Ramkumar Ramanathan made a winning start in the singles and doubles events of Slovak Open while his compatriot Leander Paes reached the doubles quarter-finals in the Knoxville ATP Challenger with partner Miguel Angel Reyes-Varela.
Ramkumar trumped Spain’s Sergio Gutierrez-Ferrol 6-3, 7-5 in the first round. The sixth-seed Indian will take on Germany’s Matthias Bachinger in the last-16.
In doubles, Ramkumar and his Belarusian partner, Andrei Vasilevski, beat No 2 seeds Marcin Matkowski and Philipp Oswal in a three-set battle. Ramkumar and Vasilevski won 6-3, 3-6, 10-6 to reach the quarter-finals.
In the Knoxville ATP Challenger, Paes and Reyes-Varela beat South Africa’s Ruan Roelofse and Mexico’s Hans Hach Verdugo 6-4, 6-2.
Meanwhile, Ankita Raina reached the second round of the ITF Futures (100,000 USD) event in Shenzhen after defeating China’s Fang Ying Xun 7-6(7), 6-3.
Top seeds fall in JS Pereira Memorial tourney
Second and third seeds Paramveer Bajwa and Amarnath Arora were shocked by unseeded rivals in round two of the JS Pereira Memorial AITA ranking tennis tournament for men Wednesday.
Atharva Sharma of Maharashtra knocked out Punjab’s Bajwa in three sets while Andhra Pradesh’s Srinivas stunned Delhi’s Arora, also in three sets, at the Bandra Gymkhana.
Maharashtra’s Sharma capitalised on unforced errors from Bajwa and went on to win the match 7-6(5), 0-6, 6-4 and move into quarter-finals.
Srinivas after getting drubbed 1-6 in the first set, started to play more aggressively to win the next two sets for a 6-2, 6-4 to book a place in the last eight.
