New Delhi: Somdev Devvarman and Sania Mirza breezed into quarter-finals with easy wins but Rohan Bopanna crashed out of the men's singles competition of the Commonwealth Games here on Wednesday.
Up against second seed and world number 133 Australian Peter Luczak, Bopanna went down fighting 2-6 6-7(5) in one hour and 37 minutes in the second round of the men's singles at R K Khanna Tennis stadium.
Earlier, top seed Somdev crushed Sri Lanka's Amresh Jayawickreme 6-0 6-1 in the men's singles while Sania overpowered Cook Island's Brittany Teei 6-0 6-2 in a women's singles second round match.
As the tournament has churned out several lop-sided contests, Bopanna-Luczak match was awaited for some good action and the two players did not disappoint.
Bopanna, ranked 587, came to this tournament after a morale boosting show in the Davis Cup tie against Brazil and carried the confidence into the tough match.
The home fans expected Bopanna to create an upset win having watched him play fantastically against world number 23 Thomaz Bellucci and top-100 player Ricardo Melo of Brazil in Chennai last month.
However, it was not Bopanna's day though he fought well.
All charged up, he began with three aces in his first game with one of the serves clocking 203km/h. He also hit a stunning power-packed service return winner but the Australian refused to be intimidated by the power hitting.
Bopanna continued in his usual aggressive manner but it gave plenty of chances to Luczak, who had better control over his strokes and was able to exploit the chinks in his opponent's armour.
A double fault and an unforced error gave Luczak his first break chance but Bopanna came up with his fourth ace to save that. The Australian though stepped up the pressure and forced another forehand error from Bopanna to shoot into lead.
Bopanna had a chance to break back in the next game but the composed Australian served well to deny the Indian any leeway.
The Indian saved two breakpoints in the sixth game with consecutive aces but failed to curb unforced errors which cost him the eighth game and he was left trailing by one set.
The second set went on serve and was decided in the tie-break.
Bopanna lost the tie-break despite having a comfortable 4-1 lead as Luczak won five points in a row and sealed the win with a forehand winner.
Bopanna is already out of the mixed doubles but he will pair up with Somdev in men's doubles.
Earlier, Somdev completed his win in 41 minutes while Sania took 55 minutes to send Brittani packing.
Brittani was making a comeback to competitive tennis after two years due to an ankle injury.
The Lankan hardly challenged Somdev and surrendered without any fight. He lost points even when he was in advantageous position in a few games.
He was up 40-0 in the first game but could not pocket the game, committing too many unforced errors to hand Somdev a break. The Indian wrapped up the opening set in 20 minutes
The Lankan finally went onto board by holding his serve in the first game of the second set.
Somdev will next take on the winner of the match between Colin Fleming and Rubin Statham of New Zealand.
Comments
0 comment