CHENNAI: Even after five decades, legend Ramanathan Krishnan — who reached the Wimbledon semifinals twice — is still the reference point in Indian tennis.
His son Ramesh won the junior Wimbledon, and was a solid Davis Cup player, and at one point even defeated the then World No 1 Mats Wilander.
Vijay Amritraj, too, at times matched Jimmy Connors. Leander Paes at his best was known to be a giant killer. But the current lot of singles players do not seem to have the game.
Yuki Bhambri, who did well to get through the Chennai Open qualifiers, was on Thursday found wanting against fifth seed and World No 47 Benoit Paire in their second-round encounter.
Paire was rusty at times, but upped the tempo with a flurry of aces and well-placed shots to deny Yuki any advantage.
The Delhi lad gave his best, but lacked the confidence and aggression to break Paire’s serve even once. The Frenchman won 6-3, 6-4, thus signalling the end of India’s singles challenge. “Our boys must learn from the way Jozef Kovalik stunned Marin Cilic. We need such performances from our players to boost chances in ATP events,” remarked Hiten Joshi, CEO of Tamil Nadu Tennis Association and travelling coach of Ramkumar Ramanathan, who was beaten by Yuki in Round 1.
Paire broke the 24-year-old’s serve early in the second game of the first set, but at times struggled to hold his serve. Yuki let him off the hook, however, and Paire rattled out aces at crucial times to stop his opponent making any inroads.
Kovalik’s coach Boris Borgula gave an idea into how a players mind works when playing a top seed. “Jozef is very strong mentally. He does not get rattled by big names, and most importantly, he has immense self confidence.”
Yuki, in the second set, played slightly better and kept frustrating Paire with his returns. But the 2016 Chennai Open semifinalist put his experience to good use and broke Yuki in the fifth game, and never looked back.
The 27-year-old complemented his Indian opponent for the way he fought. “The win was a good one, and I had to earn it. I hope to better my world ranking, for which I’ve to be more consistent,” he said, admitting his game was not up to the mark.
Yuki, meanwhile, admitted he could have played more aggressively. “When I was leading in a couple of games, I could’ve played more aggressively and got the break,” said Yuki.
Meanwhile, Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain and Russia’s Mikhail Youzhny, with convincing wins, will clash in the quarterfinals.
Doubles keeps hopes alive
After the heartbreaking loss of Yuki, Rohan Bopanna and partner Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan kept India’s interests alive with a nail-biting win. They beat USA’s James Cerretani and P Oswald of Austria 6-2, 3-6, 12-10 to make the semifinals. Later, Purav Raja and Divij Sharan eased past Austrian Jurgen Melzer and Renzo Olivo of Argentina 6-4, 7-5.