KALABURAGI, December 1, 2023 (Press Release)

Ramkumar Ramanathan is the lone Indian left in the last four men’s singles line-up at the Ultratech Cement ITF Kalaburagi Open. In the quarterfinals played at the Chandrashekhar Patil Stadium in Kalaburagi here on Friday, the fifth seed quelled the challenge of giant killer Manish Sureshkumar 7-5, 6-0 to make it to the semifinals.

In the other quarterfinal matches of the day, Aryan Shah went down fighting to Ryotaro Taguchi of Japan 3-6, 2-6 while sixth seed Rishab Agarwal succumbed to second seed Matsuda Ryuki of Japan 0-6, 4-6. In a one-sided affair seventh seed David Pichler of Austria saw the back of Japanese Seita Watanabe with a 6-0, 6-0 win in the last quarterfinal tie.

A little later Ryuki and Taguchi advanced to the finals in the doubles after defeating the Indian pair of Rishab Agarwal and Bharath Nishok Kumaran 7-6 (4), 6-2. In the final they will clash with the Austrian-Indian pair of David Pichler and Nitin Kumar Sinha who brushed past the duo of Adil Kalyanpur and Sidharth Rawat 6-3, 6-2

Ramanathan who has recently won two ITF World Tennis Tour 25K titles in as many months, found an able opponent in his Chennai citymate, at least as far as the first set was concerned. Both the players held their respective serves until the seventh game till Surehkumar broke Ramanathan’s serve to nose ahead 5-3. In a sudden change of form, Sureshkumar committed three unforced errors which gave his senior counterpart a chance to not only come back in the match but strike his true form. Ramanathan since then won 10 games in a row, including six in the second set to overpower Sureshkumar. The striking feature about Ramanathan’s game was his big serve and a strong forehand which further dented Sureshkumar’s feeble chances of a comeback.

Results 

Men’s Singles (Quarterfinals)

7-David Pichler (AUT) bt Seita Watanabe (JPN) 6-0, 6-0; 5-Ramkumar Ramanathan bt Manish Sureshkumar 7-5,6-0; Ryotaro Taguchi (JPN) bt Q-Aryan Shah 6-3, 6-2; 2-Matsuda Ryuki (JPN) bt 6-Rishab Agarwal 6-0, 6-4.

Semifinal line-up:

5-Ramkumar Ramanathan Vs. Ryotaro Taguchi (JPN); 7-David Pichler (AUT) Vs. 2-Matsuda Ryuki (JPN)

Doubles (Semifinals)

Ryuki Matsuda (JPN)/Ryotaro Taguchi (JPN) bt Rishab Agarwal/Bharath Nishok Kumaran 7-6 (4), 6-2; 2-David Pichler (AUT)/ Nitin Kumar Sinha bt Adil Kalyanpur/Sidharth Rawat 6-3, 6-2.