Ramanathan, 27, who had lost six Challenger finals in his career before, beat his Russian rival 6-1, 6-4 in 68 minutes
Ramkumar Ramanathan with the winner’s trophy in Manama
Indian tennis player Ramkumar Ramanathan won his maiden Challenger level singles title on Sunday, 12 years after turning a Pro, when he outplayed Evgeny Karlovskiy in the summit clash of the ATP80 Manama event.
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Ramanathan, 27, who had lost six Challenger finals in his career before, beat his Russian rival 6-1, 6-4 in 68 minutes. Ramanathan, seeded sixth and ranked 222 in the world, sealed the first set when the Russian’s backhand return sailed over the baseline. This was after Ramanathan saved a breakpoint against Karlovskiy, ranked 302 in the world.
The 80 ranking points earned will push him back into top-200 and also make him the highest-ranked Indian on the ATP singles chart. He is likely to be ranked 186 and will surpass Prajnesh Gunneswaran (215) and Sumit Nagal (219).
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