Ramkumar Ramanathan sailed past compatriot Manish Sureshkumar to enter the semifinals of the ITF Kalaburagi Open on Friday. The fifth seed Ramanathan quelled the challenge of Sureshkumar 7-5 6-0 in the quarterfinals at the Chandrashekhar Patil Stadium. Ramkumar will face Japan’s Ryotaro Taguchi in the last four match. Taguchi defeated Indian qualifier Aryan Shah 6-3 6-2.
Ramkumar, who recently won two ITF 25K titles, found an able opponent in his Chennai city-mate, particularly in the first set. Both the players held their serves until the seventh game till Sureshkumar broke Ramkumar’s serve to nose ahead 5-3.
In a sudden change of form, Sureshkumar committed three unforced errors which gave his senior rival a chance to come back into the match. From that point, Ramkumar went on to win 10 games in a row, including six in the second set to overpower Sureshkumar.
Ramkumar used his big serve and a strong forehand to dent his opponent’s feeble efforts of a comeback. Later, sixth seeded Indian Rishab Agarwal succumbed to second seed Matsuda Ryuki of Japan 0-6, 4-6.
Meanwhile, seventh seed David Pichler of Austria saw the back of Japanese Seita Watanabe with a 6-0 6-0 win to reach semifinals.
Results (all Indians unless mentioned):
Singles (Quarterfinals): 7-David Pichler (AUT) beat Seita Watanabe (JPN) 6-0, 6-0; 5-Ramkumar Ramanathan beat Manish Sureshkumar 7-5,6-0; Ryotaro Taguchi (JPN) beat Aryan Shah 6-3, 6-2; 2-Matsuda Ryuki (JPN) beat 6-Rishab Agarwal 6-0, 6-4.
Doubles (Semifinals): Ryuki Matsuda (JPN)/Ryotaro Taguchi (JPN) beat Rishab Agarwal/Bharath Nishok Kumaran 7-6 (4), 6-2; 2-David Pichler (AUT)/Nitin Kumar Sinha beat Adil Kalyanpur/Sidharth Rawat 6-3, 6-2.