New Delhi: Home boy Ramkumar Ramanathan punched above his weight but could not get past the experienced Feliciano Lopez in the first singles rubber as Spain took a 1-0 lead over India in their Davis Cup World Group playoff clash at the R.K. Khanna Stadium here on Friday. Lopez won 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 6-1 in more than two hours.
It was heartbreak for the Indian audience when it was announced at the start of the day that Rafael Nadal has pulled out of the first rubber with a nagging wrist injury but 21-year-old Ramanathan’s show on the day won him many hearts and made sure that the full house experienced some entertaining tennis. “Last night it was decided that I will play the match. Rafa was not 100 per cent ready to play the opening rubber. He was struggling with his wrist for the last couple of weeks. He played through the pain at the US Open and so he didn’t want to aggravate it further. There are still two more days to go in the tie,” Lopez said.
The disparity between the players was huge with Lopez ranked world no. 26 while Ramanathan was way down at 202. But the latter gave a good fight to stop the match from being a lop-sided one. “I was made to fight for every point. I gave my best but unfortunately I could not win. The crowd was cheering me on and I really thankful to them,” Ramanathan said. The first set saw four games go with serve, but in the fifth, two backhand errors from Ramanathan cost him the game.
