Prashanth, Ramkumar and Devvarman fall in first round

Playing a top-100 player can be an experience in itself. For the three Indians in action on Tuesday it was, unfortunately, humbling. First, it was qualifier Vijay Sundar Prashanth, then 20-year-old Ramkumar Ramanathan and finally the top-ranked Indian Somdev Devvarman, who lost in straight sets to bring the Indian singles challenge to an end in the very first round at the Aircel Chennai Open here on Tuesday.

Prashanth lost to Czech Jiri Vesely (world No. 65) 6-2, 6-1, Ramkumar to Japan’s Tatsuma Ito (87) 6-3, 6-3 and Devvarman to Chinese Taipei’s Yen-Hsun Lu (38) 6-3, 6-4.

“Very disappointing,” said Devvarman after his loss. “Both of us lacked a bit of rhythm. Both lacked match practice. But in the end he played better.

“I didn’t put enough pressure. Like at 3-3 in the second set. But setbacks happen and the hard work has to continue. I now hope to do well in the Australian Open qualifiers where I have never got through,” said the 29-year-old.

For Ramkumar, too, it was supposed to be a new start. After an excellent 2014, which saw him win five Futures titles, make forays into the Challengers and take his ranking to the 200s, he was expected to be more than the surprise package that he was when he shocked Devvarman in 2014. During the year he also worked on strengthening his serve and enhancing fitness. 

But, on Tuesday, one of those two facets — the serve — just gave away. His first serve percentage was a lowly 51. In the first set alone it was 44. He did serve nine aces to his opponent’s two but they came at times which rarely changed the course of the game.

“He [Ito] played well,” said Ramkumar. “I went for a lot of winners and maybe I should have tried to rally a bit more.”

Ito’s performance was clinical. A solitary break in the fourth game of the first set gave him the head start he needed. He then moved Ramkumar end to end. Even as the youngster ran down balls, his non-existent backhand meant the run-around forehand had to be used. With this he ceded acres of space into which the Japanese planted winners.

The first few games of the second set were perhaps the only ones in which Ramkumar looked threatening.

A break by Ito in the very first game didn’t help, but he did well to earn two breakpoints in the fourth.And, thereafter Ito stepped it up. His shots were more forceful and consistently landed near the tramlines.

As a result, all Ramkumar could do was slice his backhand to keep the ball in play.

In between, he also made some desperate attempts to intimidate and unsettle the Japanese by following his serve to the net.

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-sports/prashanth-ramkumar-and-devvarman-fall-in-first-round/article6761777.ece