Chennai: The opening day of the 19th Chennai Open tournament was all about the tale of two local boys who grew along with the annual ATP event after cutting their tennis teeth at the same venue. On a day Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan, who was given the luxury of a wild card, fizzled out after showing some spark in the first set, Ramkumar Ramanathan slogged his way into the main draw winning three gruelling qualifying matches.
The 19-year-old Ramkumar became only the fourth Indian in the tournament history to have come through qualifiers.
The hard-fought 7-6 (3), 3-6, 6-3 win over Slovakia’s Norbert Gombos helped the Chennai boy emulate the likes of Harsh Mankad (2005), Rohan Bopanna (2006 and 2009) and Prakash Amritraj (2010 and 2013).
The impressive result over a pro who is ranked 329 places above him in the world pecking order has ensured a vital 12 ATP points for Ramkumar who now runs into India’s Somdev Devvarman in the first round. Given the momentum the younger Indian is carrying, Tuesday’s centre court action promises an entertaining contest.
Up against another ATP debutant Jiri Vesely of the Czech Republic, the 25-year-old Jeevan started confidently and raced to a 4-1 lead much to the delight of the sparse crowd that included the local boy’s vociferous friends and family. But the cheers had to die down soon. The 20-year-old Vesely, the youngest player in the top 100 and who is ranked 229 places above his rival, showed why he was the first winner of the newly-instituted ATP Star of Tomorrow award when he came back roaring to break Jeevan in the seventh game before winning the match 7-5, 6-2 in a jiffy.
The two lefties unleashed some ferocious forehands as the match wore on, but it was Vesely who had the better of the exchanges. Jeevan’s ploy of running around to return all the shots from his forehand proved futile.
Jeevan said his first attempt to win a Tour match was a satisfying one irrespective of the result. “I can take away a lot from the match including the fact that I played well. The first set could have gone either way. I had to calm my nerves and set a goal of not giving away free points,” said Jeevan.
Chinese Taipei’s Yen-Hsun Lu and Israel’s Dudi Sela were the others to enter second round with comprehensive — identical score line of 6-4, 6-2 — victories over Tim Smyczek (USA) and Lukas Lacko (Slovakia) respectively.
