Ramkumar Ramanathan battled past Bradley Klahn of the US 3-6, 7-6(4), 7-6(9) in the first round of the $75,000 Challenger tennis tournament here on Tuesday.
Despite dropping serve four times, and breaking his opponent’s serve only twice, Ramkumar pulled through in the battle of wits that lasted two hours and 42 minutes, as he tackled the tie-breaks with competence.
The results:
$75,000 Challenger, Winnetka, USA: First round: Ramkumar Ramanathan bt Bradley Klahn (USA) 3-6, 7-6(4), 7-6(9).
€43,000 Challenger, Bastad, Sweden:Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Sriram Balaji & Vijay Sundar Prashanth bt Markus Eriksson & Milos Sekulic (Swe) 4-6, 6-4, [10-6].
$25,000 ITF men, Shenzhen, China: Pre-quarterfinals: Vishnu Vardhan bt Mu Tao (Chn) 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(3). Doubles (quarterfinals): Francis Casey Alcantara (Phi) & Karunuday Singh bt He Yecong (Chn) & Wishaya Trongcharoenchaikul (Tha) 7-6(3), 2-6, [10-3].
$15,000 ITF women, Hua Hin, Thailand: Pre-quarterfinals: Naomi Cheong (USA) bt Dhruthi Venugopal 6-0, 7-5. Doubles (quarterfinals): Chieh-Yu Hsu (Tpe) & Dhruthi Venugopal bt Watsachol Sawasdee & Dolavee Tumthong (Tha) 6-1, 6-3.
$15,000 ITF women, Telavi, Georgia: First round: Alexandra Walters (Aus) bt Shweta Rana 6-1, 7-5. Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Martina Colmegna (Ita) & Shweta Rana bt Anastasia Bovolskaya (Rus) & Lana Kentchiashvili (Geo) 6-3, 1-6, [10-4].
$15,000 ITF women, Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt: First round: Rutuja Bhosale bt Andrina Peer (Sui) 7-5, 6-0; Y. Pranjala bt Oleksandra Andrieieva (Ukr) 6-2, 6-1.