Ramkumar Ramanathan accomplished a straight set win over Canada’s Vasek Pospisil to reach his first ever ATP semi-finals at the Hall of Fame Open grass court tournament in Newport. Playing only his third ATP quarter-final, the world No 161 beat Canada’s Vasek Pospisil 7-5, 6-2 in just over 78 minutes.
Ramkumar Ramanathan became the first Indian singles player since 2011 to reach the semifinals of an ATP World Tour. Somdev Devvarman was the last Indian singles player to reach this far in an ATP Tour event. The former India number one had reached the final of two ATP 250 events – 2009 Chennai Open, where he lost to Marin Cilic and 2011 SA Tennis Open in Johannesburg, where he had finishes runner-up to Kevin Anderson.
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Ramanathan, who had stunned world No. 8 Dominic Thiem at the Antalya Open last year, sent down five aces and converted the three break points that came his way. He put up a commanding performance surrendering only seven points on his first serve.
The Chennai-born player was on a five-match losing streak, including the qualifiers at Wimbledon. But at the ATP 250 event in Newport, Rhode Island, he turned it around. He defeated Dominican Victor Burgos 6-4, 6-1 in his opener and pipped US eighth seed Denis Kudla 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the second round to set up the clash with the Canadian, who had beaten him in the Australian Open qualifiers earlier this year.
Ramkumar now has to get past world number 123 Smyczek. The 30-year-old, also a first-time semi-finalist, beat Taiwan’s Jason Jung 6-1, 5-7, 6-4 in quarter-final.