Ramkumar Ramanathan’s campaign at the $75,000 ATP Savannah Challenger ended on Wednesday after the 22-year-old lost his singles and doubles matches.
In singles, Ramanathan was defeated in his second round match by the sixth seeded American Stefan Kozlov in straight sets 6-1, 6-2 in 68 minutes.
Ramanathan was no match for the 19-year-old ranked 73 spots above him at the 144th place in the ATP ranking. Kozlov broke Ramanathan’s serve four times in the course of the match even as he didn’t face a single break point on his serve.
The Chennai native was also done in by his poor serving. He put in only 45% of his first serves to Kozlov’s distinctly better 58% and converted just 53% points off his first serves to Kozlov’s 73%. Ramanathan also managed to win only 39% points off his second serves to Kozlov winning a far superior 79%.
In the entirety of the match, Ramanathan could only manage to win 34% points to his higher ranked opponent’s better margin of 66%.
Third seeds Luke Bambridge and Mitchell Krueger dashed the run of Ramanathan and his Brazilian partner Andre Ghem, defeating the unseeded team 6-2, 6-3 in their quarter-final.
Ghem and Ramanathan dropped their serve thrice in the 55-minute match and won only 25% points off their second serves. On the other hand, Bambridge and Krueger didn’t face a break point on their serve and went on to win 80% points off their second serves, which proved instrumental in them getting the win.
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