India’s two top-ranked singles players are on collision course for a spot in the main draw of Indian Wells. Both, Yuki Bhambri and Ramkumar Ramanathan, won their first-round qualifying matches of the ATP Masters 1000 tournament and will play each other in the final round. The winner of the all-Indian shoot-out will enter the prestigious first Masters of the season.
Ninth seed Bhambri beat Dennis Novikov 7-5,7-5 while Ramkumar, seeded 20th, had a much easier 6-3,7-5 win over Michael Mmoh.
Bhambri is the higher ranked player of the two at world No 110 and holds the better head-to-head record. He lifted the Pune Challenger trophy the last time they played each other at the end of 2017.
Ramkumar is ranked 135 and had won the qualifiers to reach the main draw of the Delray Beach Open, where he went down in the first round to Donald Young.
The all-Indian match will be late on Wednesday night.