Citi Open: Ramkumar Ramanathan and Yuki Bhambri qualify for main draw
On a great Sunday for Indian tennis fans, both Ramkumar Ramanathan and Yuki Bhambri won their qualifying matches at the Citi Open, securing their main draw berths at this ATP 500 tournament in Washington DC. While the top seeded Ramkumar prevailed over the 11th seeded Marinko Matosevic, 7-5, 6-3, the second seeded Bhambri had an even easier outing and got the better of the ninth seeded Liam Broady, 6-2, 6-4.
The two Indians thus join four other qualifiers in the 48-men singles main draw of this event where the French Open semi-finalist Dominic Thiem is the top seed and the World No. 9 Kei Nishikori is the second seed.
Ramkumar, who is now ranked 182nd, will take on the World No. 100 Guido Pella in the first round of the main draw competition with the winner playing the 12th seeded Mischa Zverev next.
The former junior Australian Open champion Bhambri, meanwhile, will lock horns with the rising American Stefan Kozlov of the USA. The 19-year-old American is placed 68 spots above the 200th ranked Bhambri.
The sixth seed Gael Monfils awaits in the second round.
For both Ramanathan and Bhambri, this is their first meeting with their respective first round opponents. Should they manage to pull off upsets in the first couple of rounds, they can put up a rare all-Indian clash in the pre-quarter-finals.
Bopanna, Mirza in the same tournament
Ramkumar and Yuki are not the only Indians playing at the ATP Citi Open. The French Open mixed doubles champion Rohan Bopanna too will be in action at the same tournament in the doubles section.
The World No. 21 has teamed up with Donald Young to form a wildcard pair. They have a tough opener as they face the experienced combine of Daniel Nestor and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi.
On the WTA side of this combined tournament, Sania Mirza will be vying for the doubles title alongside Romania’s Monica Niculescu. Mirza played last year with the 2017 Wimbledon women’s doubles runner-up and ended up as the champions in New Haven.
The two, who are the top seeds, have received a bye into the quarter-finals where they will begin their campaign against the winner of the first round between the unheralded pairs of Jamie Loeb-Ashley Weinhold and Chayenne Ewijk-Rosalie Van Der Hoek.