Somdev Devvarman marches into ATP Delhi Open final

Indian tennis player Somdev Devvarman in action at the Delhi Open ATP Challenger Tennis Tournament, at DLTA in New Delhi, India.

New Delhi, Feb 22 (IANS) Second-seed Somdev Devvarman marched into the men’s singles final of the $100,000 ONGC GAIL Delhi Open ATP Challenger with a convincing victory over fourth-seed Evgeny Donskoy here Friday.

Somdev, India’s top ranked tennis player, beat the Russian 6-4, 6-2 in an hour and 29 minutes at the Delhi Lawn Tennis Association (DLTA) Complex.

Somdev, who was knocked out in the semis of the earlier two Challenger tournaments in Chennai and Kolkata, reached his third career ATP event final with the victory over the 114th-ranked Russian.

The 29-year-old also avenged his semi-final defeat to Donskoy earlier this month in Kolkata.

The first set was a close fought affair with both players winning five break-point opportunites. The Indian was broken twice but managed to convert three of his own break-points to take the first set.

In the second, Somdev was brilliant with his service return, winning 75 percent points on the Russian’s second serve.

Failure to convert break-point chances returned to haunt the Russian as he managed to convert just one out of three. In contrast, Sonmdev was ruthless and converted all three break-points on offer.

Somdev will face the winner of the other semi-final between top-seeded Kazakh Aleksandr Nedovyesov and Ilija Bozoljac of Serbia.