Wildcard Ramkumar Ramanathan pulled off a magnificent win over last week’s champion Stefano Napolitano, winning a thrilling match 7-6(5) 7-6(5). Ramanathan will next take on Russian qualifier Alexey Zakharov, who upset 6th seeded Oliver Crawford in straight sets in round 1.
Ramanathan shared his thoughts after the match:
Thoughts on the match today
I wouldn’t have been playing here if I didn’t get the wildcard so I have to thank Prashant (Sutar) Sir and Sunder (Iyer) Sir for trusting in me and giving me another chance to be competing here in my favourite place. It’s always good to be competing well and I’ve been playing well the last few months and coming into this match I knew it was a very tough match playing Stefano (Napolitano), as he won a Challenger last week in Bangalore. But I thought I served really well and I just had fun on court and didn’t think too much about the result and I think that made the difference today.
On representing India at the global stage
It’s always a matter of pride for me to be a part of the Indian team. It is something special which every Indian kid dreams about and it’s always a special feeling to play for India and of course to beat Pakistan in Pakistan’s land was extra special for us.
The conditions were tough. The grass wasn’t easy, it wasn’t bouncing at all. So we’re very happy and now we take on Sweden in Sweden in September so let’s see.
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