Upset Alert! World number 462, Ramkumar Ramanathan, has entered his first ATP Challenger singles quarterfinal in over 14 months, the Bengaluru Open 2024 quarterfinals. The 29-year-old has beaten No. 1 seed Luca Nardi to enter the last eight at the Challenger 100 event.
Ramanathan had been given a wildcard by the Bengaluru Open and ended by beating the Italian world number 108, 1-6, 6-4, 6-4. The tennis player from Chennai had not made a single quarterfinal in 2024 but has now taken inspiration from his compatriot, Sumit Nagal, and beaten Nardi in three tough sets.
Nardi has been in splendid touch over the last couple of weeks. He is coming off a final at the Chennai Challenger but has failed to move to the quarterfinals at the Bengaluru Open. Interestingly, the Italian’s last two losses have come against Indian players. He lost to Nagal last week and has now been handed a defeat by Ramkumar Ramanathan.
The 29-year-old will now either face Russia’s Alexey Zakharov or South Korea’s Hong Seong-chan in the quarterfinals.
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