Indian youngster Ramkumar Ramanathan produced a brave fight before going down to Feliciano Lopez of Spain in four bitterly-fought sets in the opening match of their Davis Cup World Group Play-off tennis tie here on Friday.
Spain thus took a 1-0 lead in the five-match tie.
Virtually written off even before the start, the hosts were handed a major boost before the start of the match as Spain's star player Rafael Nadal pulled out due to a stomach bug with Feliciano taking his place.
Ramanathan, who was scheduled to face the might of the 14-time Grand Slam winner Nadal in the first contest of the tie, seemed to be boosted by the prospect of facing a lower-rated opponent and fought bravely before going down 4-6, 4-6, 6-3, 1-6 in two hours and 15 minutes.
--IANS
ajb/sam/dg
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