Ramkumar goes down to 2nd seed Duckworth ; all Indian final in doubles

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.

Saketh Myneni(at the net) and Arjun Kadhe

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 

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