SINGAPORE, Feb 22: India’s Ramkumar Ramanathan bowed out of the Singapore Open after a close three-straight defeat to American Taro Daniel in the opening round, here today.
Ramkumar, ranked 200, lost 3-6 7-6(3) 3-6 in two hours and six minutes to the American who is ranked 80 places above him.
Ramkumar had two chances to break his opponent’s serve in the match but could not convert any of them.
It was the second defeat for Ramkumar against Daniel in as many meetings, having lost to the American in 2012 in an ITF Futures event.
Ramkumar will also feature in the doubles event with compatriot Purav Raja. They are up against the Korean-Japanese combo of S Kwon and Y Uchiyama.
Rohan Bopanna, Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and N Sriram Balaji are also competing in the doubles event of the USD 300,000 hard court tournament.
All eyes will be on Yuki Bhambri, who is making a return to competitive tennis after a gap of more than two years.
Playing with his Protected Ranking (PR), Yuki is up against Australian wild card Matthew Ebden, who had ended runner-up at the Australian Open mixed doubles event with Samantha Stosur.
If he manages to cross the first hurdle, he will run into world number 39 John Millman, also from Australia. (PTI)
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