Ryuki matsuda

The Indian Davis Cup: Ramkumar Ramanathan inched towards back-to-back Men's 25K titles with an almost flawless victory against Ryotaro Taguchi of Japan to reach the final of the ITF Kalaburagi Open in Kalaburagi, in Karnataka, on Saturday.

In the semifinals played at the Chandrashekhar Patil Stadium courts here, the lanky player brushed aside the visitor’s challenge in just 65 minutes to register a 6-2, 6-1 victory.

In the title clash, the fifth-seeded Indian will meet seventh-seeded David Pichler of Austria who, in a minor upset, scored a 6-2, 6-4 win against the second-seeded Matsuda Ryuki of Japan.