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It looks like Somdev Devvarman’s great run of form has no end. After dismissing Serbian Janko Tipsarevic in the Davis Cup world group tie to give India some glitter of hope, Somdev coolly despatched nineteenth seed Marcos Baghdatis out of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. Somdev won the tie 7-5, 6-0.
Somdev, who earlier defeated Adrian Mannarino of France 6-2, 6-3 in the first round, faced the Cypriot in the second round of the ATP world tour Masters event. Baghdatis got a bye in the first round but could not get through the first hurdle he faced in the tournament. The first set was a closely fought with Somdev clinching it 7-5. Baghdatis had a better service record hitting 3 aces in the first set and he even broke Somdev’s serve once only for the Indian to recover and break the Cypriot again on his sixth serve. Somdev attacked his opponent’s second serve winning 9 points of the 16 he faced.
Whatever resistance Baghdatis had in the first set was lost in the second set where Somdev smashed him by breaking all 3 of his serves and winning all the 12 services points. Baghdatis hit 2 aces in this set but his double faults and unforced errors let him down. Despite saving game points twice Baghdatis could not hold any of his serve to loose 0-6 in the second set to the 84th ranked Indian.
Somdev Devvarman will now face the winner of the tie between Xavier Malisse and Jo-Wolfried Tsonga which will be played later.
The other Indian in fray, Rohan Bopanna lost his first round tie against wild card entrant Bernanrd Tomic of Australia 7-6 (5), 6-7 (1), 4-6 in a highly contested match. Sania Mirza lost her second round match 3-6, 3-6 against Dominika Cibulkova after winning the first round against Romina Oprandi when she retired from the match.
Big Stars Fall:
Somdev’s win was not the only surprise of the day as fifth seed Andy Murray and sixth seed David Ferrer were also shown the door the same day. Murray lost his match 6-7 (4), 3-6 to qualifier Donald Young while Spaniard Ferrer lost to Ivo Karlovic 6-7 (3), 3-6.
