Paes-ramanathan stunned by unseeded pairing
PUNE: In a major upset at the KPIT-MSLTA ATP Challenger on Thursday, second seeded Leander Paes and Ramkumar Ramanathan crashed out of the doubles draw, losing 6-2, 3-6, 4-10 to the unseeded French-swiss pair of Hugo Nys and Luca Margaroli.
The Indian pair had done well to sweep through the first set. Ramkumar’s down the line returns coupled with Leander’s drop-shots at the net had things going in favour of the Indian pair. The French-swiss pair were broken again in the fifth game with Margaroli failing to hold on to his serve for the second time. Leander served for the set and didn’t drop a point. They bagged the first set in just 25 minutes.
The second set started with both teams holding on to their first serves but in the third game, Margaroli rubbed off his initial blues and took all points on his serve and the pair suddenly seemed to shift gears and go in an attacking mode. The rhythm vividly caught the Indian pair offguard and Leander, playing in a Challenger in India after 19 years, was broken on his serve. The pair did manage to pull one back when they broke Nys in the fifth game, but Leander was broken again in the penultimate game of the second set letting Nys serve for the set. He lost the first point, but won four back-to-back points to take the set in 22 minutes.
“We lost out on a couple of points. We had a break point in the first game of the second set. But we couldn’t capitalise and that’s where the momentum shifted,” Paes said after the match, adding that it was difficult to console his younger partner who broke his racquet out of frustration.
With the momentum shifting away from the Indian pair, Ramanathan gave way to his inexperience as the French-swiss pair targeted him in the tie-breaker. The second seeds could only
grab a single point off the first seven before losing 4-10 in the tie-breaker.
Earlier in the day, top seeds Purav Raja and Divij Sharan won their tie in a handsome fashion beating unseeded Dmitry Popko and Marat Deviatiarov in straight sets.
They will square off against the unseeded Serbian pair of
Nikola Milojevic and Danilo Petrovic in the other doubles semifinal.
In the singles draw, Saketh Myneni bowed out of the tourney falling to eighth seed Prajnesh Gunneswaran 7-6 2-6,0-6. Prajnesh, the lone Indian remaining in the singles draw will face second seed Duckhee Lee of Korea.