India’s Ramkumar Ramanathan went down fighting in his second round match of the Tata Open Maharashtra losing to fourth-seed Malek Jaziri in three sets 6-7,7-6, 3-6 here at the Mhalunge Balewadi Stadium. The 24-year-old Indian produced an inspiring display against the Tunisian as the game went on for close to three hours.

World No. 132 Ramanathan used his fierce serves to his advantage dishing out 10 of the 20 aces in the first set. The Chennai-born player showed great resilience saving a set point to take it to tie-breaker. Even in the tie-breaker, Jaziri had a set-point at 6-5, but Ramanathan bagged three back-to-back points, two on his serve and one on Jaziri to win the set at 7-6 (6).

In the second set, both the players played to their strengths. Jaziri showed great resilience saving two break points in the 11th game. Ramanathan held on to his serve to make it 6-6 and take it to yet another tie-breaker. Jaziri lost the first point on his serve in the tie-breaker as Ramanathan followed it by two on his serve to lead the proceedings at 3-0. Jaziri picked himself up from there to win five consecutive points and gain momentum to win the second set at 7-6 (5).

The deciding set was the one where 34-year-old Jaziri used his experienced as he broke Ramanathan thrice to secure the set 6-3 and with it, the match. The Tunisian will now meet Belgium's Steve Darcis later today.

The doubles competition saw two Quarter-Finals take place which saw Indian pairing of N. Sriram Balaji and local boy Arjun Kadhe lose out to Great Britain’s Luke Bambridge and Jonny O’Mara in straight sets 6-7, 1-6. Fourth-seed Spanish pair of Gerard Granollers and Marcel Granollers also advanced to the Semi-Finals with a 6-4, 6-7, 10-6 victory over Denys Molchanov and Igor Zelenay.

Earlier in the day, third-seed Gilles Simon also made his way through to the next round as he overcame Ilya Ivashka’s challenge in three sets 6-7, 6-2, 6-1. The defending champion will now meet his countryman Benoit Paire who beat World No. 89 Jiri Vesely in straight sets 6-4, 6-2.

World No. 95 Ernests Gulbis was involved in the upset of the day beating second-seed Hyeon Chung in straight sets 7-6, 6-2. The Latvian will now take on Croatia's Ivo Karlovic who beat World No. 97 Evgeny Donskoy 6-4, 7-5 

Top-seed and World No. 6 Kevin Anderson had to dig-in to secure his berth in the Quarter-Finals as 23-year-old Laslo Djere gave him a tough outing with the match ending 7-6, 7-6 in Anderson’s favour. He will now meet World no. 81 Jaume Munar who comfortably beat Italy's Simone Bolelli 7-5, 6-0

RESULTS
Singles - Second Round
[1] K. Anderson (RSA) d L. Djere (SRB) 76(3) 76(6)

E. Gulbis (LAT) d [2] H. Chung (KOR) 76(2) 62

[3] G. Simon (FRA) d I. Ivashka (BLR) 67(3) 62 61

[4] M. Jaziri (TUN) d [WC] R. Ramanathan (IND) 67(6) 76(5) 63

[5] B. Paire (FRA) d J. Vesely (CZE) 64 62

[7] J. Munar (ESP) d [Q] S. Bolelli (ITA) 75 60

[PR] S. Darcis (BEL) d M. Mmoh (USA) 46 76(4) 62

I. Karlovic (CRO) d E. Donskoy (RUS) 64 75

Men's Doubles - Quarterfinals
[4] G. Granollers (ESP) / M. Granollers (ESP) d D. Molchanov (UKR) / I. Zelenay (SVK) 64 67(3) 10-6

L. Bambridge (GBR) / J. O'Mara (GBR) d [WC] N. Balaji (IND) / A. Kadhe (IND) 76(5) 61