The gritty Indian youngster gave a terrific fight to a top-50 player and saved four match points before losing 7-6(5) 4-6 3-6, battling hard for two hours and 13 minutes against Britain's number two player.
A marauding Ramkumar Ramanathan dished out yet another commendable performance, albeit in a losing cause as he exited from Chennai Open after an intensly-fought singles quarterfinal against world number 45 Aljaz Bedene on Friday.
The gritty Indian youngster gave a terrific fight to a top-50 player and saved four match points before losing 7-6(5) 4-6 3-6, battling hard for two hours and 13 minutes against Britain's number two player.
"Ramkumar has made good progress. It was not easy. He was playing well and I was fighting. I was focusing on my game. It could have gone either way," Bedene said after the match. "I was practising with him here last year and he has made progress, specially his forehand. His serve has been superb. I was surprised."
Earlier in the evening, seeking a hat-trick of title triumph, Stanislas Wawrinka cruised into the semifinals with a straight-set 6-4 6-4 victory over Guillermo Garcia Lopez of Spain. In the day's other quarterfinal, third seeded Benoit Paire also scored a straight sets win, beating Italian qualifier Thomas Fabbiano 6-4 7-5 after spending 80 minutes on the court.
Nevertheless, the hero of the day was young Indian, who can hold his head high by putting up a splendid show, courtesy which he has earned crucial 45 ranking points. He beat a top-100 player and a top-200 before braving the challenge of a top-50 player. From 248, he will surely gain many places and can even break into top-200 for the first time in his career. Ramkumar's performance is a good news for Indian tennis, which is known to produce quality singles players with monotonic regularity like some of the top nations.
Contending Britain's No 2 player was a task for the Indian, ranked more than 200 places below his fancied opponent. Ramkumar, though, played fearlessly. He struck powerfully, served well and refused to be intimidated by his rival, who was a runner-up here last year.
Predictably, Bedene stayed strong and was never really troubled by the gutsy Indian. He held his serve quite comfortably even as he made made Ramkumar work hard to earn points. More than anything, Ramkumar was willing to fight and managed to impress again and this time against a much superior player. It was easy to see that he has improved since mid-2015. His biggest strength was his thunderous serve which he used quite effectively to wriggle out of tight situations.
Wawrinka on the other hand needed 77 minutes to see off the challenge of Spaniard Lopez, seeded fifth in the ATP Tour event. Leaving aside the 8th game in which Wawrinka made three unforced errors, the Swiss was in total control, winning eight straight points from 4-4 to close the set 6-4 in 53 minutes.
Wawrinka came up with superb returns and his defensive forehands were perfectly executed, the highlight being the fourth game when he followed up a big serve with a perfect volley before earning a break point in the fifth.
Keeping up the momentum, Wawrinka broke Lopez in the seventh game before sealing the match in his favour.
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