China Open: Somdev Devvarman stuns Dutch 2nd seed to reach final qualification round

File Photo: Somdev Devvarman

Indian tennis ace Somdev Devvarman continued his impressive comeback this year with an upset win over world number 60 Robin Haase. The Indian defeated the Dutch 2nd seed 2-6 6-4 6-0 in an hour and 44 minutes to enter the final qualification round for the ATP 500 China Open in Beijing.

Devvarman, who recently entered the top 100 in the ATP rankings, maintained his good form from Kuala Lampur where he reached the main draw, to secure yet another victory over a higher ranked player.

In a match against a difficult opponent, it appeared initially that the Indian number one would go down tamely against the more experienced Haase. Despite creating as many as 5 break point opportunities in the opening set, Devvarman could not capitalize on any of them, with Haase breaking twice to take the opening set.

In the 2nd set though Somdev gained the early edge to break Haase and take a 3-1 lead. But, the resident from Hague fought back to level the set at 3-3.

However, Haase could not take advantage of the momentum after leveling the set as he was broken again handing Devvarman a 5-3 lead and a chance to serve for the set. The match was in for another twist as Devvarman dropped set points to get broken and put the set being back on serve at 5-4. After a continuous struggle between the 2 players, Devvarman, finally, won the set after breaking Haase’s serve in the 10th game.

The deciding set was one way traffic as Devvarman literally steam rolled his opponent handing him a bagel to secure the match in his favor.

Somdev Devvarman would now face world number 85 Italian Paulo Lorenzi for a place in the main draw of the ATP 500 event.