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Somdev Devvarman kept the Indian campaign alive in the ATP Sarasota Challenger clay court tennis tournament, being played at the Tennis Gardens of Longboat Key and Resort in Sarasota, Florida, USA.
The country’s top-ranked men’s singles player overcame bouts of inconsistent play to quell the challenge of German Mischa Zverev 6-4, 6-2 to romp into the semifinals.
This was Somdev’s second win over a higher ranked player in the tournament.
The Indian struggled to get his first serves in and had to often fall back on his second serves, which, significantly, did not let him down and had a big say in how the match shaped up.
Somdev’s return of serves was decent. Zverev made things difficult for him by committing a slew of unforced errors.
The Indian broke the German’s serve once in the opening set to close out the set at 6-4.
The German, who had lost to Somdev in their only earlier meeting in three sets 4-6, 7-5, 6-4 in the 2012 ATP Charlottesville Challenger, had an opportunity to exact sweet revenge but Somdev played the crucial points well to hold sway over him.
The Tripura-born player broke Zverev’s serve twice in the second set to bag it 6-2 to march into the last-four stage.
The win over Zverov should give Somdev plenty of confidence, considering the fact that the German had upstaged the 2009 champion and 214th ranked James Ward of UK in three games 6-1, 2-6, 6-4 in the quarterfinals.
Somdev next plays Alex Kuznetsov of USA in the semifinals.
The Indian stands a good chance of making it to the final as he prevailed over the 271st ranked American twice before.
Somdev first met Kuznetsov in the 2009 Aptos Challenger where he pipped him in straight sets 6-1, 6-3. Again in 2010, he vanquished the American 6-4, 3-6, 6-0 in the Indian Wells hard court tennis tournament.
Like Somdev, Kuznetsov also got the better of a higher ranked player in the quarterfinals. The American put it across fellow countryman and 134th ranked Steve Johnson 6-2, 3-6, 6-1.
Meanwhile, the highest seeded player left in the tournament – Argentina’s 104th ranked Guido Pella bowed out in the quarterfinals to Ukraine’s 238th ranked Denys Molchanov 7-6, 4-6, 7-5.
Guido’s loss leaves US’ 120th ranked Wayne Odesnik (he is seeded eight) as the lone seeded player in the fray. He now takes on Denys Molchanov for a place in the final.
