Tennis Round-up | R Ramanathan advances in England as P Gunneswaran bows out in Germany

The Indo-Korean pair went toe to toe with the British pair from the very start as both were pretty well in holding their serves until the sixth game when they managed to break the duo of Evans and Glasspool to win the first set 6-4. 

The second set was expected to an easy one after Ramanathan and co. broke their opponent in the very first game itself. But, the Indo-Korean pair was broken in the very next game before both the pairs held their serves till the very end. In the tie-breaker, Ramanathan and Woo lost 3-7.

After the second set levelled the match, absolutely nothing could be decided and the deciding set did go crazy. After Glasspool and Evans were broken in the second game, they managed to break Gunneswaran and Woo in the ninth forcing the set to the tie-breaker. And the hard-fought battle saw the Indo Korean pair winning 10-4.

Gunneswaran, on the other hand, had a tricky opponent in Italy’s Voila and despite being 162 spots below him in the World ranking, the Indian always looked shaky against his opponent in Stuttgart Open. After both held their serves to end the first set 6-6, Gunneswaran led 6-4 in the tie-breaker before Viola saved two set points. However, the Indian did manage to win it 8-6 in the end.

The second set went right into the wire again as it ended 6-6, although Viola looked to get confidence as he saved four break points in the seventh game. It came to the fore in the tie-breaker as he was seen winning it 7-0. It was in the tie-breaker that Gunneswaran had incurred the injury and he couldn’t continue after three games in the deciding set when he was trailing 2-1.