Yuki Bhambri beats Ramkumar Ramanathan to clinch Taipei Challenger title; set to break into top-100

Taipei: Yuki Bhambri won his first singles Challenger title of the 2018 season, and seventh overall, when he outplayed compatriot Ramkumar Ramanathan 6-3 6-4 in the final of the Taipei event, a victory which will push him back into the top-100 bracket. Fourth seed Yuki, who skipped last week’s Davis Cup tie in China due to a minor abdomen injury, needed one hour and 29 minutes to down Ramkumar in the all-Indian clash. [caption id=“attachment_4304593” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] India’s Yuki Bhambri. AP[/caption] Yuki has now beaten Ramkumar four times in five meetings. Yuki earned 125 ranking points and a prize purse of USD 21,600 while Ramkumar got 75 points and USD 12,720 for his effort. The 25-year-old from Delhi had broken into the top-100 late in 2015 but a tennis elbow injury hampered his progress. He had touched a career-high rank of 88 that year and is expected to better his personal-best singles rank when the new ATP chart will be released tomorrow. Ramkumar is also expected to better his career-best rank of 132. In the doubles event, comeback-man Saketh Myneni and Prajnesh Gunneswaran had to be content with a runners-up finish after losing the final 4-6 7-5 6-10 to Mathew Ebden and Andrew Whittington.