Kalaburagi: India’s Ramkumar Ramanathan thrashed Austrian David Pichler in straight sets in a lop-sided men’s singles final to secure his third ITF title by winning the Kalaburagi Open here on Sunday.
Ramkumar, who won the ITF Mumbai Open last week, took just 64 minutes to quell Pichler’s challenge 6-2, 6-1 at the Chandrashekhar Patil Stadium to claim his third ITF title in a span of 57 days. Ramkumar, a member of the Indian Davis Cup team, pocketed the winner’s cheque of USD 3200 and 25 precious ATP points, while the visitor was richer by USD 2120 besides gaining 16 ATP points. “It feels great to win back-to-back titles. My game is coming along good. I did play some of my best tennis in these last two weeks,” said Ramkumar after the victory.
“The courts here didn’t suit my game initially, but I adapted to them very quickly.”
Playing in front of home crowd, Ramkumar was already morally boosted even before he hit his first serve.