Ramkumar Ramanathan made his way into the doubles quarterfinals along with Miguel Angel Reyes-Varela at the fifth edition the Tata Open Maharashtra after defeating the pair of Rohan Bopanna and Botic van de Zandschulp 7-6 (5), 6-7 (4), 11-9 at the Balewadi Stadium in Pune on Tuesday.
The Indo-Mexican duo put up a brilliant performance against the strong opposition team consisting of the two-time champion Indian tennis ace Bopanna. The exciting contest saw tough competition from both the ends as the two sets, too, were decided in tie-breakers before Ramkumar and Reyes-Varela managed to tilt the result in their favour in the end in the super tie-break.
The duo will now face the three-time Grand Slam champions Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury, who overcame the challenge from Sebastian Baez-Luis David Martinez 6-3, 7-6 (1) in their opening encounter.
It was a mixed day for Ramkumar, who went down fighting 6-3, 5-7, 3-6 against the world No 62 Pedro Martinez in a thrilling singles opening-round contest earlier in the day.
Another Indian pair of N Sriram Balaji and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan, also made it to the quarterfinal after defeating Purav Raja and Divij Sharan 6-4, 6-3 in an all-Indian clash.
Meanwhile, Yuki Bhambri and Saketh Myneni went down fighting against the French pair of Sadio Doumbia and Fabien Reboul 7-6 (1), 5-7, 7-10.
World No 17 Marin Cilic, who received a bye in the first round of singles, will be in action on Wednesday as he begins his campaign against Roberto Carballes Baena.
Earlier in the day, India’s challenge came to an end in the singles after Mukund Sasikumar suffered hard-fought defeat in the Round-of-32 matches. He lost to Flavio Cobolli 4-6, 5-7.
Other Indian singles players, Sumit Nagal and Manas Dhamne, made exits on Monday.
In the other singles match, Aslan Karatsev made a winning start to his campaign as he thrashed Pablo Andujar 6-1 6-3. Tim van Rijthoven and Maximilian Marterer also progressed into the second round.