new Delhi, 1 Dec: Ramkumar Ramanathan sailed past compatriot Manish Sureshkumar to enter the semifinals of the ITF Kalaburagi Open on Friday.
The fifth seed Ramanathan quelled the challenge of Sureshkumar 7-5 6-0 in the quarterfinals at the Chandrashekhar Patil Stadium. Ramkumar will face Japan’s Ryotaro Taguchi in the last four match. Taguchi defeated Indian qualifier Aryan Shah 6-3 6-2.
Ramkumar, who recently won two ITF 25K titles, found an able opponent in his Chennai city-mate, particularly in the first set. Both the players held their serves until the seventh game till Sureshkumar broke Ramkumar’s serve to nose ahead 5-3.
In a sudden change of form, Sureshkumar committed three unforced errors which gave his senior rival a chance to come back into the match. From that point, Ramkumar went on to win 10 games in a row, including six in the second set to overpower Sureshkumar. (PTI)