Wild card Ramkumar Ramanathan fought back from a set down to pack off Frenchman Maxime Janvier 6-7(4), 7-5, 6-4 and advance to the second round of the Bengaluru Open here on Monday.
The 29-year-old Indian kept his nerves despite his serve being put under pressure in the opening two sets by his higher ranked opponent to pull off a sensational victory in two hours and 26 minutes to give the home crowd a lot to cheer.
Also biting the dust on the opening day of the main draw was Croatian third seed Duje Ajdukovic, who went down against Tunisia’s Moez Echargui 6-2, 6-4 in an hour and 30 minutes.
But the main attraction of the opening day was clearly the face-off between Ramkumar and Janvier and the former rode on home support to make a winning start to his campaign.
The opening set was a neck-and-neck battle with Janvier relying on his first serve percentage to put pressure on the Indian and pocketed the first set through a tiebreaker.
Ramkumar was again under pressure in the second set and managed to save four break points and then broke Janvier in the 11th game before wrapping the set in the next to force a decider.
With the momentum in his favour, the Indian then broke Janvier early in the third set and then held on to his service games to wrap up the match.
He will now face the winner of the match between top seed Luca Nardi of Italy and Lucky Loser Dan Added of France.
The ATP Challenger tournament is being organised by Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association (KSLTA) and will conclude on January 19.