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Sumit Nagal and Ankita Raina of India advanced to the quarter-final in the singles competition at the tennis arena in the Hangzhou Olympics Sports Centre, on September 26, Tuesday. But, at the same time, Rutuja Bhosale and Ramkumar Ramanathan lost their respective singles matches to bow out of the individual tennis events at the Asian Games 2023.
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As the top Indian singles player, ranked 198 in the world, Ankita Raina made light work of her opponent from Hong Kong, Adithya P Karunaratne, ranked 354, defeating her in straight sets by 6-1, 6-2. She managed to convert three breakpoint opportunities, while saving two breakpoints out of three, to ensure an easy victory in the third-round contest in just over an hour and a half.
Rutuja Bhosale, who is ranked 336 in the world, lost her match against Alexandra Eala, ranked 190, in round three with the scoreline reading 6-7(5) 2-6. The pulsating contest lasted for one hour and 51 minutes, which saw Bhosale and Eala match each other stroke for stroke until the Filipino player took the ascendancy when it mattered the most.
Indian results for men’s singles tennis competition detailed below
Sumit Nagal, the world number 159, got the better of Beibit Zhukayev, the 297th ranked player from Kazakhstan in straight sets by 7-6(9), 6-4 in the men’s singles round three. The match lasted for two hours and seven minutes, which had Nagal convert two breakpoints in comparison to one from Zhukayev, which proved to be the ultimate difference between these two players.
His teammate, Ramkumar Ramanathan, the world number 569, had a tough task at hand against Yosuke Watanuki from Japan, the 78th ranked player. Still, Ramanathan stretched Watanuki to the limit in over two and a half hours, but ultimately, he lost in three sets with the scoreline reading 7-5, 6-7(3), 7-5.
