Ramkumar goes down after stiff fight

KOLKATA: India's lone survivor Ramkumar Ramanathan bowed out after a three-set encounter with Ti Chen in the quarterfinals of the Emami Kolkata Open Challenger meet at the BTA complex on Thursday. The Indian came back strongly after dropping the first set but eventually lost 4-6, 6-3, 6-7 (57) in two hours and 43 minutes at the $50,000 meet.
The 20-year-old had his chance to pocket the opening set after getting the first break in the sixth game, only to give it away immediately with a double fault and couple of forehand errors.At 4-4, Ramkumar played an erratic service game to hand Chen the lead and the 31-year-old made no mistake on serve to go a set up. The second set saw Chen playing a loose service game that gave Ramkumar a 3-1 lead. The Indian rode that solitary service break to take the set and push the match to the decider.
Ramkumar, who trains in Barcelona, drew first blood in the third set to go up 2-0 but Chen broke back immediately in Game 3. "I had my chances but just couldn't take them," a disappointed Ramkumar said later. In the other quarterfinals, qualifier Richard Becker lost 7-6 (75), 6-7 (8-10), 2-6 to eighth seed Ruben Bemelmans, while top seed James Duckworth won in straight sets. In doubles, Ramkumar and Divij Sharan lost to 1-6, 4-6 to Duckworth and Luke Saville.
RESULTS:
Quarterfinals: Ti Chen (Tpe) bt Ramkumar Ramanathan (Ind) 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (75); James Duckworth beat Egor Gerasimov 6-4, 6-2; Ruben Bemelmans (Bel, 8) bt Richard Becker (Ger) 6-7 (57), 7-6 (108), 6-2; Radu Albot (Mda, 6) bt Alexander Kudryavtsev (Rus, 2) 7-6 (75), 6-3.