India’s Ramkumar Ramanathan defeated Mattia Bellucci to advance to the singles main draw of the fifth Tata Open Maharashtra at the Balewadi Stadium in Pune today.
The Chennai-based Ramkumar, who came as a wildcard, put up a sensational show in the second and final round of qualifiers, securing a 6-3, 7-5 win over the Italian. He remarkably saved as many as six set points in the second set to overcome Bellucci. Having cleared the first two hurdles, the 28-year-old Ramkumar became the fourth Indian to make it to the singles main draw of South Asia’s only ATP 250 event.
The other three Indians in the main draw are Mukund Sasikumar, Sumit Nagal, and Manas Dhamne.
Meanwhile, in another qualifying match, Yuki Bhambri’s challenge ended with a 1-6, 4-6 loss to last year’s semifinalist Elias Ymer.
The other two players to advance to the main event are Maximilian Marterer and Flavio Cobolli. While Marterer defeated Nikola Milojevic 6-2, 6-3, Cobolli defeated Zdenek Kolar 6-4, 6-4.
Tennis prodigy Dhamne will begin India’s main draw challenge tomorrow when he takes on American player Michael Mmoh in the singles opening round. Olympian Sumit Nagal will also be seen in action against Filip Krajinovic.
