Rajeev Ram wins to break U.S. losing streak at Farmers Classic

At this rate, the only American aspect of the Farmers Classic might soon be that it’s held in the United States.

After five consecutive losses by Americans against foreign players to start the tournament at UCLA’s L.A. Tennis Center, Rajeev Ram of Carmel, Ind., ended the streak with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Paul Capdeville of Chile on Wednesday afternoon.

Ram, who joins second-seeded Sam Querrey of Thousand Oaks and Michael Russell of Houston in the quarterfinals, disputed the notion that the United States is no longer relevant internationally.

“We compare it to a pretty high standard and that’s the first problem. We compare it to [Pete] Sampras and [Andre] Agassi and that whole crew,” he said, adding that an era of American domination similar to that might never occur again. “We have two or three or four players dominating tennis right now, and I think the American guys are doing pretty darn well for what they’re up against. It’s not dominant like it was before, but there are a lot of countries taking to tennis.”

The path is about to become even more challenging for the three remaining Americans, with Ram scheduled to face third-seeded Leonardo Mayer of Argentina and Russell challenging top-seeded Benoit Paire of France in his tournament debut.

“Today was a good performance for sure against a tough player,” Ram said. “I served well today and definitely better than the other night, which certainly helps.

“The next guy is tough as nails, so I’m going to have to play my best.”

Mayer advanced Wednesday with a 6-0, 4-0 win over Flavio Cipolla of Italy, who retired because of a neck injury. Querrey reached the quarterfinals with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Igor Sijsling of the Netherlands and will face the winner of Thursday’s match between fifth-seeded Xavier Malisse of Belgium and Matthew Ebden of Australia.

The Paire-Russell match highlights Thursday’s action at 7:30 p.m. Tobias Kamke of Germany will follow up his three-set defeat of James Blake against sixth-seeded Marinko Matosevic of Australia in the afternoon.

andrew.owens@latimes.com