Tennis: Somdev-Izak in main draw of Champaign Challenger

Somdev Devvarman and his South African partner Izak Van Der Merwe qualified for the doubles in the ATP Challenger series tournament in Champaign, USA.

The second-seeded pair of Somdev and Izak outplayed the top seed Indian pair of Ashutosh Singh and Harsh Mankad, winning 6-3, 6-2 in the final round of the qualifying competition.

It was sweet revenge for Somdev and his partner as they had lost to the same Indian pair in last week’s Challenger at Nashville at the same stage.

Somdev and Izak will play their first match against Indo-American pair of Prakash Amritraj and Amer Delic.

In the singles event, Prakash will open his campaign against Izak, Somdev’s doubles partner, who entered the main draw as a qualifier.

Tennis: Somdev loses US Challenger final

Somdev Devvarman’s giant-killing run ended with a straight-set loss to fourth seeded American Robert Kendrick in the final of the ATP Challenger Series’ hard-court tournament in Nashville, US.

The Indian Davis Cupper, who had beaten the second and third seeds in the run-up to the final, lost 3-6, 5-7.

There was further disappointment for India when Ashutosh Singh and Harsh Mankad lost 4-6, 5-7 to the Australian-American pair of Carslen Ball and Travis Rettenmaier in the doubles final.

India loses to USA in the Semi finals of Junior Davis Cup

Indian team’s hopes of annexing its first junior Davis Cup title win went up in smoke after it was blanked 0-3 by the United States in the semifinals in Mexico on Sunday.

As usual, a lot depended on Delhi’s Yuki Bhambri but this time talented teenager, despite fighting valiantly, could not notch up a win.

After Saurabh Singh lost the first singles, Yuki stepped on the court in a must-win situation.

However, it was not the first time that the 15-year-old player was facing such a situation. In the Group stage — against Mexico and Great Britain — Yuki had found himself in similar position twice and had delivered.

This time though he could not pull it off for India.

In the match between the number two players, Saurabh was comprehensively beaten by Evan King, who pummeled the Indian 6-2, 6-0 to give the United States a perfect start.

Yuki then lost to Denis Kudla 4-6, 7-6(6), 4-6, which made the doubles match a dead rubber.

The Indian combine of Saurabh and V S Abhishek then went down fighting 3-6, 6-3, 4-6 against King and Raymond Sarmiento.

India had topped Group D to qualify for the semifinals.