In a hard-fought and evenly contested matchup, Ramkumar Ramanathan was pipped in the men’s singles final of the $75,000 ATP Tallahassee Challenger by Blaz Rola on Saturday. The Slovakian qualifier defeated the Indian No 1 6-2, 6-7(6), 7-5 in two hours and 36 minutes, in what was the longest ATP Challenger final so far this season.

Ramanathan didn’t have the most ideal of starts as he lost the opening set quite tamely to Rola. However, he looked to have fashioned a comeback as he took the second set after winning the lengthy 14-point tie-breaker 8-6 to level the match.

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The final set featured no breaks of serve until the 11th game when Ramanathan was broken by his older opponent. Rola’s service hold in the 12th game to consolidate the break also sealed the match in his favour, giving him his first Challenger title after two years, since winning the trophy in Santos, Brazil, in April 2015.

Meanwhile, the biggest takeaway from the tournament this week for Ramanathan, despite his loss in the final, is that he is right back on the threshold of the top-200 ranking.

Leander Paes scripts success story in doubles

Leander Paes capped off a triumphant week of his own in Tallahassee as he won the doubles title partnering USA’s Scott Lipsky on Saturday. Paes and Lipsky, who were the top seeds for the event, defeated the third-seeded Argentine pair of Leonardo Mayer and Maximo Gonzalez 4-6, 7-6 (5), 10-7 in an hour and 49 minutes.

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The Argentinians converted two of the three break points on Paes and Lipsky’s serve in the opening set, but faced no break points of their own as they took the lead in the match. In spite of two breaks of serve each, in an erratic second set, the higher ranked team maintained their cool to pocket the eventual tie-break 7-5 and take the match into the deciding tie-break. Both teams gave it their all in the match tie-break, before the Indo-American team opened a three-point margin that safely saw them through to victory.

This was Paes’s 21st Challenger title and his second this year, after the title in Leon, Mexico, which he won teaming up with Canada’s Adil Shamasdin, in April as well.