Press Release – 16th November, 2019
Pune , November 16 : Indian challenge ended in the singles as Sixth seeded Ramkumar Ramanathan went down to second seeded James Duckworth of Australia in the semifinals at the sixth edition of the KPIT MSLTA Challenger a Challenger 80 series event which is under way at the MSLTA School of tennis courts at the Mhalunge Balewadi Sports Complex ,
In the singles finals the 27 year old James Duckworth of Brisbane who is making a comeback after four operations will meet fifth seeded Jay Clarke of Great Britain. It will be an Indian festival in the doubles as two Indian pairs made it to the finals Pune Boy Arjun Kadhe made it to his maiden final in the doubles in his home city pairing Saketh Myneni , In the finals they will meet the inform pair of top seeds Ramkumar Ramnathan and Purav Raja.
In the semifinals second seeded Duckworth stopped the run of sixth seeded Indian Ramkumar Ramanathan 7-6(8),6-2 in an 1 hour 35 minute encounter, in the other semifinals 21 year from Derby in England Jay Clarke ousted Roberto Ortega – Olmedo of Spain 6-3,6-2 in 1 hour and 17 minutes and enter his second Challenger final of the year.
The match started strongly for Indian Davis Cupper Ramkumar as he broke in the first game but Duckworth broke back in the sixth to level scores 3-3 . Both held serves in a close match to force a tie break , Ram had a set point at 6-5 in the tiebreak but 6-5 but missed a low volley , Another missed low volley again saw Ram go down a match point 7-8 , But Duckworth served a double fault in pressure to level scores 8-8.
An unforced error on the backhand saw Ram go down another set point at 8-9, a superb forehand cross court saw Duckworth seal the tiebreak and the first set 10-8.
In the second set Ram was broken in the 5th game and went down 2-3 , Duckworth held his serve to go up 4-2 ,Ram was broken again to go down 2-5 , Duckworth junior semifinalist at French Open in 2010 who was ranked as high as 82 in the world before injury held him back held his serve to win the set and the match
In the other semifinals 21 year old Britain’s Jay Clarke who turned pro in 2016 reached his second Challenger final of the year as he took 1 hour 17 minutes to knock out Spanish Roberto Ortega Olmedo 6-3,6-2 in a one sided match The singles finals will be played at 3,oo pm on Sunday Entry is free
In the doubles finals third seeds local favourites Arjun Kadhe and Saketh Myneni scored an upset win over second seeded Vishnu Vardhan and Toshide Matsui of Japan 5-7,7-6(1),10-4 to enter the finals.
Results –
Singles Semifinals
(2) James Duckworth (Aus ) bt [6] Ramkumar . Ramanathan (IND) 7-6(8), 6-2
Doubles Semifinals
(3) Arjun Kadhe/Saketh Myneni (Ind) bt (2)Vishnu Vardhan(Ind) /Toshide Matsui (Jpn) 5-7,7-6(1),10-4
(1) Purav Raja / Ramkumar Ramanathan (Ind) bt (4) Brydan. Klein (GBR) / N Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND) 6-4,7-5
