Ramkumar to play Johnson in Newport final
NEW PORT: Ramkumar Ramanathan will try to become the first player from India to win an ATP singles title since mentor Leander Paes prevailed in Newport 20 years ago after he beat American Tim Smyczek on Saturday to reach the final of the same event.
Ramkumar will meet American Steve Johnson, who beat Spain’s Marcel Granollers 6-3 6-3 in the other semifinal, for the Hall of Fame Open title in Rhode Island on Sunday.
“I was serving well and I just hung in there,” Ramkumar, who won 6-4 7-5 on the Newport grass, told Atpworldtour.com. “I didn’t have the greatest first set on return, but I found a groove. He’s a really tricky opponent, especially on these courts. I’m pretty happy to get through.”
At world number 161, the 23-yearold is the third-lowest ranked player to reach a tour-level final this year. The last player from India to advance to a championship match on the ATP World Tour was Somdev Devvarman in Johannesburg in 2011.
Earlier, 1991 Wimbledon champion Michael Stich and Czech Helena Sukova, who won 14 Grand Slam doubles and mixed doubles crowns, were inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. for the last round, Kisner feels it could be an unpredictable day, and a harder one.
“Judging by the conditions and what’s going to be going on, I would imagine it’s going to be more of a grind all day,” said Kisner, who has been sharing a house with Spieth and several other American stars in Scotland this week.
Kisner will go out with another American, Kevin Chappell, who is sevenunder, in the penultimate pairing of the day at 2:35 pm (1335 GMT), before Spieth and Schauffele tee off 10 minutes later. MCILROY, FLEETWOOD
STILL IN HUNT Before heading to the course on Saturday, Spieth went into Carnoustie for what he called “a very British haircut”, just as Tiger Woods was rolling back the years with his third-round 66 in front of huge galleries.
Woods, who won back-to-back Opens himself in 2005 and 2006, is in a group of players at five-under along with the likes of Zach Johnson, Rory Mcilroy and Tommy Fleetwood. The 42-year-old, who has not won a Major since 2008 as personal problems and health issues have
BRITISH OPEN THIRD ROUND SCORES (GBR & IRL unless stated, x denotes amateur, par-71): 210 - Chris Wood 70-74-66, Yusaku Miyazato (JPN) 7174-65, Kyle Stanley (USA) 72-69-69, An Byeonghun (KOR) 73-71-66, Danny Willett 69-71-70, Li Haotong (CHN) 71-72-67, Thorbjorn Olesen (Den) 70-70-70, Ryan Moore (USA) 68-73-69 Bernhard Langer (GER) 73-71-68, Phil Mickelson (USA) 73-69-70, Eddie Pepperell 71-70-71, Rickie Fowler (USA) 70-69-73 213 - Tom Lewis 75-70-68, Jason Dufner (USA) 75-70-68, Ross Fisher 75-70-68, Lee Westwood 72-72-69, Thomas Pieters (BEL) 70-73-70, Patrick Reed (USA) 75-70-68, Sung Kang (KOR) 69-72-72, Brandon Stone (RSA) 68-72-73, Stewart Cink (USA) 72-7071, Tom Lewis 75-70-68, Julian Suri (USA) 74-6970, Marc Leishman (AUS) 72-72-69, Jason Day (AUS) 71-71-72, Marcus Kinhult (SWE) 74-69-71, Yuta Ikeda (JPN) 70-73-71, Adam Hadwin (CAN) 73-70-71, Matthew Southgate 6972-73 212 - 214 -