Kolkata Open: Ramkumar enters quarters, Yuki-Sanam pair ousted

KOLKATA: Ramkumar Ramanathan kept Indian hopes alive in singles after Yuki Bhambri and Sanam Singh bowed out in the pre-quarterfinals of the Emami Kolkata Open Challenger meet at the BTA complex on Wednesday.
Ramkumar was stretched by little-known Serbian Miki Jankovic, but the Chennai lad finally prevailed 6-1, 5-7, 7-5. Sanam lasted 44 minutes against top-seeded Aussie James Duckworth, losing 2-6, 1-6.
Yuki followed in senior pro and Davis Cup teammate Somdev Devvarman's footsteps, losing 3-6, 6-2, 1-6 to Radu Albot of Moldova in an hour and 50 minutes at the $50,000 meet.
Sixth seed Albot started well, breaking the rusty Yuki in the very first game. The Delhi lad dropped serve a second time with back-to-back forehand errors in Game 7. The world No. 297 managed to get one break back but again failed to hold serve to surrender the first set.
Both players failed to hold their opening service games of the second set but Yuki managed to break through in the fifth game, courtesy a couple of unforced errors from Albot and a double fault on break point.
Yuki consolidated his lead, breaking Albot again in the seventh game, and then held serve comfortably to make it one set all.
In the decider, the Indian was undone by a slew of unforced errors which helped Albot race to 5-0. Yuki finally got on the board in the sixth game, but it was too little too late as Albot won four straight points to seal the match.
RESULTS:
Pre-quarterfinals:
Radu Albot (Mda, 6) bt Yuki Bhambri (Ind) 6-3, 2-6, 6-1; Ramkumar Ramanathan (Ind) bt Miki Jankovic (Srb) 6-1, 5-7, 7-5; James Duckworth (Aus, 1) bt Sanam Singh (Ind) 6-2, 6-1; Ruben Bemelmans (Bel, 3) bt Kevin Krawietz (Ger) 3-6, 6-2, 6-3; Richard Becker (Ger) bt Kimmer Coppejans (Bel, 8) 4-6, 6-3, 6-3; Alexander Kudryavtsev (Rus, 2) bt Tsung-Hua Yang (Tpe) 6-7 (79), 6-1, 6-0; Ti Chen (Tpe) bt Frederico Ferreira Silva (Por) 6-0, 4-6, 6-2.