Marbella Challengers | Ramkumar Ramanathan beats Sumit Nagal to book quarter-final berth

After a hard-fought win over Spain’s Marcel Granollers in the last game, Nagal was expected to bring the momentum into the crunch game. However, the 20-year-old failed to save a breakpoint in his first service game of the day as Ramanathan broke him to take a 1-0 lead. Nagal was not one to back down though, as he broke his compatriot in the very next game to equalize things at 1-1.

The intensity from the first two games seemed to have taken the pressure off the youngster as Ramanathan broke him comfortably in the third game to once again take the lead with the scoreboard reading 2-1. Both the players held their serves from there on with Ramanathan keeping his slim one-break lead intact before he managed to break Nagal once again in the eighth game to seal the first set 6-3. 

The second game saw both the players making lesser mistakes as they exchanged serves successfully for the first three games before Nagal turned on the heat for Ramanathan, who managed to escape the heavy fire after saving three break points. However, the latter shook off the pressure and used his experience to turn tables when it mattered the most. The seventh game saw Ramanathan break Nagal to lead 4-3, which pretty much mellowed Nagal’s intensity and after Nagal failed to hold his serve in the ninth game of the second set, it was curtains for him as Ramanathan sealed the match 6-2, 6-3.