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Tennis: Ramkumar advances in French Open Qualifiers

May 25, 2021 21:01 IST

India's Ramkumar Ramanathan moved into the 2nd round of the French Open qualifiers

IMAGE: India's Ramkumar Ramanathan moved into the 2nd round of the French Open qualifiers. Photograph: PTI

India's Ramkumar Ramanathan advanced to the men's singles second round of the French Open Qualifiers but Prajnesh Gunneswaran crashed out following his first-round defeat, in Paris on Tuesday.

Ramkumar erased a one-set deficit to beat American Michael Mmoh 2-6, 7-6 (4), 6-3 in his opening round that lasted one hour and 54 minutes.

He will next take on Uzbekistan's veteran Denis Istomin, who also recorded a three-set win against Bosnia's Damir Dzumhur.

Among other Indians, left-handed Prajnesh, seeded 32nd, suffered a rather tame 2-6, 2-6 loss to Germany's Oscar Otte.

 

India's top singles player Sumit Nagal, seeded 27th, will open his campaign against Roberto Marcora.

Bianca Andreescu rolls to first-round win at Strasbourg

Top-seeded Bianca Andreescu needed just 61 minutes on Monday to post a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Spanish qualifier Andrea Lazaro Garcia in the first round of the Internationaux de Strasbourg in France.

The Canadian won 83.9 percent of her first-serve points while winning in her first match since losing to Australia's Ashleigh Barty in the Miami Open final on April 3. Andreescu next faces Belgium's Maryna Zanevska, who defeated Yuliya Hatouka of Belarus 6-2, 6-1 in a battle of qualifiers.

Among other matches, Romania's Sorana Cirstea dispatched American Venus Williams 6-1, 2-6, 6-1. Cirstea will face sixth-seeded Shuai Zhang of China after the latter posted a 7-5, 6-4 triumph over Japan's Misaki Doi.

Fourth-seeded Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan recorded a 6-4, 3-7, 7-6 (2) victory over Sweden's Rebecca Peterson. Putintseva next meets Switzerland's Jil Teichmann, who beat Russia's Anna Blinkova 6-2, 6-3.

Fifth-seeded Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic won 6-3, 3-0 when France's Oceane Dodin retired due to adductor pain. Krejcikova will meet France's Caroline Garcia, who prevailed 7-5, 6-2 over Zarina Diyas of Kazakhstan.

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