Indian Tennis: Ramkumar Ramanathan beats Vesely after qualifying for main draw at Shenzhen Open

Ramkumar Ramanathan got off to a good start at the Shenzhen Open with a straight-set win in the first round on Tuesday. The Indian had earlier qualified for the main draw of the ATP 250 tournament on Sunday, with a 6-1, 6-1 over He Yecong on Sunday.

Ramkumar, ranked 134th in the world, beat Jiri Vesely 7-5, 6-1 to set up a round of 16 clash with Damir Dzumhur of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was a good win for Ramkumar as the Czech Republic player is ranked world No 90 and has a career-best ranking of 35 .

Ramkumar thrice broke Vesely over the two sets and served up seven aces. His first serve percentage of 66 was lesser than that of his Czech opponent (77%). But Ramkumar’s win percentage (93) on first serve was significantly higher than Vesely’s (64).

He will take on Dzumhur for the first time in the next round. He hasn’t gone past the round of 16 in the last three tournaments he’s competed and, hence, would look to get a few wins on the trot to get to the final, where he could meet former world No 1 Andy Murray, whose participation in the tournament has made it more exciting.

Other results

At Chengdu Open: Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and his American partner Austin Krajicek entered the quarter-finals after beating Divij Sharan and Artem Sitak of New Zealand 3-6, 7-6(7), 10-7. N Sriram Balaji and Rohan Bopanna qualified for the quarter-finals after beating second seeds Julio Peralta and Horacio Zeballos 6-1, 5-7, 10-8.

At ITF Thailand F4 Futures: Sidharth Rawat and Dalwinder Singh reached the second round with contrasting wins. Rawat, seeded fifth, beat Thailand’s Jirat Navasirisomboon 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 whereas Dalwinder thumped Korea’s Ku Keon Kang 6-4, 7-6(4).

At ITF Egypt F20 Futures: Vignesh Peranamallur, Vasisht Cheruku and Anirudh Chandrasekar lost in the first round.

At ITF Australia Futures: Rutuja Bhosale and her Japanese partner Hiroko Kuwata beat Australian pair of Gabriella Da Silva Fick and Sara Tomic 6-4, 1-6, 10-7 to advance to the second round.

At ITF China Futures: Sowjanya Bavisetti beat China’s Yanni Liu 6-4, 6-2 to enter the second round. Sowjanya had bowed out of the doubles event after a 4-6, 1-6 defeat in the first round.