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Unseeded Ramkumar Ramanathan pulled off an upset against the top-seeded Elias Ymer of Sweden to enter the final round qualifying of the Maha Open ATP Challenger 100 Men's Tennis Championship organized by Maharashtra State Lawn Tennis Association (MSLTA).
The 30-year-old from Chennai, Ramkumar, exacted the revenge for his Davis Cup loss against the top-seeded Elias Ymer, winning 5-7,6-1,6-4 in a match that lasted for 1 hour and 52 minutes. The 28-year-old Ymer, who had got past Ramanathan in the Davis Cup between India and Sweden, played solidly to wrap up the first set, but Ramkumar progressed well with his serve and volley game, attacking Ymer to win the second set. Ramkumar couldn't break Ymer in the third game but did manage to get a break in the fifth game to win the match. Ramkumar, currently ranked 403, served 9 aces in the match to move into the final round qualifying, a release said. In the matches featuring other Indians, sixth-seeded Russian Ilia Simakin took 1 hour 15 minutes to get past India's No. Two ranked players, Mukund Sasikumar, won 6-4, 6-3 to also advance to the final round qualifying. Twelfth-seeded Matthew Dellavedova of Australia proved too experienced for 16-year-old Wildcard Arnav Vijay Paparkar, winning 6-2, 6-3. Paparkar showed glimpses of his quality but could not get past the experienced Australian. Former winner of the Maha Open ATP Tour and currently ranked 35 in the world, Jiri Vesely, who is making a comeback, proved strong for local wildcard Siddhant Banthia winning 6-2, 6-3. Eleventh-seeded South African Kris Van Wyk was given a fight by wildcard entrant Nitin Kumar Sinha, eventually winning 7-5, 7-5, while fourth-seeded Blake Ellis of Australia quelled a first-set challenge before accounting for another Indian wildcard Sidharth Rawat 7-5,6-2. In the other two upsets of the day, Russian Petr Bar Biryukov upset second-seeded Oleksandr Ovcharenko of Ukraine 6-3, 7-6(6), while Japanese Hiroki Moriya ousted fifth-seeded Jacopo Berrettini of Italy 7-5, 6-3. (ANI)
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