ATP Challenger: India's Manas Dhamne fights before falling short in maiden final

Bengaluru: In a battle between unseeded finalists, it was the older and experienced Buvaysar Gadamauri of Belgium who edged India's young hope Manas Dhamne to win the ATP Challenger in Shymkent, Kazakhstan, on Sunday. 

The 18-year-old Dhamne, who made it to his maiden ATP Challenger final this week, went head-to-head for most of the one hour and 51 minutes contest before the 25-year-old Gadamauri held his fort to secure a 7-6 (6), 6-4 victory and capture his first title. 

"It was quite a good match. I had some chances and some good breaks, especially in the first set," said Dhamne during an online interaction after his runners-up finish.

"In the tie-break, I was 4-1 up but tennis works like this. In the second set I played a couple of loose games on my serve. Yeah, but lots of learning from today's match and I hope to fix them in the next tournament," added the right-hander from Pune who trains at the Piatti Tennis Centre in Bordighera, Italy.   

As Dhamne assessed, there was little separating the two. The opening set saw both opponents hold their respective serves before trading a break each in the ninth and 10th games. At 6-6 in the tie-breaker, Dhamne lost a point on serve, putting Gadamauri a step ahead. Capitalising on the opportunity, the Belgian served to win the first set. 

The second was more of a see-saw battle. With multiple breaks of serves, the world No. 357 Gadamauri upped the ante towards the latter part to keep the 444-ranked Dhamne at bay and close out the match. 

Despite the loss, the Indian youngster is set to break into the top-400 for the first time, which will give him a new career-high ranking when the ATP releases a revised list on Monday.     

"The main goal is to keep improving as a person and a player. If I do that the ranking will take care of itself," offered Dhamne, who will play an ITF 25K in Santa Margherita di Pula, Italy, followed by an ATP Challenger in Oeiras, Portugal, in the next two weeks.