India's Ramkumar Ramanathan could not take advantage of world No. 5 Rafael Nadal's late pull-out as he went down to Feliciano Lopez in four sets in the Davis Cup World Group Playoff match in Delhi on Friday. The 21-year-old Indian, ranked 203 in the world, lost to the 26th-ranked Spaniard 4-6, 4-6, 6-3, 1-6 in two-and-a-half hours at the RK Khanna Tennis Academy stadium. Spain thus took a 1-0 lead in the tie.
Despite the loss, Ramanathan, whose biggest claim to fame prior to this match was beating compatriot Somdev Devvarman in the Chennai Open in 2014, put in an impressive display, considering he is not even in the top 200 in the world.
Ramanathan, who was asked to serve first, started confidently and matched his much higher-ranked opponent until the fifth game of the first set when he was broken by Lopez. Ramanathan held his serve for the remainder of the set and played an impressive return game, but could not break the Spaniard, who eventually took the set 6-4 in 41 minutes.
Lopez got off to a flyer in the second set, breaking Ramanathan in the Indian's opening service game. The Indian fought back again and did not get broken, but was just not good enough to break Lopez as the 34-year-old took the set again 6-4 in 34 minutes.
The two players exchanged a great rally in the third game of the third set, which the Indian won with a brilliant shot across the court and then egged the home crowd to cheer louder. Ramanathan took a medical timeout to treat his right leg after leading 3-2 on serve in the third set. It looked as if the 21-year-old was struggling from cramps after spending over 90 minutes on court.
However, his struggles seemed like an aberration moments later as he played an outstanding return game to break Lopez for the first time in the match to take a 5-3 lead and serve for the set. Ramanathan made no mistake in his service game and won the set 6-3 after 28 minutes, thereby taking the match to a fourth set. At the changeover, even Leander Paes was seen egging on the Delhi crowd to up their voice.
Unfortunately for India, there was to be no miraculous comeback as Lopez again broke Ramanathan in the Indian's opening service game to take a 2-0 lead. Ramanathan had to save another break point in his next service game and managed to hold on to make it 1-3. However, Lopez was ruthless thereon as he broke Ramanathan again and took the set 6-1 and thereby the match.