Delhi: India's Somdev Devvarman Wednesday eased into the men's singles quarterfinal of the ONGC GAIL Delhi Open ATP Challenger tennis tournament while Yuki Bhambri's poor run continued as he was ousted in the men's doubles quarterfinal.
Devvarman, the highest-ranked Indian, won 6-2, 6-2 at the Delhi Lawn Tennis Association (DLTA) complex centre court in just over an hour. Bhambri, who lost in the men's singles first round, was again at the receiving end as he and his New Zealand partner Michael Venus lost 3-6, 7-5, 9-11 in a super tie-break to Indian wild card entrants Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and Vishnu Vardhan.
Somdev, however, didn't have it easy and said: "The match was much tighter than the scoreline suggested".n Di Wu, the lower ranked Chinese, played some powerful shots but failed to breach the Indian's defences, costing him the match. From the outset, Di played aggressively. Somdev's retrieving abilities were on show as he continuously forced the Chinese into making errors.
Somdev, ranked 96th in the world, broke Di in the third game to take a 2-1 lead. Somdev closed out the set on his serve after coming under a little pressure. But such was the domination of his serve that the Chinese failed to win even a single break-point opportunity.
The Indian quickly got out of the blocks in the second, rushing to a 4-0 lead. Unable to get past Somdev's defence, the Chinese tried to find the corners and in the process made too many mistakes. The ignominy of losing the set at love seemed to stir the Chinese into action. His ground strokes had the Indian scampering all over the court and he held his serve to make it 4-1.
He then for the first time in the match broke Somdev's serve in the very next game to take to the score to 4-2 in favour of the Indian. The Chinese made a hash of a drop shot in his next service game, handing the Indian an opportunity to serve for the match. Somdev didn't disappoint as he held serve to close out the match.
"I feel I can play a lot better. The court is slow and it suited my game play more than my opponent's," Somdev told reporters after the match. "He has a fast game and due to the slowness of the court and extra bounce, I think he struggled. "I'm happy to qualify for the quarters and will give my best to go further in the tournament," said Somdev.
Somdev will now face China's Ze Zhang, who defeated Marco Chiudinelli 7-5, 6-4. In the other match involving Indians, Jeevan and Vishnu emerged victorious, shocking the third seeds in a tightly contested affair. The Indian pair got off to brilliant start and had their opponents in all sorts of trouble.
Both teams were extremely poor on service returns but the wild card entrants converted both their break points to take the first set. Jeevan and Vishbu were again dominant in the second set, but failure to convert even one of the five break points on offer cost them the set.
In the final super tie-break, the Indo-Kiwi pair surged to a 8-5 lead but in an amazing comeback, the unseeded duo won the next four points to level the tie. They closed out the match, winning the final two points to move in to the semis.
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