Chennai Open: Yuki demolishes Ramkumar to enter second round

Indian Davis Cupper Yuki Bhambri provided a fillip to his comeback bid by steamrolling local hero Ramkumar Ramanathan as he walked into the second round of the ATP Chennai Open with a commanding 6-1 6-1 win, here on Tuesday.

Having lost crucial six months last season due to tennis elbow injury, Yuki made a good impression early in the season as he literally toyed with Ramkumar, who disappointed with his lacklustre show.

It was the most-talked about match from India s perspective, considering that country s best singles players were playing but the match never rose to the expectations.

“Yuki played some smart and aggressive tennis. I struggled with my first serve. It was one of my bad days, I don t want to talk much about it. Yuki played solid, he had the initiative from first game, I had no first serve,” Ramkumar said.

“I had chances in the opening game of the second set when the guy hit two double faults but I was too defensive. He played clever. I need to go back and train hard. I know I have disappointed the audience,” he said adding that he will take a few days off.

Ramkumar said he would strive to play more Challengers as he aims to make the Australian Open qualifiers.

In the entire 52-minute match, Yuki lost only seven points on his serve, out of which two in the opening set, and had wild card entrant Ramkumar scurrying for cover. The Delhi lad broke his Davis Cup teammate thrice to race away with the opening set in just 26 minutes.

Yuki, playing his first match on the ATP World Tour since his first round loss in Dubai in February, had measured Ramkumar s court movement early into the match and had no hesitation to approach the net to finish the points quickly.

Yuki next plays fifth seed and world number 47 Benoit Paire, who pipped Russian Konstantin Kravchuk 6-3 6-4.

In other matches of the day, eight seed Yen-Hsun Lu from Taipei outplayed Moldova s Radu Ablot 6-2 6-1 while Britain s Aljaz Bedene fought past Russia s Guillermo Garcia Lopez 6-3 6-3 in his opening round.

Also advancing to the second round was Argentina s Renzo Olivo, who faced stiff resistance from wild card Casper Ruud from Norway 7-6(3) 6-2.