File image of Ramkumar Ramanathan
Indian challenge in the singles competition ended after sixth seed Ramkumar Ramanathan went down to second seed James Duckworth of Australia in the semifinals of the KPIT MSLTA Challenger event here on Saturday.
Duckworth, who is making a comeback after four operations, will meet fifth seed Jay Clarke of Britain in the final. It will be an all Indian affair in the doubles final after local boy Arjun Kadhe made it to his maiden final pairing Saketh Myneni. They will meet the top seeds, Ramanathan and Purav Raja.
In the singles semifinals, Duckworth defeated Ramanathan 7-6 (8), 6-2 in an 1 hour 35 minute encounter. In the other semifinal, 21-year-old from Derby in England, Jay Clarke, ousted Roberto Ortega of Spain 6-3, 6-2 in an hour hour and 17 minutes to enter his second Challenger final of the year.
Indian Davis Cupper Ramanathan broke in the first game but Duckworth broke back in the sixth to level scores at 3-3 . Both held serves in a close match to force a tie break. The Indian had a set point at 6-5 in the tiebreak but but missed a low volley. He another low volley to go down a match point at 7-8 but Duckworth served a double fault to make it 8-8
An unforced error on the backhand saw Ramanathan go down another set point at 8-9 before a superb forehand cross court saw Duckworth seal the tiebreak.
In the second set Ram was broken in the fifth game before Duckworth held his serve to go up 4-2. The Indian was broken again to go down 2-5 and Duckworth, who was ranked as high as 82 in the world before injury held him back, held his serve to win the set and the match.
