Nagal, Ram bite dust in US Open

New York: Indian tennis players’

struggle at the Grand Slam events continued as both Sumit

Nagal and Ramkumar Ramanathan lost their respective first round singles matches

to make an exit from the US Open qualifiers, here. Nagal lost

5-7, 6-4, 3-6 to Argentina’s Juan Pablo Ficovich in two

hours and 22 minutes on Tuesday. Nagal had played in the Australian Open main draw early this year and had lost in

the first round. He could not qualify for the French Open and missed the Wimbledon qualifiers due to an unrevealed injury. Ramkumar frittered away

a one-set advantage to lose 64, 6-7(1), 4-6 to Russia’s Evgeny Donskoy in two hours and 35 minutes in his opening round. It

was Ramkumar’s 21st attempt to qualify for the singles main

draw of a Grand Slam since

2014. Prajnesh Guneswaran is the only Indian left in the men’s singles qualifiers. The left-hander is up against Brayden Schnur. Ankita Raina has also

exited after losing her first round in women’s singles qualifiers to Jamie Loeb. —

career, got a conventional outswinger after a few incutters, and Anderson forced the batsman to have a feel for the delivery.

Kohli hit an off-drive for three runs but it was amply clear that the Indian captain was suffering from both technical and mindset issues with Anderson picking him once again like it has been his day job for several years. While Kohli had slightly tweaked his frontfoot movement but he dangled his bat away from his body to offer Buttler his third catch of the innings.

At 21 for three, Rahane came in and was in a bit of trouble against Moeen Ali despite the fact that he got a few boundaries.