French Open: Sumit Nagal, Ramkumar Ramanathan through to round 2 in qualifiers

Indian tennis players Sumit Nagal and Ramkumar Ramanathan advanced to the men's singles second round of the French Open qualifiers.

Sumit Nagal file photo. (Image: Twitter)
By Shayne Dias | May 26, 2021 | 2 Min Read follow icon Follow Us

Indian tennis players Sumit Nagal and Ramkumar Ramanathan advanced to the men’s singles second round of the French Open Qualifiers on Tuesday. Nagal beat Italy’s Roberto Marcoca 6-3, 6-3 in around 90 minutes. He will next take on Alejandro Tablio. Ramkumar came back from a set down to beat America’s Michael Mmoh 2-6, 7-6 (4), 6-3. The opening round match that lasted for an hour and 54 minutes. He will next face Uzbekistan’s veteran Denis Istomin, who beat Bosnia’s Damir Dzumhur.

Mmoh took the first set in comfortable fashion. He broke his opponent’s serve twice and looked in control of the match from that point.

Yet the second set was a different story altogether. Neither man could effect a break, thus the set went to a tie-break. Ramanathan comfortably levelled the score at one set apiece.

Riding on that momentum, the Indian won the first two games of the third set. He then held serve to easily close out the match.

India’s French Open hopes

It is worth noting that Ramanathan has never made the main draw of a Grand Slam event. He will be hoping to break that run this year.

However, Prajnesh Gunneswaran crashed out following his first-round defeat, here on Tuesday. The left-handed Prajnesh, seeded 32nd, suffered a rather tame 2-6, 2-6 loss to Germany’s Oscar Otte.

Prajnesh has not competed in the main draw of a Grand Slam since his first round loss in the 2020 Australian Open. In 2019, he had featured in all four Majors.

Nagal, who is currently India’s top ranked male single’s tennis player, hasn’t played in the French Open yet. He did, however, compete at the Australian Open this year.

Ankita Raina, who is India’s lone representative in the women’s singles category, won her first round French Open qualifier. She will now face Belgium’s Greet Minnen on Wednesday.





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