Chennai Open: Ramanathan sizzles, Somdev out

CHENNAI: Indian hopes lived for another day at the Chennai Open on Tuesday. Tamil Nadu's Ramkumar Ramanathan showed that the promise he has shown is far from fleeting with a 6-2, 6-0 win over Spain's Daniel Gimeno-Traver, ranked 150 places above him, while compatriot Somdev Devvarman made his third successive opening-round exit, losing to Andrey Rublev of Russia 3-6, 6-3, 3-6.
The hero of the day was clearly 21-year-old wild card Ramkumar, who made his debut in the tournament in 2014 with a shock win over Somdev. With his dominance writ large after a rather effortless first set win, the lanky Indian gave the Spaniard little room thereafter. With a huge serve and a game that belies his rankings - a lowly 248 - Ramkumar must now shift his focus from Futures events to bigger tournaments. Training at the Sanchez-Casal Tennis Academy for the last five years, Ramkumar, it seemed, was serving into an empty court for the larger part of the match.
"I just went with what I had to do, going for the shots and the first serves," he said before pausing to consider his next challenge, a herculean one at that -facing world No. 12 Kevin Anderson. "I haven't thought about it yet. I just want to believe in myself and let's see, I may stand a chance."
Earlier, getting off to a dominant start, Somdev broke the Russian teen, ranked No. 1 junior last year, in the opening game with a cross-court winner. Rublev more than returned the favour, breaking the No. 177-ranked Indian in two occasions thereafter to take the first set.
At 5-2 in the decider, Somdev raised hopes of a comeback, firing in a blistering ace before a beauty of a volley drew cheers. That was pretty much the last we saw of the Indian. "Never went into the match thinking it would be easy . I had chances but did not capitalize on them," Somdev said after the match.