World no. 222 Ramkumar Ramanathan beat world no. 8 and top seed Dominic Thiem 6-3, 6-2 to pull off one of the biggest wins for an Indian in recent times and enter the quarter-finals of the Antalya Open in Turkey on Tuesday.
Ramanathan, who had reached the quarter-finals at the 2016 Chennai Open, did not drop a serve in the match. He broke Thiem once in the opening set, and twice in the second to win the match in straight sets in just over an hour.
He will face veteran Cyprus star Marcos Baghdatis in the quarter-final.
"I worked really hard for this win. I thank the crowd for coming out and cheering. I like the grass courts. Courts are fast. I took my chances and it worked out," Ramkumar said after the match.
Coming in as a qualifier into the event, Ramkumar had earlier beaten Brazil's world no. 68 Rogerio Dutra Silva 6-3 6-4 in the first round.
Somdev Devvarman was the last Indian to beat a top 10 player in singles when he beat Juan Martin del Potro in the first round of the 2014 Dubai Tennis Championships, an ATP 500 tournament. However, Del Potro had withdrawn due to a wrist injury after losing the first set tiebreak in that match.
