Ankita Raina, Sumit Nagal and Ramkumar Ramanthan’s quest to reach the main draw of the year’s second Grand Slam came to an end along with the Indian singles challenge as they bowed out of the French Open with second-round defeats in Paris on Wednesday.
Raina, up against higher-ranked Belgian Greet Minnen (world No 125), could win only two games in the match that lasted one hour and 21 minutes. The 182nd ranked Indian could convert only one of the three break points and eventually lost 2-6, 0-6. Raina struggled especially on her serve, facing 12 break points and conceding six of those. The Belgian won a whopping 60% of her receiving points.
It was Raina’s seventh attempt to crack the singles main draw of a major. She had reached the final round of the Australian Open qualifying event early this year, falling at the final stage. At the event, she had made her main draw debut at a Major, in the doubles category.
For Ramkumar, the challenge posed by former top-35 player Denis Istomin proved to be a tough one. The Uzbekistan veteran, currently outside the top 200, breezed past Ramkumar in 65 minutes, winning 6-1, 6-2. The Indian player could not force any break point opportunities whie Istomin percentage of points won on first serve proved to be a game-changer.
The country’s No 1 Sumit Nagal was the last remaining Indian singles player in action and he faced Chile’s Alejandro Tabilo, ranked 166 in the world. The Indian lost 3-6, 3-6 in a match that last 90 minutes.
Nagal could break the serve of his rival, ranked 23 places below him at 146, only twice while he himself dropped his serve five times.
Earlier on Tuesday, Prajnesh Gunneswaran lost in the first round of qualifying.
India will be represented through Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharan in the men’s doubles main draw.
It is crucial for both of them to earn ranking points by going deep in the draw since the official rankings of June 10 will decide which players make the cut for the Tokyo Olympics.
Sania Mirza has decided not to compete in this tournament as she wanted to use her special protected ranking to enter Wimbledon.
With PTI Inputs
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