Indian tennis player Ramkumar Ramanathan won his maiden Challenger level singles title on Sunday, 12 years after turning pro, when he outplayed Evgeny Karlovskiy in the summit clash of the ATP80 Manama event.
The 27-year-old Ramkumar, who had lost six Challenger finals in his career before, beat his Russian rival 6-1 6-4 in 68 minutes.
Ramkumar, seeded sixth and ranked 222 in the world, sealed the first set when the Russian's backhand return sailed over the baseline.
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— ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) November 28, 2021
In his seventh #ATPChallenger final, @ramkumar1994 defeats Evgeny Karlovskiy 6-1, 6-4 in Manama and wins his first title! pic.twitter.com/pvRxY0NIkU
This was after Ramkumar saved a breakpoint against Karlovskiy, ranked 302 in the world. That was the only time he faced a break point in the contest.
The Indian served extremely well and his net game too was sharp.
The 80 ranking points earned will push Ramkumar back into top-200 and also make him the highest-ranked Indian on the ATP singles ranking chart.
He is likely to be ranked 186 and will surpass Prajnesh Gunneswaran (215) and out-of-action Sumit Nagal (219) when the chart is updated.
