Ramkumar Ramanathan Shocks Yuki Bhambri; Somdev Devvarman Also Ousted From Indore Open
Ramkumar Ramanathan, who had also shocked Somdev Devvarman at the Chennai open early this year, overcame the challenge of sixth seed Yuki Bhambri 7-6 (4) 6-3 to move to the quarterfinals of the USD 50,000 hard court tournament.
Ramkumar Ramanathan proved his ascendancy in Indian tennis yet again as he knocked out Yuki Bhambri from the ATP Indore Open even as India's top player Somdev Devvarman also made an early exit, here on Thursday.
Ramkumar, who had also shocked Somdev at the Chennai open early this year, overcame the challenge of sixth seed Yuki 7-6 (4) 6-3 to move to the quarterfinals of the USD 50,000 hard court tournament.
The 19-year-old Chennai youngster has been impressive this year, having won four ITF Futures singles titles so far.
There was no break of serve in the opening set but Ramkumar succeeded in breaking his senior compatriot twice in the second set of the match, which lasted one hour and 45 minutes.
Third seed Somdev, ranked 143rd lost a hard-fought quarter-final 7-6(4) 4-6 4-6 to Chinese Taipei's Liang-Chi Hunag, who is ranked as low as 316, after fighting it out for close to three hours in his second round contest.
Now only three Indians are left in the singles main draw, Ramkumar, Saketh Myneni and Sanam Singh.
Ramkumar will take on Chinese Taipei's Ti Chen, who overcame Frenchman Fabrice Martin 6-7(5) 6-4 6-4. Saketh and Sanam will clash against each other.
Later in the day, Yuki and Divij Sharan, seeded second, moved to the semifinals with a 7-6(4) 6-2 win over the Japanese pair of Hiroki Moriya and Yasutaka Uchiyama.
Somdev and his partner Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan had won the first set 6-3 against Saketh and Sanam when the contest was stopped. It will be resumed on Friday.