AirAsia Open ATP Challenger: Somdev Devvarman, Sanam Singh, Saketh Myneni cruise to Round 2

Devvarman had a few hiccups in an otherwise easy victory to progresss to Round 2 at the tournament

Bangalore, Oct 20: Unseeded Indian ace Sanam Singh caused the biggest upset of the AirAsia Open, a $50,000 ATP Challenger tournament, accounting for tournament 8th seed Germain Gigounon of Belgium in straight sets 6-4, 6-0 at the KSLTA Courts on Tuesday.

The World No 279 was on a roll against his 220^th -ranked opponent slamming in five aces en-route to the second round of the singles play.The second set took all of 20 minutes as the Indian cashed in on all the three breakpoints he enjoyed to shut out the Belgian.

Indian ace Davis Cupper Somdev Devvarman overcame small hiccups mid-way through the first set in his match to move into the second round with a straight sets victory against Austrian Maximillian Neuchrist, winning 6-4, 6-3. Devvarman claimed a break in the sixth game of the first set when on his second break point his opponent returned long.

But the joy was short lived for the tournament fourth seed, who was broken back the very next game to set the set going on serves. However, the Indian, who is currently world no. 181 bided his time to break the Belgian in the 10th game to claim the first set.

In the second set, Devvarman stayed with his serve while breaking his opponent in the sixth game to clinch the tie.

Having not enjoyed the best of years on the circuit, he said, “It has been a tough year. I have been working hard and have been staying fit. I have had a lot of close contests and have lost more than I have won this year”.

When asked whether he felt there was a problem with his game, Devvarman said, “I have won two Challenger events this year. In the past I have won one. The level of tennis is there. I have struggled to get past the first round in most of the events. I take time to settle down and when I am in the quarters or semis, I begin playing well. Now that I have gone past the first round here, I hope things fall in place and I get going”.

Indian ace Saketh Myneni, fresh from defending his Challenger title in Vietnam, surged to a 6-3, 7-6 (4) victory over Serbia’s Nikola Milojevic to take his place in the second round.

Tournament second seed James Ward (GBR) hardly raised a sweat demolishing Lucky Loser, Lakshit Sood of India with an identical 6-1, 6-1 score.

2015 Junior Wimbledon doubles title winner Sumit Nagal, given a wild card entry to the tournament, coasted past his compatriot, qualifier Sidarth Rawat 6-4, 6-3.

In doubles competition, the third seed pair of Dane Propoggia (Australia) and Ti Chen (Chinese Taipei) along with Spanish fourth seeds Adrian Menendez-Maceiras and Gerard Granollers moved into the quarter-finals with comfortable victories.

Results: (prefix denotes seedings):

Singles: (1st round): (WC) Sumit Nagal (Ind) bt (Q) Sidharth Rawat (Ind) 6-4, 6-3; Alessandro Bega (Ita) bt Maxime Janvier (Fra) 6-2, 6-4; Daniel Nguyen (USA) bt Stephane Robert (Fra) 7-6 (2), 3-6, 7-5; (4) Somdev DevVarman (Ind) bt Maximillan Neuchrist (Aut) 6-4, 6-3; Sanam Singh (Ind) bt (8) Germain Gigounon (Bel) 6-4, 6-0; (2) James Ward (GBR) bt (LL) Lakshit Sood (Ind)6-1, 6-1; (3)Saketh Myneni (Ind) bt Nikola Milojevic (Srb) 6-3, 7-6 (4); Agor Gerasimov (Blr) bt Ramkumar Ramnathan (Ind) 3-6, 7-6 (3), 6-4; Ilya Ivashka (Blr) bt (WC) Vishnu Vardhan (Ind) 7-6 (5), 6-1; (7) Alexander Kudryavtsev (Rus) bt Michal Konecny (Cze) 6-3, 6-3.

Doubles: Pre-quarters: (3) Dane Propoggia (Aus) / Ti Chen (Tpe) bt Arthur De Greef (Bel) / Stephane Robert (Fra) 6-2, 6-2; Alessandro Bega (Ita) / Daniel Nguyen (USA) bt Germain Gigounon (Bel) / Yannick Mertens (Bel) 6-2, 6-0; (4) Gerard Granollers (Esp) / Adrian Menendez-Maceiras (Esp) bt Purav Raja (Ind) / James Ward (GBR) 6-4, 6-3; (WC) John Paul Fruttero (USA) / N Vijay Sundar Prashanth bt Nikola Milojevic (Srb) / Ramkumar Ramnathan (Ind) 6-3, 6-2.