Veteran Leander Paes and Ramkumar Ramanathan hardly broke into a sweat as they dispatched unseeded Anvit Bendre and Sidharth Rawat 6-3, 6-4 in their opening match of the KPIT-MLSTA ATP Challenger on Wednesday in Pune.
This was the first time in 19 years that Paes had taken part in an Indian challenger and took only 53 minutes to head to a straight-sets win. The Ramanathan-Paes duo, who were teaming up for the first time, earned an early break in the game. The 22-year-old Ramanathan's returns were creating plenty of problems for Bendre and Rawat. The Bendre-Rawat pair fought back strongly in the second set but Paes and Ramanathan held the game by the scruff of its neck by landing three break points.
Paes was full of praise for his younger partner and even stated that Ramkumar had offered him suggestions on game strategy during the contest, “It isn’t like he always follows what I ask him to. There were situations in this game where he asked me to follow a specific style and routine and I readily obliged. We won the first set fairly comfortably with two breaks, and he came up to me and said ‘Let’s play eye-formation.’ I was completely taken aback but then I agreed," the 43-year-old was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times.
