Press Trust of India
Chennai, Jan 6: Ramkumar Ramanathan’s good run at the Chennai Open continued Wednesday as he combined with compatriot N Sriram Balaji to knock out the fourth-seeded Kiwi pair of Artem Sitak and Marcus Daniel to storm into the doubles quarterfinals. The wild card Indian pair came from behind to shock the seasoned New Zealand team 2-6, 7-6 (7-5), 10-5 in the opening round.
It was the same Kiwi team that had beaten the Indian pair of Rohan Bopanna and Saketh Myneni in last year’s Davis Cup Asia/Oceania second round. Incidentally, Ramkumar had Tuesday shocked World No. 98 Daniel Gimero-Traver 6-2, 6-0 in his singles first round.
Ramkumar, who trains in Spain and Balaji, who practices in Germany came back well after losing the first set, in which they lost serve twice. Ramkumar was broken in the second game while Balaji in eighth.
The Indians broke Marcus in the third game to go one-up in the second set but Ramkumar dropped serve in the eighth. The scores were 5-5 in a neck-and-neck fight. The Indians finally prevailed in the tie-breaker to stretch the match to the super tie-breaker. In the tie-break, the Indians led 4-2 and made it 8-4 before sealing the impressive win.
In singles, top seed and defending champion Stan Wawrinka started on an imperious note brushing aside the challenge of Andre Rubylev of Russia 6-3, 6-2 in a match that lasted 54 minutes. The Swiss was rarely troubled and hit winners on both sides of the court at will. He never faced a single breakpoint on his own serve while breaking the Russian four times in the match.
“It is always a pleasure to play in Chennai,” Wawrinka said after the tie. “I think I moved well today, hopefully my game will pick up as the tournament progresses,” the Swiss added.
Earlier in the first match on centre court, 19-year-old Croat Borna Coric saw off the challenge of American Austin Krajicek 6-2, 7-5 in 90 minutes.
Considered as a most improved youngster on the circuit, Coric compensated for his few unforced errors with his booming serves as he took the first set with a break in the seventh game.
The American fought much better in the second but Coric had every answer to his challenge. It was tight but Coric got the decisive break in 11th game and sealed the match in the next game.
In the second match of the evening Gabriel Garcia-Lopez also scripted a 7-6 (7-4), 6-1 win against Andrea Pavic of Croatia.
