ITF Kalaburagi Open: Ramkumar Ramanathan sets up semi-final against Ryotaro Taguchi

Ramkumar Ramanathan sailed past compatriot Manish Sureshkumar to enter the semifinals of the ITF Kalaburagi Open on Friday. The fifth seed Ramanathan quelled the challenge of Sureshkumar 7-5 6-0 in the quarterfinals at the Chandrashekhar Patil Stadium. Ramkumar will face Japan's Ryotaro Taguchi in the last four match. Taguchi defeated Indian qualifier Aryan Shah 6-3 6-2.

Ramkumar, who recently won two ITF 25K titles, found an able opponent in his Chennai city-mate, particularly in the first set. Both the players held their serves until the seventh game till Sureshkumar broke Ramkumar's serve to nose ahead 5-3.

In a sudden change of form, Sureshkumar committed three unforced errors which gave his senior rival a chance to come back into the match. From that point, Ramkumar went on to win 10 games in a row, including six in the second set to overpower Sureshkumar.

Ramkumar used his big serve and a strong forehand to dent his opponent’s feeble efforts of a comeback. Later, sixth seeded Indian Rishab Agarwal succumbed to second seed Matsuda Ryuki of Japan 0-6, 4-6.

Meanwhile, seventh seed David Pichler of Austria saw the back of Japanese Seita Watanabe with a 6-0 6-0 win to reach semifinals.

Results (all Indians unless mentioned):

Singles (Quarterfinals): 7-David Pichler (AUT) beat Seita Watanabe (JPN) 6-0, 6-0; 5-Ramkumar Ramanathan beat Manish Sureshkumar 7-5,6-0; Ryotaro Taguchi (JPN) beat Aryan Shah 6-3, 6-2; 2-Matsuda Ryuki (JPN) beat 6-Rishab Agarwal 6-0, 6-4.

Doubles (Semifinals): Ryuki Matsuda (JPN)/Ryotaro Taguchi (JPN) beat Rishab Agarwal/Bharath Nishok Kumaran 7-6 (4), 6-2; 2-David Pichler (AUT)/Nitin Kumar Sinha beat Adil Kalyanpur/Sidharth Rawat 6-3, 6-2.