Balaji and Ramanathan storm into Cassis Challenger finals

By Saurabh Singh | AITA

The great run by all-Indian pair of N. Sriram Balaji and Ramkumar Ramanathan continued as they stormed into the Finals Cassis Open Provence after conquering their Semifinals battle against the American-Brazilian pairing of Ernesto Escobedo and Fernando Romboli at Cassis, France.

Ramanathan-Balaji dominated the proceedings throughout the match to win it in straight sets 6-3, 602. It took them only 55 minutes to register their place in the finals of the Challenger 80 category event with € 44,820 prize money.

During the match, the Indians hit three aces against none by their rivals. Among other stats, the percentage of points won on the second serve was 71% for the Indians while the losing semi-finalists Escobedo and Romboli only recorded 25%.

In the other Semi-finals match, the Mexican duo of Hans Hach Verdugo and Miguel Angel Reyes-Varela ousted an all-Japanese pairing of Toshihide Matsui and Kaito Uesugi 3-6, 7-6, 10-7 in a battle lasting one hour and 20 minutes.

At the Finals, the Ramanathan-Balaji duo will be vying for 80 ATP ranking points and a paycheck of € 2,670.