Marbella Challengers | Ramkumar Ramanathan, Sumit Nagal to face each other in second round

03/28/2018

Ramkumar Ramanathan reached the second round of the Marbella Masters after defeating Italy’s Alessandro Giannessi 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 where he will face compatriot Sumit Nagal. Nagal, however, registered a tricky 6-4, 6-1 straight-set victory against Marcel Granollers in the first round.

After exchanging serves in the first two games, Ramanathan took an early 2-1 lead by getting a break point in the third game itself. The Indian ace was persistent with the lead till the very end of the first set, which he eventually sealed 6-4 to gain an upper hand over the Italian opponent.

However, the 161 ATP ranked player was in no mood to give up so easily and showed a terrific comeback in the second game. Giannessi managed to break Ramanathan in the fourth game to take a two-point lead at 3-1. Though Ramanathan managed to break his opponent in the very next game itself, reducing the deficit to one, he failed to save his break-point twice in the sixth game. Giannessi wasn't letting this chance slip and he won the second set 6-3 quite comfortably.

The third set was expectantly seeing a neck-to-neck competition with both players dominating from serves until Ramanathan finally managed to break his opponent in the sixth game to lead 4-2. It was just a matter of time from there and Ramanathan kept his stronghold until the very end to win deciding set 6-3.

23-year-old Nagal didn't have an easy game either, contrary to what the 6-4, 6-1 scoreline suggests. It was in the third game that Granollers managed to break Nagal to take an early 2-1 lead. However, neither of them could successfully keep their lead intact until the very end. While Nagal leveled things in the fourth game, he went on to lose the fifth game again, failing to save five break points. The madness continued in the sixth game again as Nagal broke the Spaniard successfully to equalize 3-3. It was followed by three stable games with both the players winning from their serves, before Nagal managed to break his opponent in the tenth game to win the first set.

After the narrow win in the first set, Nagal needed to hold his lead and he did that in brilliant fashion by breaking Granollers twice to lead 4-0. Though the Spaniard fought back by winning the break-point in the fifth game, it was too late. Nagal broke him yet again in the sixth game before sealing the match by winning the second set 6-1. He will face Ramanathan next in the second round.

Marbella Challengers | Ramkumar Ramanathan, Sumit Nagal to face each other in second round

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