ATP Savannah Challenger: India’s Somdev Devvarman exits in second round

India’s Somdev Devvarman crashed out in the second round of the ATP Savannah Challenger clay court tennis tournament being played at the Franklin Creek Tennis Center in Savannah, Georgia, United States.

The country’s top-ranked men’s singles player lost to 20-year-old Argentinean Facundo Arguello in straight sets 3-6, 4-6.

The 193rd ranked Argentinean seized the initiative, breaking Somdev’s serve and consistently held his serve to pocket the first set at 6-3.

Somdev, who jumped eighteen spots in the latest ATP rankings to 187th following a semifinal finish in the recent ATP Sarasota Challenger, played an error-strewn game.

He struggled with his serves which did not allow him to stay competitive in the contest.

The Indian matched Facundo in the second set and looked more solid with his serves, but the Argentinean effected the crucial break of serve to close the second set at 6-4 to set up a quarterfinal meeting with second seed and 2009 champion Michael Russell, who is ranked 96th in the world.

Earlier in the first round, Somdev got the better of Russian 252nd ranked Nikoloz Basilashvili. The Indian had won the first set 6-4 before Basilashvili retired owing to injury concerns.

Besides Russell, the tournaments now has three other seeds in the fray - seventh seed and 2011 champion Wayne Odesnik, third Ryan Harrison and fifth seed Rhyne Williams.

Earlier, Somdev, partnering Serbian Ilija Bozoljac, lost in the first round of the men’s doubles to the American pair of Tennys Sandgren and Rhyne Williams 3-6, 6-2, 10-6.

The Indo-Serbian pair had won the men’s doubles crown in the recent ATP Sarasota Challenger.

Somdev was in full cry at the recently-concluded ATP Sarasota Challenger clay court tennis tournament held in Florida, USA.

He put it across two higher ranked players en route to the men’s singles semifinals, where he was shown the championship exit door by American Alex Kuznetsov of USA in three sets 3-6, 6-1, 3-6.

The Indian had defeated 93rd ranked Jesse Levine of Canada in the first round before accounting for 152nd ranked German Mischa Zverev 6-4, 6-2 in the quarterfinals.

Beating Levine and Zverev played a significant part in Somdev climbing up in the latest ATP rankings.

The Indian, who went into the ATP Sarasota Challenger with an ATP ranking of 205, is on a comeback trail after a serious shoulder injury put him out of action for more than nine months in 2012.

Sondev has been regularly taking part in ATP events only since late last year.

He had reached a career-high ATP ranking of 62 in July 2011.

Somdev recently locked horns with world number one Novak Djokovic in the third round of the Miami Masters and lost in straight sets to the Serb.