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Continuing his excellent run at the ATP Indore Open, Indian youngster Ramkumar Ramanathan toppled Chinese Taipei Davis Cupper Ti Chen in a marathon contest to reach his first-ever Challenger-level semi-final in Indore.
After knocking out India's number two player Yuki Bhambri, 19-year-old Ramkumar played humdinger of a quarter-final, which he won 6-7(6), 7-6(2), 7-5 win after battling hard for three hours and 16 minutes.
He next faces compatriot Saketh Myneni, who beat his Asian Games silver medal winning partner Sanam Singh 7-6 (5), 6-3 in his quarter-final.
"This is one of the best matches I have played. I will try my best in the coming days," Ramkumar said after his win.
"I am very happy that I won the match. It has given me good experience. I had to pick it up from the second set. I hung in there well. In the third set, I became more aggressive and went for my shots. Fortunately most of the shots went in and that unsettled his rhythm. Then by God's grace, I closed it out well," he explained.
Now one Indian is sure to play in the title clash.
The other semi-final will be played between top seed Aleksandr Nedovysov from Kazakhstan and Italian eighth seed Stefano Travaglia.
Nedovysov battled past Spanish fifth seed Adrian Menendez-Maceiras 7-6 (4), 7-6(4) while Travaglia saw off the challenge of Liang-Chi Huang 6-3, 7-6(3).
Meanwhile, Somdev Devvraman and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan won their Thursday’s suspended quarter-final against Sanam and Saketh 6-3, 7-6 (4) before losing the semi-final 1-6, 3-6 to Aleksandr Nedovysov and Menendez-Maceiras.
Image: Ramkumar Ramanathan
Photograph: PTI