New Delhi: Fresh off a fabulous performance at the Davis Cup, tennis players Ramkumar Ramanathan and Mukund Sasikuma made a quick exit at the ongoing Chennai Open ATP challenger on Tuesday. Both Ramanathan and Sasikuma were knocked out in the men’s singles opening round of the event after going down against their opponents in respective singles round clashes.
Ramkumar lost his encounter in straight sets against Great Britain’s Jay Clarke 3-6, 5-7 while Sasikumar was able to make the contest into a three-setter with brilliance in the second set but eventually fell down against Alexey Zakharov 3-6 7-6- 1-6. Ramanathan, surprisingly did not look in the best of his touch as he exhibited a poor show in both the sets while Sasikumar’s brilliance remained restricted to the second set only.
Karan Singh also goes down in dark day for Indians
Apart from the duo, 21-year-old Karan Singh was also defeated 3-6, 3-6 by France’s Kyrian Jacquet in what proved out to be a dark day for the Indian singles players at the SDAT Tennis Stadium with all the three local players making first round exits. In the doubles draw, Siddhant Banthia and Parikshit Somani emerged victorious in the all-Indian clash over Sai Karteek Reddy Ganta and Vishnu Vardhan 6-3, 3-6, 10-7 to book their place in the quarterfinals.
Meanwhile, third seed Duje Ajdukovic, ranked number 158 in the world, was beaten in three sets 2-6, 7-6, 2-6 by Sweden’s Elias Ymer, ranked number 332 in the world. The tournament’s top seeds Billy Harris and Lloyd Harris started off their campaigns on impressive note with wins, advancing to the second round of the event. While Billy got the better off Ukrainian qualifier Eric Vanshelboim 7-5, 6-2, Lloyd, who’s a former US Open quarter-finalist, defeated another Ukrainian qualifier Yurii Dzhavakian 6-3, 5-7 6-0.
The action from the event will continue on Wednesday with the doubles draw including Indians Vijay Sundar Prashanth and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan as the second seeds and Saketh Myneni and Vishnu Vardhan as the third seeds.
(With PTI inputs)
Ramkumar Ramanathan lost his encounter in straight sets against Great Britain’s Jay Clarke 3-6, 5-7 while Mukund Sasikuma fell down against Alexey Zakharov 3-6 7-6- 1-6. Tennis Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
