Indian Davis Cupper Ramkumar Ramanathan led the charge of four Indians into the second round of the MSLTA $25,000 Men’s ITF tennis championships 2023, being organized by Maharashtra State Lawn Tennis Association (MSLTA) and played at their GA Ranade Tennis Centre, Mumbai on Wednesday. India’s 18-year-old Aryan Shah, S.D. Prajwal Dev and wild-carder Raghav Jaisinghani, joined Ramnathan in the next round.
The third-seeded Ramanathan brushed aside the challenge from compatriot Madhwin Kamath racing to a 6-4, 6-2 win. On an adjacent court, the young Indian Aryan playing his first professional match in the men’s circuit prevailed over world ranked 970 Koki Matsuda of Japan winning in straight sets at 6-3, 7-5 to register a credible win.
Meanwhile, Jaisinghani justified his wild card entry as he fought back from the loss of the first set to scrape past another Indian Rohan Mehra 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-0. In another match, Dev ranked seventh rallied past another young Indian talent Manish Sureshkumar posting a 6-2, 6-4 victory.
With all the first round matches completed three Indians challengers are assured a passage into the quarter-finals as they play each other in the second round on Thursday.
Results – Men’s singles (First Round): 1-Evgeny Donskoy (RUS) bt Taisei Ichikawa (JPN) 6-3, 6-7(6), 6-4; 2-Louis Wessels (GER) bt Seita Watanabe (JPN) 6-4, 7-5; Ryotaro Taguchi (JPN) bt Bharath Nishok Kumaran (IND) 6-3, 6-2; 5-Ryuki Matsuda (JPN) bt Kabir Hans (IND) 7-6(3), 6-2; 3-Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) bt Madhwin Kamath (IND) 6-4, 6-2; Yuichiro Inui (JPN) bt Shivank Bhatnagar (IND) 6-2, 6-1; Raghav Jaisinghani (IND) bt Rohan Mehra (IND) 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-0; Harrison Adams (USA) bt Karan Singh (IND) 6-4, 3-6, 6-1; 7-S.D. Prajwal Dev (IND) bt Manish Sureshkumar (IND) 6-2, 6-4; Aryan Shah (IND) bt Koki Matsuda (JPN)6-3, 7-5.
Doubles (First round): Ryuki Matsuda (JPN) / Ryotaro Taguchi (JPN) bt 3-Sai Karteek Reddy Ganta (IND) / Vishnu Vardhan (IND) 6-4, 7-6(3), 10-6; 1-Purav Raja (IND) / Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) bt Adil Kalyanpur (IND) / Sidharth Rawat (IND) 7-5, 6-3; Harrison Adams (USA) / Vladyslav Orlov (UKR) bt 4-Taisei Ichikawa (JPN) / Seita Watanabe (JPN) 6-3, 5-7, 10-7; 2-S.D. Prajwal Dev (IND) / Nitin Kumar Sinha (IND) bt Yuichiro Inui (JPN) / Yunseok Jang (KOR) 2-6, 6-3, 10-6.