Maharashtra Open 2019: Ramkumar Ramanathan falls short of memorable win over Malek Jaziri; Ernests Gulbis ousts Hyeon Chung

Pune: At just 10 past 1 am, Ramkumar Ramanathan let out an anguished plea for help from the Gods as he fought to stay in the 2019 Maharashtra Open. The thing is, for the most part of his two-hour fifty-minute clash against World No 45 Malek Jaziri, it looked as if the entire pantheon of Hindu Gods was smiling down on the 24-year-old Indian. However, just as he needed them the most, they seemingly deserted him as he slumped to heartbreaking 7-6 (6), 6-7 (5), 3-6 loss to fourth seed Jaziri in a marathon second-round match.

Backed by a small but considerably vocal crowd who stayed back till the end of the match, Ramanathan started the match brightly, winning the opening two games before Jaziri broke and got the match back on serve. Like in his first-round win against Marcel Granollers, Ramanathan mixed his game. He played long rallies from the baseline and waited for the correct opportunity to execute devastating forehand winners and passing shots with relative ease. Jaziri struggled to find his rhythm on his serves in contrast to the ease with which Ramanathan was sending down booming aces and executing serve and volleys.

Jaziri only made matters worse for himself with some woeful serving throughout the match. He had an overall first-serve percentage of 55 percent, giving Ramanathan the opportunity to attack his relatively slower second serves. In the 12th game of the first set, Ramanathan had the chance to clinch the first with his fourth breakpoint opportunity of the set but he couldn’t convert as Jaziri forced the first set into a tiebreak. Ramanathan raced to a 4-1 lead and despite Jaziri’s best efforts, clinched the first 7-6 on tie-breaks.

The second set saw Ramanathan continue his dominance over Jaziri with big serves and put keep up the pressure on the Tunisian’s serve. Ramanathan had four opportunities to break in the second set but couldn’t convert any which ended up costing him dearly. The tie-breaker in the second set saw Jaziri roar back into the match as he won five points in a row after being 0-3 down to clinch the tie-breaker and force the match into a third and deciding set.

The third set saw Jaziri growing slowly into the match as he started using his experience to dig himself out of tricky situations. Ramanathan’s serve, which had fared him well so far, started to fail him as Jaziri broke him in the fifth and seventh games which he consolidated with a hold in the eight to take a 5-3 lead.

Serving to stay in the match, Ramanathan ended up committing three double faults to hand the match to Jaziri. Though he ended up on the losing side, it was a very good performance from Ramanathan against a player ranked in the top-50 in the world and augurs well for him going into the 2019 season.

Gulbis subdues Chung

Latvian star Ernests Gulbis secured the first upset of the tournament as he recovered from a slow start to stun second seed Hyeon Chung in the second round.

The World No 22, playing in his first competitive match of the season, raced to a 4-0 lead in the first set even as Gulbis struggled to find a toe-hold in the match. Chung also had a sizeable contingent of South Korean fans in the stands who had come equipped with colourful posters and the national flag to support their hero.

Gulbis was able to overcome that initial phase of uncertainty to capitalise on some uncharacteristic errors from Chung while serving for the set at 5-1. Gulbis got the break and won the next three points to level the scores at 5-5.

Speaking after the match, Gulbis said, “It was different conditions compared to my last match. It was dark then and the balls fly different and they don’t get old so quickly. Today I felt that the balls got older after two three games and I couldn’t get my rhythm on my serve. Only after 5-2 did I start to put a little bit more safety on my shots and that saved the set.”

Despite being pegged back in the opening games, Gulbis had the momentum going into the tie-breaker and he raced to a 5-0 lead. He double-faulted when serving for the set at 6-1 but sealed the deal in the next game to take the first set 7-6.

The Latvian, who was ranked No 10 in 2014, came into the second set with a clear game plan of not playing to Chung’s strength. He used a mix of drop shots, slices and baseline shots to not allow the South Korean to get into his rhythm.

“I wanted to get him out of his comfort zone because he plays well when someone gives him a lot of pace and when the ball comes flat to him. I was trying to go for slice and spin. My second serve was working well and I could change the pace of the second serve because of the high kick. That made it difficult for him to play,” Gulbis said.

Gulbis broke in the fifth game and consolidated it with an easy hold to take a 4-2 lead in the second set which piled the pressure on Chung. The 2018 Australian Open semi-finalist was then broken to love in the next game and Gulbis served for the match. Chung barely put up any resistance at this point even though his vocal fan base was egging him on the complete an unlikely turnaround. Gulbis quickly extinguished any hopes of a comeback as he held on to complete an unlikely 7-6, 6-2 win.