Somdev Devvarman crashes out of Air Asia Open, Sanam Singh in quarters

Bengaluru: India's Davis Cupper Somdev Devvarman crashed out of the USD 50,000 Air Asia Open against unseeded Italian Alessandro Bega even as his compatriot Sanam Singh made into the quarterfinals with a thrilling win over Belarusian Egor Gerasimov.

Somdev lost to Bega through a tie-breaker in both the sets after he put up a rather inconsistent show, making far too many unforced errors.

The Indian broke the Italian rival twice in the first set, but conceded the lead after Bega came back strongly to force the tie-breaker.

Somdev came back strongly to level at six-all, before he was trailing 0-4 in the tiebreaker. However, India's Davis Cupper lost to the determined Italian, who clinched the set winning the tiebreaker 9-7.

Drama unfolded in second set also with Somdev coming back strongly to level at 4-all after Bega broke the Indian the third game. Inconsistency proved costly for Somdev who lost to Bega after the Italian served out the 12th game to claim set and match.

In another match, determination and a little luck saw Indian Sanam Singh making it to the last eight with a thrilling victory over Gerasimov.

The Belarusian, serving for the match in the final set tie-break saw a return from the Indian hit the net chord, forcing him to alter his approach to the net. That split second distraction gave Sanam the chance to level the tie- break scores at 6-all and he then grabbed the opportunity to serve out for the match clinching the next two points, with Egor hitting a return wide.

Earlier, Sanam gained rhythm in the first set after he broke the World No 323 in the first, third and fifth games to pocket the first set 6-2.

Egor, however, reversed the fortunes for himself after he pocketed the second set by breaking the Indian in the second, fourth and eighth game to level set scores.

The decider saw Sanam breaking Egor in the third and ninth games and being broken in the 6th and 10th games.

The second seeded pair of Saketh Myneni and Sanam made short work of the Sood Brothers, Chandril and Lakshit to move into the semifinals of the doubles competition with a 6-2, 6-4 victory.

Results: (Prefix denotes seedings): Singles: Pre-quarter -finals: Sanam Singh (Ind) bt Egor Gerasimov (Blr) 6-2, 2-6, 7-6 (6); (2) James Ward (GBR) bt Ilya Ivashka (Blr) 6-3, 6-4; Alessandro Bega (Ita) bt (4) Somdev DevVarman (Ind) 7-6(7), 7 -5; Daniel Nguyen (USA) bt (7) Alexander Kudryavtsev (Rus) 7-6 (7), 7-6 (3).

Doubles: Quarter-finals: (2) Saketh Myneni (Ind) / Sanam Singh (Ind) bt (WC) Chandril Sood (Ind) / Lakshit Sood (Ind) 6-2, 6-4; (4) Geraard Granollers (ESP) / Adrian Menendez- Maceiras (ESP) bt Allesandro Bega (Ita) / Daniel Nguyen (USA) 6-4, 6-4.