Ramkumar Ramanathan exits Ilkley Challenger in first round

Ramkumar Ramanathan exits Ilkley Challenger in first round

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Ramkumar Ramanathan's disappointing run continued in the Ilkley Challenger as well where he lost in the first round 5-7, 3-6 to Austria’s Sebastian Ofner in under 64 minutes. Prior to this, he was ousted by Spain's Marcel Granollers 7-6, 4-6, 7-6 in the quarter-final of Nottingham Challenger.

Ramanathan has been having a rough time on the Tennis court this season after a strong campaign last time, which included a win against top 10 ranked Dominic Thiem at the 2017 Antalya Open. He made his way to his first singles final of the season at Taipei Challenger but was defeated by compatriot and top-ranked Indian singles player Yuki Bhambri to finish the tournament in second place.

The trend continued on Tuesday with Ramanathan struggling yet again on grass, as he crashed out of the Ilkley ATP Challenger event after losing in the first round to Austria’s Sebastian Ofner. Ofner beat the Indian by a scoreline of 5-7, 3-6 to in a match that lasted under 64 minutes. 

This was the fifth meeting between Ramkumar and Ofner, and the latter had also won in the last encounter in Antwerp in 2017. Ramanathan, ranked 125, converted only one of the three breakpoints while Ofner, ranked 20 places below Ramkumar, broke his rival four times at the Euro 12700 event. Ramkumar had now managed to win only three matches in as many tournaments he has played since the grass court began.

Apart from that, there are four Indians in the doubles draw with Sriram Balaji and Vishnu Vardhan who are set to battle British pair of Luke Bambridge and Jonny O’Mara. Purav Raja, who has teamed up with John Patrick Smith open their campaign against Peter Polansky and Matt Reid. Left-handed Indian player, Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and his American partner Austin Krajicek, who were runners-up at Nottingham last week, have been drawn against Hubert Urkacz and Evan King in the first round tie.

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