Balbir Singh
Chandigarh, November 07, 2019: Serving nine aces and winning four of six break points, ninth seed Indian Ramkumar Ramanathan disposed of the challenge of eight seed Jay Clarke of Great Britain in straight sets 6-3, 6-3 in 62 minutes in the $54,160 Hyogo Noah Challenger in Kobe (Japan).
In his quarter-final encounter Ramkumar Ramanathan meets second seed Yuichi Sugita of Japan who prevailed over Russian Teymuraz Gabashvili 6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-3 in two hours and four minutes in the third round fixture.
Ramkumar Ramanathan, who is pairing with Purav Raja, and seeded fourth, barged into the doubles semi-final as the Indian pair ousted Korean duo of Ji Sung Nam and Min-Kyu Song 7-5, 2-6, 10-7 in one hour and 24 minutes.
The battle in both sets in singles were intense. In the first set eight services, including five of Jay, were broken. Ramanathan broke Jay in the first, third, fifth, seventh and ninth games while Jay broke Ramanathan in the fourth, sixth and eighth games. Ramanathan struggled to hold his service in the fifth games. It was only after deuce was called thrice, Ramanathan could held his serve to gain a 3-2 lead. Ramanathan won the set by 6-3.
In the second set Ramkumar's service was broken in the first and seventh games while the Indian Davis Cupper broke Jay in the fourth, sixth and eight games to wrap up the sets at 6-3 and the match.
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