India’s Ramkumar Ramanathan defeated New Zealand’s Jose Statham 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 in their Davis Cup Asia-Oceania Group 1 first-round clash in Pune on Friday. Unlike his compatriot Yuki Bhambri, Ramanathan appeared a lot more confident and assured in his strokeplay, easily dispatching his opponent in straight sets. The victory gave India a 2-0 lead in the tie, after Bhambri defeated Finn Tearney 6-4, 6-4, 6-3 in the day’s first match.
Ramanathan, who is India’s highest-ranked singles player at 276, broke Statham on the second attempt and never looked back, going on to take the first set 6-3 with ease. Statham, ranked 417th, put up a stiff resistance in the second set, but the Indian eventually managed to break him and take the set 6-4. A charged up Ramanathan then broke Statham in his third service game and went on to close out the match. He was helped by a bucket load of unforced errors by Statham, who had an outing to forget.
On Saturday, Leander Paes, who is gunning for a Davis Cup record in doubles, and his partner Vishnu Vardhan will take on Artem Sitak and Michael Venus. If India win this rubber, they will win the tie even before the reverse singles are played on Sunday.