Ramkumar Ramanathan posted an impressive victory against Mattia Bellucci to enter the singles main draw at the fifth Tata Open Maharashtra at the Balewadi Stadium in Pune on Sunday.
The 28-year-old Indian, who came as a wildcard, put up a fine show in the final round of the qualifiers to secure a comfortable 6-3, 7-5 win over the third-seeded Italian.
Meanwhile, in another qualifying match, Yuki Bhambri’s challenge came to an end after he suffered a 1-6, 4-6 loss against the last edition’s semi-finallist Elias Ymer.
Ramanathan will be the fourth Indian to feature in the men’s singles main draw at the ongoing edition of South Asia’s only ATP 250 event.
India No 1 Mukund Sasikumar, Sumit Nagal and the 15-year-old Manas Dhamne are the country’s other three players to compete in the main draw.
Maximilian Marterer and Flavio Cobolli were the other two players to progress into the main event. While Marterer beat Nikola Milojevic 6-2, 6-3, Cobolli got the better of Zdenek Kolar by 6-4, 6-4.
The Pune-born prodigy Dhamne is set to kickstart India’s challenge in the main draw on Monday when he takes on the American player Michael Mmoh in the singles opening round match. Sumit Nagal will also be seen in action against Filip Krajinovic.
The tournament will go on till January 7.
