Tristan Schoolkate & Adam Walton (Aus) bt Sai Karteek Reddy & Karan Singh 3-6, 6-3, [10-4]; Toshihide Matsui & Kaito Uesugi (Jpn) bt Sriram Balaji & Andre Begemann (GEr) 4-6, 7-6(5), [10-5].