Australian Open 2021

[PKBasu]

Prajnesh is the highest seed in his section of the draw, and the next-highest seed is Oscar Otte (GER, 137). Ramkumar gets to play the highest seed in his section of the draw, 10-Facundo Bagnis (ARG, 125; career-high 55). But Bagnis is a pure claycourter -- ALL his Futures and Challenger finals have been on clay, so his appearance on other surfaces is pretty proforma. I think it's a great opportunity for Ramkumar to get past Q1 at least. He could face the tough but inconsistent young Brit Jay Clarke in Q2.

[PKBasu]

Ankita's section of the draw:

9-Katarina Zavatska (UKR, 108) vs. Clara Tauson (DEN, 151)
Ankita Raina (IND, 180) vs. Reka-Luca Jani (HUN, 206)
Cristina Bucsa (ESP, 176) vs. Sachia Vickery (USA, 146)
31-Kristina Kucova (SVK, 147) vs. Olga Danilovic (SRB, 170)

[sameerph]

Good start by Ankita. Wins the first set 6-2.

[sameerph]

And she completed a dominating win against only a slightly lower ranked player.

[Q1] Ankita Raina (IND,180) d. Reka-Luca Jani (HUN,206) 62 62

She looks in good form but next one could be a tough one against a much higher ranked player.

[Q2] Ankita Raina (IND,180) vs. Katarina Zavatska (UKR,118)

[PKBasu]

Terrific start to our Australian Open campaign, with Ankita's dominant win in Q1.
The next one is the crucial qualifying match for Ankita. Katarina also won easily today, 63 63.

[PKBasu]

Ramkumar up 2-0 in the first set of his Q1 match against Bagnis.

[PKBasu]

Ramkumar has taken the first set 7-6, and it's 1-1 in the second.

[sameerph]

After that early break, RamK maintained that and was up 5-4 when he got broken while serving for the set.
Then, in tie break was up 5-4 with his 2 serves to come but lost both those points to go 5-6 down only to win the next 3 points to win the tie break 8-6.

[arjun2761]

Ramk pulls out the win 7-6 (6), 7-5!!

for the next round...

[PKBasu]

Ramkumar wins 76 75!!!

[Rajiv]

Fantastic upset win by Ram over an experienced higher ranked player.
For a South American claycourter who could hit all day playing from the baseline and one,who played 36 of his 39 matches last year on clay, it was imperative to get into the right position to intercept the returns which Ram did it brilliantly with net forays especially in S1, and watching the Sydney test also helped to calm prematch nerves

[sameerph]

Excellent win by RamK over the seasoned Argentine.

[Q1] Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,188) d. (10) Facundo Bagnis (ARG,125) 76(6) 75

Next,

[Q2] Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,,188) vs. Tung-Lin Wu (TWN, 248)

RamK had lost to Wu in a challenger in 2019. Hope he overturns that result as he did against Bagnis today

[Kumar]

Excellent win by RamK over the seasoned Argentine.

[Q1] Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,188) d. (10) Facundo Bagnis (ARG,125) 76(6) 75

Next,

[Q2] Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,,188) vs. Tung Win Lu (TWN, 248)

Is this his first decent upset for RK in a long time?

[sameerph]

He had a win over #120 Donskoy in his run in German challenger final in November. But, before that one has to go back to Pune ATP 2 years back for his win over a player ranked inside 125. This was clearly one of his best wins in recent times.

Karnan and Prajnesh on schedule for tomorrow. Go guys. Make it a perfect first round for us although I do not have much hope from Karman who is playing her first match in a while.

[jaydeep]

Terrific start for Ram and Ankita in the AO qualifying ... Go guys.