Raja-Ramkumar duo cruises to Quarters in Spain, Sharan bows out of bett1HULKS Indoors in Germany

Seeded number one in the doubles draw, the all Indian pairing of Purav Raja and Ramkumar Ramanthan started off their challenge with a comfortable straight sets win, 6-4, 6-0, over Spain’s David Marrero and Serbia’s Nenad Zimonjic at the Ferrero Challenger Open in Alicante, Spain yesterday.

Playing against lower ranked wild card entrants Marrero and Zimonjic, the Indians took control of the match from the beginning.

Raja-Ramkumar won a total of 56 points against 37 by their opponents and were able to create and win more break point opportunities – five out of 12 than Marrero-Zimonjic’s one break out of the four.

The dominance of Indians in the match was highlighted by the first serve winning percentage of 89 to 46 by their opponents.

The Indian pair of Raja-Ramkumar has had a good start to the 2020 season when they lifted the winners’ trophy beating the team of India’s Leander Paes and Australia’s Matthew Ebden at Bengaluru Challenger in February.

This week in Alicante, Raja and Ramkumar duo has resumed competing together in doubles after the unprecedented hiatus in the sport due to the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic.

The all Indian partnership has become a formidable force in doubles in the past one year. Since November 2019, Raja and Ramanathan have notched up three ATP Challenger Tour titles (Kobe, Pune and Bengaluru) and reached the semi-finals of the ATP Tour 250 event – Tata Open Maharashtra in Pune earlier this year.

In the quarter-finals at Alicante, Raja-Ramkumar will go head to head against local lads Gerard Granollers (doubles world no. 152) and Pedro Martinez (190) today.

N. Sriram Balaji (130), the third Indian in the doubles draw, along with his Swiss partner Luca Margaroli (133) will take on French duo of Enzo Couacaud (213) and Albano Olivetti (226) right after the Raja-Ramkumar quarter-finals tie.

Divij Sharan bows out of bett1HULKS Indoors

India’s second highest ranked doubles specialist Divij Sharan, along with his American partner Jackson Withrow, suffered a first-round exit against the second seeded French pair of Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herbert at the bett1HULKS Indoors at Cologne, Germany yesterday.

Sharan-Withrow bowed out the ATP 250 event after 3-6, 3-6 straight sets defeat.

French duo won 60 points in the match while Sharan-Withrow managed to win 35. The Indo-American team was unable to convert any of the four break points during the match.

As a team, Sharan-Withrow earned € 2,850 in prize money.

(File Photo)

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