Ramkumar-Balaji team shocks Sitak and Marcus

Ramkumar Ramanathan’s good run at the Chennai Open continued on Wednesday as he combined with compatriot N Sriram Balaji to knock out fourth seeded Kiwi pair of Artem Sitak and Marcus Daniel to storm into the doubles quarterfinals.

The wild card Indian pair came from behind to shock the seasoned New Zealand team 2-6 7-6 (5) 10-5 in the opening round.

It was the same Kiwi team that had beaten the Indian pair of Rohan Bopanna and Saketh Myneni in last year’s Davis Cup Asia/Oceania second round.

Ramkumar had shocked world number 98 Daniel Gimero-Traver 6-2 6-0 in his singles first round.

Ramkumar, who trains in Spain and Balaji, who trains in Germany came back well after losing the first set, in which they lost serve twice. Ramkumar was broken in the second game while Balaji in eighth.

The Indians broke Marcus in the third game to go one-up in the second set but Ramkumar dropped serve in the eighth.