In a befitting finale to the Sobha ITF Mysuru Open, Davis Cupper Ramkumar Ramnathan pushed himself to justify his top billing to defeat Olympian and former Davis Cupper Vishnu Vardhan in a grueling three-setter, under scorching conditions, 7-6 (2), 3-6, 6-3 to claim the title here at the Infosys Campus Courts here on Saturday.
Watched by a few hundred people, the match oscillated between two determined players, each a champ by his own right. For the record, Vishnu had the better of exchanges, thumping in 12 aces to Ram’s 4; they shared the same conversion of breaks, 2 off 4 each; Vishnu won 93 points to Ram’s 92 but still ended as the finalist with Ram winning 16 games to Vishnu’s 15 that made all the difference.
The first set saw each player break his opponent twice. The match began with Ramkumar being broken in the very first game of the set, but the Tamil Nadu star hung in grimly to break back in the sixth game to level game scores at 3-all.
Ram was broken again the 11th but pushed his more experienced opponent into committing too many unforced errors to break back in the 12th to set up the tie-breaker.
In the tie-breaker, the tournament top seed and World No 226, at the start of this tournament, raced away to a 6-0 lead, before Vishnu claimed two points and Ram closing the set with a neat back-hand winner.
In the second set a little agitated Vishnu broke Ram in the second and sixth games while holding with some power serves to level set scores.
However, the Telangana player seemed to lose focus early in the third set and allowed Ram race away to a 3-0 lead earning a break in the second game which he held onto to take home the winners cheque of $1440 and 27 very precious ATP points.
Vishnu had to be satisfied with 15 ATP points and a cheque for $848.
Mr Vishal Sharma, VP, Marketing Sobha Developers gave away the cheques to the winner and finalist while Mr Bhuvan Bushan, Sr. VP, Sale and Marketing gave away the trophies to the winner and finalist.
Results:
Men’s final: (1) Ram Kumar Ramnathan (Ind) bt Vishnu Vardhan (8) 7-6 (2); 3-6, 6-3.
