First day, flop show for Ram

New York, August 25 

Indian youngster Ramkumar Ramanathan could not enter the main draw of a Grand Slam yet again as he lost in the first round of the US Open Qualifiers here.

Ramkumar lost his opening-round match 7-5 6-1 to Italy’s Alessandro Giannessi.

The 21-year-old could not earn a single breakpoint in the entire match that lasted one hour and 16 minutes.

Ramkumar lost steam when he went down in the opening set after a good fight. The second set turned out to be lop-sided as he lost his serve thrice.

Saketh Myneni will take on American Mitchell Krueger in the second round.

Kvitova thrashes Genie to reach quarters

New Haven (USA): Petra Kvitova produced the most impressive performance of the day as the sixth seed took out Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard 6-3 6-2 for a berth in the quarterfinals of the WTA Connecticut Open.

Kvitova, a three-time Connecticut Open champion, is actually the third-highest seed in the tournament as three of the top five seeds withdrew. Kvitova next plays Olympics doubles gold medallist Ekaterina Makarova, a player Kvitova beat in the Olympics singles tournament.

Italy’s Roberta Vinci got off to a dominating start by routing Croatian Ana Konjuh 6-2 6-2 to reach the quarterfinals.

The 18-year-old Konjuh is ranked 100th in the world and had to get through three rounds of qualifying to reach the main draw at the New Haven tournament.

Vinci next faces Johanna Larsson, a lucky loser in qualifying who defeated wild-card entrant Shelby Rogers 7-6(1) 6-4 for a berth in the quarterfinals.

Gasquet in quarters of Winston-Salem Open

Winston-Salem (USA): Top seed Richard Gasquet defeated French compatriot Stephane Robert 6-1 6-3 to reach the quarterfinals of the ATP Tour’s Winston-Salem Open. 

Gasquet saved seven of eight break points and broke the unseeded Robert’s serve five times in the hardcourt tournament in North Carolina. Gasquet will next face Australia’s John Millman, who came from behind to win 5-7 6-0 6-3 against wild card Bjorn Fratangelo.

Taiwan’s Lu Yen-Hsun advanced to his fourth straight Winston-Salem quarterfinal with a 6-4 6-0 win over Argentina’s Diego Schwartzman. Next up for Lu will be number two seed Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain, who defeated Cyprus’ Marcos Baghdatis 4-6 6-3 6-1.

Fifteenth seed Fernando Verdasco fired 10 aces as he rolled over fourth-seeded American Steve Johnson 6-4 7-6(7). In the quarterfinals, Verdasco will face Serbia’s Viktor Troicki, who toppled American Sam Querrey 6-2 7-6(5).

Andrey Kuznetsov of Russia advanced when Jiri Vesely of the Czech Republic retired at 5-5 in the first set. — PTI, AFP