Maharashtra Open Highlights: India’s wildcard entrant Ramkumar Ramanathan advanced to the second round of the Maharashtra Open qualifiers. He defeated Finland’s Otto Virtanen 2-6, 7-5, 6-2 in the first round of the qualifiers on Saturday, 31st December 2022. Yuki Bhambri too made his way into the second round of the qualifiers. He defeated Diego Hidalgo in straight sets. Earlier in the day, Prajnesh Gunneswaran bowed out from the first round. The 348th ranked Indian suffered a 6-7, 7-3, 5-7 defeat against Germany’s Maximilian Marterer. Follow Maharashtra Open 2023 LIVE updates on InsideSport.IN
Maharashtra Open Highlights: Ramkumar Ramanathan, Yuki Bhambri advance, Prajnesh Gunneshwaran bows out in first round of Maharashtra Open qualifiers – Watch Highlights
Ramkumar Ramanathan vs Otto Virtanen
Ramkumar Ramanathan clinched a terrific come-from-behind victory against a higher-ranked opponent in Otto Virtanen. The 435th ranked Indian had a poor start in the match. He was broken twice in the set as he went down 2-6. In the second set, Virtanen started off well as he yet again broke the Indian’s serve to go up 3-2.
However, Ramkumar managed to claw his way back in the contest. In the 10th game of the set, he managed to break his opponent’s serve and levelled the scores 5-5. He went on to break the Finnish yet again to win the set 7-5.
In the final set of the encounter, Ramkumar continued his dominance. He broke his opponents serve right at the start and took a 2-0 lead. He went on to hold his serve and broke his opponent in the eighth game as well and won the match.
Yuki Bhambri vs Cedric-Marcel Stebe
Yuki Bhambri was about to face seventh seeded Cedrik-Marcel Stebe in the first round of the qualifiers. However, Stebe withdrew from the tournament. He was replaced buy Ecuador’s Diego Hidalgo, who is ranked a lowly 1166.
Bhambri made light work in this game as he managed to defeat his opponent 6-2, 6-2 to advance to the second round of the qualifiers. He will now face second seed Elias Ymer in the next round.
Prajnesh Gunneswaran vs Maximilian Marterer
Prajnesh Gunneswaran’s hopes of making it to the main draw of the Maharashtra Open came to an end. The 348th ranked Indian lost 6-7, 6-3, 5-7 against Germany’s Maximilian Marterer in the first round of the qualifiers.
Prajnesh gave a very tough fight against the German as the first set went into the tie-breaker, the Indian however couldn’t hold his nerves as he faltered in the crucial tie-break.
In the second set, he made a good comeback as he broke his opponent once and took the contest into the tie-breaker. Marterer came back strongly in the next set and both the players won five games each. However the German didn’t let the set go into the tie breaker and clinched it 7-5.
Maharashtra Open Highlights: Ramkumar Ramanathan, Yuki Bhambri advance, Prajnesh Gunneshwaran bows out in first round of Maharashtra Open qualifiers – Watch Highlights
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