The Indian field at the Cincinnati Open posted contrasting results on Wednesday. The fourth seeded Indo-Chinese doubles pairing of Sania Mirza and Shuai Peng won their opening round in the Women’s Tennis Association Cincinnati Open. On the other hand, Ramkumar Ramanathan lost a tough second round to American wild card Jared Donaldson.
Mirza and Peng scored a 7-5, 6-4 win over the unseeded German-Ukrainian pair of Julia Goerges and Olga Savchuk in the second round, after receiving a bye in the first round.
Both teams put in around 55% of their first serves, but it was the unseeded team that won a marginally better percentage of points on their first serves – 62% to Mirza and Peng’s 58%. But, where the fourth seeds won 58% off their second serves, Goerges and Savchuk managed to win only 37% points on their second serves.
In terms of break points won and converted, Mirza and Peng saved 11 of the 14 break points they faced while converting four of the nine break point chances they received on their opponents’ serve. In the quarter-finals, they will take on the unseeded Romanian team of Irina-Camelia Begu and Raluca Olaru.
Gutsy Ramanathan loses out
In the men’s singles field in Cincinnati, the Indian No 2’s inspired run came to an end after the 67th ranked Donaldson won 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 in an hour and 56 minutes.
For most parts, both players were equally matched. While Ramanathan had a first serve percentage of 59%, the American put in 57% of his first serves, with both winning around 75% points off their first serves. Likewise, where Ramanathan converted 51% points off his second serves, Donaldson won about 54% points off his second serves. However, when it came to clutch points, Donaldson came to be the better player.
Ramanathan had made it into the main draw as a lucky loser after Gael Monfils withdrew from the tournament. The 22-year-old became the first Indian men’s singles player to play in the main draw of an Association of Tennis Professionals Masters since Somdev Devvarman in 2013.