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Chennai: Ramkumar Ramanathan recorded the second-biggest win of his career by shocking world number 98 Daniel Gimeno-Traver in the opening round of the ATP Chennai Open but there was no end to Somdev Devvarman’s struggle as he was knocked out of the singles event, here on Tuesday.
Making a stupendous start to his 2016 season, wild card entrant Ramkumar annihilated his Spanish rival 6-2 6-0 as the Chennai-lad enthralled the sparse crowd by playing with lot of passion and power.
All he needed was one hour to move to the second round where world number 12 South African Kevin Anderson awaits him.
“I did not think of such a quick win. I was giving my best on every point. I knew it will be tough. I gave (played with lot of positive) attitude. I was staying positive, professional,” Ramkumar said.
“The fitness part was good. I trained for three-four hours everyday, played 35 weeks last year and that made the difference. I want to finish inside top-100 by the end of this year,” the 21-year old said. Bubbling with energy, Ramkumar overwhelmed Gimeno-Traver with his power-packed strokes. The Spaniard had no clue how to tame Ramkumar’s ferocious inside-out forehand which was in full force.
Before this, the only top-100 player Ramkumar had beaten was his compatriot Somdev and at this very event last year.
Somdev was ranked 90th then.
Earlier, Somdev raised hopes of a turnaround before being knocked by Russian wild card Andrey Rublev.
Somdev, ranked 177th, lost 3-6 6-3 3-6 to his 18-year old opponent, whose father is a boxer and mother a tennis coach.
Somdev has not won a main draw singles match on ATP Tour since September 2014 when he had beaten China’s Xin Gao at Shenzen Open.
He had a chance to change that stat as he led 3-1 in the opening set but lost five games on the trot to hand his rival a one-set lead. Somdev won the second, stretching it to a decider but dropped serve in the sixth game and could never comeback.(PTI)
