Nadal advances, Ramkumar ousted

Rafael Nadal continued his quest to regain top spot as he trounced Richard Gasquet of France in straight sets to romp into the third round of the Western and Southern Open in Cincinnati here on Thursday.

The Spanish maestro, who is seeded top in the ongoing tournament, took one hour and 25 minutes to post a comfortable 6-3, 6-4 win over Gasquet in a one-sided men’s singles second-round clash.

With the win, Nadal has now set up a clash against countryman Albert Ramos Viñolas for a place in the quarter-finals. 

Nadal has clinched four tournaments this year, including historic 10th titles at the Roland Garros, Monte-Carlo and Barcelona. 

He has also made it to the three other finals, including the season-opening Australian Open and Miami.

In another men’s singles clash, Indian tennis player Ramkumar Ramanathan suffered a major blow as he was knocked out of the U.S. Open warm-up event after going down against Jared Donaldson of America. 

Ramkumar slumped to a 4-6, 6-2, 4-6 defeat at the hands of his American opponent in a thrilling last-32 encounter that lasted just few minutes less than two hours

It should be noted that the rising Indian star had earlier booked his place in the main draw as a ‘lucky loser’ after France’s Gael Monfils pulled out of the ATP Masters 1000 tournament because of illness.