KALABURAGI, December 3, 2023 (Press Release)

Ramkumar Ramanathan of India pocketed his third ITF World Tennis Tour title in a span of 57 days when he won the Ultratech Cement ITF Kalaburagi Open at the Chandrashekhar Patil Stadium here on Sunday. In an almost one-sided final, Ramkumar brushed aside his Austrian rival David Pichler’s challenge in straight sets 6-2, 6-1 in just 64 minutes.

Ramanathan pocketed the winner’s cheque of US$ 3200 and 25 precious ATP Ranking points while the visitor was richer by US$ 2120 while gaining 16 ATP points.

“It feels great to win back to back titles. My game is coming along good. I did play some of my best tennis in these last two weeks. The courts here didn’t suit my game initially, but I adapted to them very quickly,” said Ramanathan after the victory.

Playing in front of home crowd in a packed stadium, Ramanathan was already morally boosted even before he hit his first serve. After both the players had held their serve for the first five games, Ramanathan made the first dent by breaking Pichler’s serve in the 6^th sixth game and never looked back dishing out some superb winners to capture the rest of the games to win the set 6-2.

The second set promised a fightback from Pichler when he held his serve losing just a point, but Ramanathan had different plans. Moving with great tenacity, he forced Pichler to commit mistakes and himself came up with a couple of cross court winners which drew cheers from the crowd that could be heard a mile away. The only game Ramanathan struggled to hold his serve was in the 5^th game where the Indian Davis Cup team member didn’t find answers to Pichler’s down the line winners. With two breaks in the 4^th and 6^th game, Ramanathan signed off with an ace to almost blank his opponent at 6-1 to win the crown.