Ramkumar Ramanathan made it a night to remember for the city’s tennis fans here on Tuesday, setting up, in the process, a second-round meeting with the second-seeded Kevin Anderson.
After Somdev Devvarman had failed to defuse Russian teenager Andrey Rublev’s explosive game, losing 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, Ramkumar surprised himself and everyone else at the SDAT Stadium with a >6-2, 6-0 victory over Daniel Gimeno-Traver , once ranked as high as No.48 in the world.
“I didn’t expect it,” Ramkumar later said. “He’s a quality player, he’s Spanish, and so I thought it would be very tough. I just wanted to give attitude [sic], stay positive, and stay professional. I just wanted to fight for every point and give my 100 per cent.”
Given Ramkumar’s time at the Sanchez-Casal Academy in Barcelona and the fact that he is >coached by Spanish Davis Cupper Juan Balcells , it was no surprise that he went toe to toe with Gimeno-Traver in the topspin-freighted rallies.
Indeed, Ramkumar had the edge in forehand exchanges, his heavy ball pushing his opponent deeper than he would have cared to go. Gimeno-Traver attempted to counter this by switching play frequently to the Ramkumar backhand, getting him whenever possible to take the second hand off and slice it.
Ramkumar succeeded because he never let Gimeno-Traver execute this with any degree of consistency. He ran around his backhand if had to, and always sought to get the first bruising ground-stroke in: this was first-strike tennis, Spanish style.
By the second set, the 21-year-old Ramkumar was on such a roll that everything he tried came off — audacious lobs, passes on the stretch, winners off balance. It was as confident a closing out of a match as this court has seen.
The tactical battle-lines of the > Devvarman-Rublev matchup earlier were completely different. The Indian looked for off-pace and short cross-court shots to draw his opponent diagonally forward into no-man’s land; another ploy was to first pin Rublev with a deeper stroke and then explore acuter angles. The Russian merely let rip.
There was nothing about Rublev’s physique to suggest he had access to such power; he looked a skinny skateboarder, grumpy with the world at large. But when he set up and unwound, the ball positively blasted off the strings.
Devvarman had his chances in the first set, breaking immediately after cannily electing to receive; streaky players can often be caught cold early. Rublev responded by putting a little extra heat on his ground-strokes. It paid off in the sixth and eighth games, where just the extra pace on the ball proved the difference and fetched breaks.
Devvarman slowed things down in the second set to see if he could throw Rublev off his rhythm. There were signs of Rublev’s game coming apart in the fourth game; and it wasn’t until 1-1 in the third, when he ordered his mother to leave the players’ box, that he got it together.
“My sharpness was missing,” Devvarman said later. “Rublev is a young talent for the future. I had a few chances but I did not capitalise. I made a few mental errors too.”
The results: First round: Andrey Rublev (Rus) bt Somdev Devvarman (Ind) 6-3, 3-6, 6-3; 5-Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (Esp) bt Taro Daniel (Jpn) 4-6, 7-5, 6-2; Austin Krajicek (USA) bt Rajeev Ram (USA) 6-7(0), 6-4, 6-4; Ramkumar Ramanathan (Ind) bt Daniel Gimeno-Traver (Esp) 6-2, 6-0; Lukas Rosol (Cze) bt Santiago Giraldo (Col) 6-3, 6-4.
On Monday: 8-Borna Coric (Cro) bt Marcel Granollers (Esp) 7-6(5), 2-6, 6-4.
Doubles: Lukas Rosol (Cze) & Igor Zelenay (Svk) bt Philipp Oswald (Aut) & Adil Shamasdin (Can) 6-3, 7-5; 1-Raven Klaasen (RSA) & Rajeev Ram (USA) bt Mahesh Bhupathi (Ind) & Gilles Muller (Lux) 6-3, 6-7(2), [10-7].
