Davis Cup | Ramkumar Ramanathan and Saketh Myneni give India lead against South Korea

Ramkumar Ramanathan, ranked in 217 in the World, took on South Korea’s Seong Chan Hong in the opening match of the tie. The Korean, ranked 427 in the world, struggled with the hot and humid conditions in the Chandigarh and gave the Indian an easy win in the opening set by surrendering it 3-6. Although Seong Chan Hong bounced back by claiming the second set 6-2 to make it 1-1 in the match, Ramanathan looked the more comfortable player on the court.

As the set progressed, the weather at the Chandigarh club became cooler, but the fight on the court remained intense. The 21-year-old Indian broke his rival in the fourth game of the set after the Korean helped Ramanathan by serving a double fault on break point. The Indian youngster then held on to his serves and took the set 6-3 with a volley winner in the ninth game.

In the fourth set, Ramanathan started positively and looked set for an easy win after breaking the Korean in the very first game. But, errors in the subsequent games took away the momentum from the Indian and the Korean cashed in on it to take the set to a nail-biting finish. With the scores at 5-5, Ramanathan broke Seong Chan Hong to take a significant step towards the win and was serving for the match when the Korean suffered a thigh injury. With him unable to continue, the match was awarded to the Indian.

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In the second men’s singles match of the day, Saketh Myneni, who is ranked 150 in the world, took on Yong-Kyu Lim as India looked it make it 2-0. Similar to the first match, the second one was also filled with medical time-outs and breaks with both players struggling with the humid conditions on court.

The 28-year-old India won the first set 6-1, before conceding the second 3-6 to the Korean. The see-saw nature of the match continued as Myneni took the third set 6-4, only to allow Yong-Kyu Lim take the fourth set 3-6 to take the match into a deciding fifth set. Myneni led the set from the start and took a 5-2 lead in the fifth set, but before he could serve for the match the Korean fell on his back because of cramp and pulled out after failing to recover from it.

India’s men’s doubles pair of Rohan Bopanna and Leander Paes will now look to finish off the tie on Saturday when they face Hong Chung and Yunseong Chung.

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