For nearly three hours, in front of a sparse crowd, Ramkumar Ramanathan gave a veteran of the tennis circuit a frightful runaround. After a titanic struggle, 32-year old Marcos Baghdatis, who has slipped to 79 in the rankings now, having once been as high as 8 at the peak of his career, led 6-1 in the tiebreaker in the final set. At that point, the Cypriot probably believed he had put the feisty Indian away only to watch Ramkumar produce a stirring comeback. The 22-year old saved five match points before he was finally subdued, bringing the curtains down on a memorable tournament.
Although he will be encouraged by the result, Ramkumar will look back on this clash against Baghdatis as a missed opportunity. A couple of days after pulling off the biggest win of his career against World number 8 Dominic Thiem, Ramkumar reproduced his sizzling form in the early exchanges. He did in fact break Baghdatis' serve to take a 6-5 lead in the first set, only to be broken straight back. However, aided by some erratic play from his opponent, Ramkumar kept his composure and reeled off seven straight points to pocket the tiebreaker.
At this stage, Baghdatis' shoulders were clearly drooping. He was visibly irritated and gestured angrily in the direction of the chair umpire a couple of times. Although the temperature in Antalya was 29 degrees centigrade, the humidity appeared to be quite high and the few spectators courtside could be seen furiously fanning themselves. For Ramkumar, the conditions couldn't have been too different to back home in Chennai but he allowed his opponent a way back into the match by conceding his serve early in the second set. Throughout his 14-year professional career that has seen him win 4 titles, Baghdatis has been known for his counter-punching style and he started to wear Ramkumar down with this trusted method.
Ramkumar was broken for the second time in the set and went on to concede it 3-6. He served just two double faults in the first set and won 89% of his first service points. In the second, Baghdatis clearly had a better read on his serve and bought that percentage down to 70%. Ramkumar did not help his cause by serving as many as five double faults, while Baghdatis served none. At this stage his consistency was running Ramkumar ragged.
However, in the third, much to the surprise of Baghdatis, Ramkumar found renewed vigour in his game. He won 89% of points on the first serve though that percentage slipped to under 50 on the second. Baghdatis was a lot more assured in his service games in the decider, and in fact did not face a break point, while Ramkumar staved off three. Ramkumar will rue some of the errors he made at crucial junctures in the third set, especially towards the finish line, when he allowed some opportunities to hit winners into an open court slip away. His double fault count for this set was at four as well, but with his game built around a big first serve, it is understandable if Ramkumar takes more time to build consistency in that area.
Although the disappointment of this defeat will linger, Ramkumar will leave Antalya having taken a significant step forward in his career. Not only did he beat Thiem and push Baghdatis, he won two matches in qualifying to get into the main draw. And then in the first round, he registered a straight sets win over Brazilian Rogerio Dutra Silva, who is ranked 68 in the world. The ranking points earned from this tournament, an ATP 250 event, are sure to help him jump several places in the rankings, from his current position of 222.
Although Ramkumar hasn't made the cut to play in the qualifying tournament for Wimbledon, where he could have made some inroads based on his current form, his Davis Cup captain Mahesh Bhupathi is among those convinced that this could well be the start of greater consistency from a player who has all the attributes of a modern day tennis star - He is 6'2", has a booming serve and the ability to hit strongly from both his forehand and backhand flanks. As his fitness and stamina improves, Ramkumar has age on his side to start stringing together more consistent performances.