European Challengers 2018

[Varma]

Enroute to that tile at Santiago, Cecchaintao defeated former top players Tommy Robredo and Simone Bolelli. Last month at Buenos Aires qualies on clay, he also won against 122 ranked #NextGen Norwegian, Casper Ruud. RamK getting the scalp of a higher ranked in-form player on clay will be a very impressive.

- Varma

[PKBasu]

Meanwhile, what an impressive doubles victory over Begemann/Rosol!

[Sin Hombre]

Excellent from Ram. Hopefully he carries this into the regular clay season.

[S_K_S]

[QF] Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,136) vs (3) Marco Cecchinato (ITA,97) 1-6, 4-6

1st set

Interesting choice of music during the warm up. MC won the toss and chose to serve.

RK's score 1st.

0-1 10 min 1st game - 18 points - 4 bp's for RK. Only 1 you could say he missed and that was a forehand cc on the run.

0-2 RK broken to 30. Couple of ufe's.

0-3 hold to 30 by MC

1-3 on the board after a tough few deuces

1-4 hold to love. Started off well but making too many errors at the moment. Has had opportunities to attack but been unable to convert. Few backhand cross courts have hit half way up the net.

1-5 broken to 30. When staying back making too many unforced errors and as a result serving and volleying at times. MC not having to do much at the moment.

1-6 hold to 15. Forget it and start again. RamK needs to grind it out more. This guy can be beaten but you need to stay in and not lose patience and pull the trigger too soon.

MC has gone off court. Court is getting watered.

2nd set

0-1 broken to 30. Stayed patient for about 4 shots on the 1st point. Resorted to serve and volley again. Let go a shot on the final point that landed in

0-2 hold after a bp. MC made a few errors but held on

1-2 held to 15. Serve and volleyed every point. MC made one pass but finished with an ace

1-3

2-3 held on from 15-40 and then a bp after deuce. Not convinced that the serve and volley is the way to go

2-4 hold to 15

3-4 hold to 15. Good game with some good serves and a fh winner

3-5 hold to love

4-5 hold to 15. Last few games have just felt like the players just going through the motions

4-6 small glimmer of hope at 15-30 and then the next point was a long rally with MC focusing on RK's backhand. RK had a chance to attack with one forehand but wasn't able to and then RK hit a backhand into the net. Hold to 30 to win the match

[sameerph]

RamK started well in the first game against MC serve. After that he is not playing that well making far too many errors.

[Rajiv]

A bad day in the office,where his opponent didn't allow him to settle and play his usual game. 

The tone of the match was set in the opening game of the first set where Ram blew away 4 break points and than onwards the Italian always had the upper hand.

 In the Second set he did put up a stiff resistance but in the end it wasn't enough.

Next stop Asia for DC & Taiwan/China challengers 

[sameerph]

RamK lost in doubles SF too.

[SF] Enrique Lopez Perez (ESP)/ Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) l (4) Guido Andreozzi (ARG)/ Ariel Behar (URU) 36 57

I guess he will be on his way to China for DC now.