Indian tennis round-up: Yuki Bhambri makes early exit at Den Bosch, Ramkumar Ramanathan wins in Nottingham
Indian players had contrasting fortunes on Monday with Yuki Bhambri making an early exit from the Libema Open in Den Bosch, Netherlands while Ramkumar Ramanathan made a winning start to his campaign at the Nottingham Challenger in England.
In doubles, Purav Raja also had a win as he progressed into the second round of the Libema Open.
Bhambri was outclassed 4-6, 1-6 by the World No. 52 Daniil Medvedev in the first round of this ATP 250 grasscourt event, that serves as a warm-up for Wimbledon.
Medvedev, a 22-year-old rising star from Russia, produced as many as 10 aces, making life difficult for the Indian in this clash that lasted 1 hour 4 minutes. Bhambri, on the other hand, had just 1 ace to show for against three double faults.
Besides winning 75% of his total service points, Medvedev showed his skills on returns as well, converting four out of the six break points that he got. Bhambri earned just one break point in the whole match, which he was unable to make any use of.
Bhambri was coming off a quarter-final appearance at the Surbiton Challenger a week earlier. It had pushed his ranking up by nine places and he is now just one spot shy of his career-best ranking of 83rd.
The former junior Australian Open champion is looking to get some grass wins under his belt for he has a direct entry into the main draw of the Wimbledon Championships this year.
Doubles ace Purav Raja made it a good end to an otherwise disappointing day for Indian fans at the Den Bosch tournament. He and Fabrice Martin needed 1 hour 23 minutes to prevail 7-5, 7-5 over the pair of Marius Copil and Stefanos Tsitsipas.
Ramanathan wins
At the Nottingham Open, fifth seeded Ramanathan fought back from a set down to edge the 152nd ranked Jason Jung 6-7(4), 7-5, 6-4 in 1 hour 52 minutes. He will next take on the winner of the first round clash between wildcard Jay Clarke and qualifier Tobias Kamke.