Nagal powers to semis, Hong bests Ramanathan

It took Sumit Nagal 11 minutes to win the first game of the match during his quarterfinal clash against Adam Walton at the dafaNews Bengaluru Open here. That marked a warning signal for what was to follow in the next 1 hour 53 minutes on the floodlit centre court of the Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association (KSLTA) on a cool Friday evening. 

The 98th-ranked Indian was troubled by the 153th-ranked Australian before the former posted a 7-5, 6-2 win to enter the last four stage. 

The first set was a rollercoaster ride with both the players going at each other. There were a total of three breaks - two for second-seeded Nagal and one for the fifth-seeded Walton.

In the 13th game, a lucky net cord set up an advantage for Nagal before he grabbed the opener when Walton’s forehand went long. 

The second set began with a promise of the clash going late into the night. But the 24-year-old Walton lost the plot completely to see Nagal cruise through with a 6-2 win.

However, it was the end of the road for the other Indian, Ramkumar Ramanathan, in the singles draw. The 29-year-old played three matches in the event this year with a similar tone to it. 

Ramkumar lost the first set of all three clashes but found his touch in the second to go on and win it. While the World No. 462 clinched the third to survive the first two matches, a resurgent Korean Seong Chan Hong refused to be the Indians’ third victim. 

In a closely-fought encounter, the ninth-seeded Hong secured a 7-5, 5-7, 6-4 victory to end Ramkumar’s run at the sixth edition of the tournament.

At loggerheads from the beginning, both the players worked hard to build points and find openings to go for the kill.

If serves and backhand slices worked well for Ramkumar, superior fitness and groundstrokes from behind the court helped the resilient Hong throughout the match.

In the end, Hong, tackling both a vocal crowd and Ramkumar, egged himself on and needed one break to win the third set and make his way to the semifinal. 

Results: Singles (prefix denotes seeding): 8-Oriol Roca Batalla (Esp) bt Maks Kasnikowski (Pol) 7-6 (5), 4-6, 7-5; 9-Seong Chan Hong (Kor) bt WC-Ramkumar Ramanathan (Ind) 7-5, 5-7, 6-4; 7-Stefano Napolitano (Ita) bt Moez Echargui (Tun) 6 (5)-7, 6-4, 6-4; 2-Sumit Nagal (Ind) bt 5-Adam Walton (Aus) 7-5, 6-2.

Doubles: Semifinal: Bittoun Kouzmine/ Maxime Janvier (Fra) bt Piotr Matuszewski (Pol)/ Matthew Christopher Romios (Aus) 6-3, 3-6, 10-6.