Tennis: Daniel sets up clash with Cilic at Singapore Tennis Open

SINGAPORE: Japan's Taro Daniel defeated India's Ramkumar Ramanathan on Monday (Feb 22) in a three-set combat to arrange a second-round conflict with Croatia's Marin Cilic on the Singapore Tennis Open.

Daniel gained the primary set 6-3, however Ramanathan got here again to take the second 6-7, prevailing within the tie-breaker.

However the Japanese participant gained the third set 6-3, sealing his victory with a strong forehand volley.

"In tennis, you'll always have a chance to have that big break - I think I'm playing well enough to give myself that chance," Daniel mentioned.

"There's going to be more rallies, so I definitely have to be on top of my service game, pressuring (Cilic) with my serve and moving him around because that's probably going to (be) his weakness, if there is one."

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Third seed Cilic has set his sights on rediscovering the form of kind which led him to 19 ATP singles titles and the US Open in 2014.

"When you lose a few matches, you start to doubt yourself. But looking ahead at this year, I feel I can definitely make my comeback," mentioned the world quantity 43.

Within the day's different singles matches, American Maxime Cressy loved a straight-sets 7-6, 6-2 victory over Taiwan's Jason Jung whereas Bulgarian wildcard Adrian Andreev took down South Africa's Lloyd Harris 1-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Australia's Alexei Popyrin gained his first encounter with American qualifier Christopher Eubanks 7-6(7-5), 7-6(7-5).

Japan's Yoshihito Nishioka beat Michael Mmoh 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 in an hour and 58 minutes.