After the defending champion Marin Cilic bowed out of Chennai Open, local favourite and Indian No.1 Somdev Devvarman suffered a shocking first round defeat to the hands of 20-year-old Belgian qualifier David Goffin ranked 229th in the latest ATP rankings. Somdev and partner Sanam Singh lost to Goffin and his doubles partner Robin Haase in the doubles first round on Day 1, and Goffin was anticipated to come into his singles match against Devvarman with some confidence but nonetheless it was expected to be an easy opener for Somdev.
The first set was an easy affair for the Belgian, taking the set 6-2. Second set was a bit of a contest where one could see Somdev's winning spirit, but to no avail. One break of serve in the seventh game proved to be expensive. Somdev did try until the end, saving one match point. Serving for the match at 5-4 [40-15], Goffin hit a lousy drop shot which the Indian took advantage of and saved the first match point. The relatively less experienced Belgian showed no signs of nerves any further and succeeded to close the match at his second match point, taking the match 6-2, 6-4.
A delighted Goffin said in an interview just after the match that he was feeling ecstatic having beaten the huge crowd favourite, and also thanked the Indian audience for their unexpected support.
It wasn't a good day for Indian Tennis overall at the Chennai Open; three defeats thrashing Indian hopes in Singles. In earlier matches of the day, Yuki Bhambhri suffered a comprehensive 6-2, 6-1 loss to Russian Alexandre Kudryavtsev and Rohan Bopanna lost to Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka 6-4, 6-4 in a tightly contested match. With these losses Indian challenge is now limited to doubles with the Indian Express Paes-Bhupathi who crawled back to victory in their first-round doubles match and the Indo-Pak pair of Bopanna-Qureshi.
No comments:
Post a Comment