Ramkumar stuns Gimeno-Traver

Tennis Chennai Open : Somdev crashes out in 1st round

 Ramkumar Ramanathan recorded the second-biggest win of his career by shocking world number 98 Daniel Gimeno-Traver in the opening round of the ATP Chennai Open but there was no end to Somdev Devvarman’s struggle as he was knocked out of the singles event here on Tuesday.

Making a fine start to his 2016 season, wild card entrant Ramkumar drubbed his Spanish rival 6-2, 6-0, enthralling the sparse crowd by playing with passion and power.

All he needed was one hour to move to the second round where world number 12 South African Kevin Anderson awaits him.

“I did not think of such a quick win. I was giving my best on every point. I knew it will be tough. I was staying positive, professional,” Ramkumar said.

Bubbling with energy, Ramkumar overwhelmed Gimeno-Traver with his power-packed strokes. The Spaniard had no clue how to tame Ramkumar’s ferocious inside-out forehand. Before this, the only top-100 player Ramkumar had beaten was his compatriot Somdev and at this very event last year. Somdev was ranked 90th then.

Earlier, Somdev raised hopes of a turnaround before being knocked by Russian wild card Andrey Rublev. Somdev, ranked 177th, lost 3-6, 6-3, 3-6 to his 18-year old opponent, whose father is a boxer and mother a tennis coach.

Somdev has not won a main draw singles match on ATP Tour since September 2014 when he had beaten China’s Xin Gao at Shenzen Open.

Bhupathi crashes out

Indian doubles player Mahesh Bhupathi and Gilles Muller of Luxembourg choked at the super tie-breaker after leading 5-2, going down to the top seeded pair of Raveen Klaasen (Russia) and Rajeev Ram (USA) in the doubles pre-quarterfinal on Monday.

Bhupathi and Muller lost to Klassen and Ram 3-6, 7-6 (7) and 7-10.
Meanwhile, second seeds Leander Paes and Marcel Granollers made a smooth start in their campaign with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Taro Daniel and John Millman in the first round.

Results (prefix denote seedings): Round 1: Singles: 6-Gilles Muller (Lux) bt Karen Khachanov (Rus) 6-7(3), 7-6(4); 6-2; Luca Vanni (Ita) bt Jan-Lennard Struff (Ger) 6-4, 7-6 (5); Ramkumar Ramanathan (Ind) bt Daniel Gimeno-Traver (Esp) 6-2, 6-0; Lukas Rosol (Czh) bt Santiago Giraldo (Col) 6-3, 6-4; Austin Krajicek (US) bt Rajeev Ram (US) 6-7(0), 6-4, 6-4; Andrey Rublev (Rus) bt Somdev Devvarman (Ind) 6-3, 3-6, 6-3; 5-Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (Spain) beat Taro Daniel (Japan) 4-6, 7-5, 6-2.

Doubles: M Fyrstenberg (Pol)/ Santiago Gonzalez (Mex) bt A Bury (Bel)/ Borna Coric (Cro) 6-4, 6-3; Marcel Granollers (Esp)/ Leander Paes (Ind) bt Taro Daniel (Jap)/ John Millman (Aus) 6-2, 6-3.