Pune: Ramkumar Ramanathan Advances to Final Qualifying Round in Maha Open ATP Challenger 100 Men’s Championship
Ramkumar Ramanathan Advances to Final Qualifying Round in Maha Open ATP Challenger 100 Men's Championship
PUNE: Unseeded Indian tennis star Ramkumar Ramanathan stunned top-seeded Elias Ymer of Sweden to secure a spot in the final qualifying round of the Maha Open 2025 at the Mhalunge Balewadi Tennis Stadium on Sunday.
The 30-year-old Ramkumar, ranked 403rd, avenged his previous Davis Cup defeat against Ymer, winning 5-7, 6-1, 6-4 in a gripping 1-hour, 52-minute match. After losing the opening set, Ramkumar bounced back with an improved serve-and-volley game to dominate the second set. He secured a crucial break in the fifth game of the decider to clinch the victory, firing nine aces along the way.
In other matches:
- Sixth seed Ilia Simakin defeated India’s No. 2 Mukund Sasikumar 6-4, 6-3 to reach the final qualifying round.
- Australian Matthew Dellavedova outplayed 16-year-old wildcard Arnav Vijay Paparkar 6-2, 6-3.
- Former Maha Open champion Jiri Vesely cruised past wildcard Siddhant Banthia 6-2, 6-3.
- Eleventh-seeded Kris Van Wyk edged out wildcard Nitin Kumar Sinha 7-5, 7-5.
- Fourth-seeded Blake Ellis of Australia beat Indian wildcard Sidharth Rawat 7-5, 6-2.
The day also saw upsets: Russian Petr Bar Biryukov eliminated second seed Oleksandr Ovcharenko 6-3, 7-6(6), while Japan’s Hiroki Moriya ousted fifth seed Jacopo Berrettini 7-5, 6-3.
