India’s highest ranked singles player, Somdev Devvarman, the champion at the Delhi Open last week, exited the $50,000 ATP Challenger Kolkata Open losing to compatriot R. Ramkumar 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the first round, at the Bengal Tennis Association courts here on Tuesday.
His three years in Barcelona seems to have done a lot for Ramkumar’s development as a player.
After the loss of first set, he showed better application, improving his serve and backing it up with more solid ground-strokes, going from strength to strength to put it past a higher-ranked player.
Devvarman broke Ramkumar in the ninth game for the first set and served it out in the next.
Ramkumar looked a completely different player in the second set. He raced to a quick 3-0 lead.
While Devvarman did get the break back, Ramkumar was not to be denied. He broke Devvarman again and eventually won the set to draw level.
In the decider, the seasoned Devvarman quickly jumped to 3-0, and it looked like it was all over for Ramkumar.
However, the six-footer reeled off five games from 1-4 to close the match out.
Two more seeded players went out on the second day: fifth seed Luke Saville fell 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 to Ti Chen, and the seventh seeded Alex Bolt pulled out owing to an elbow injury to see Egor Gerasimov into the quarterfinals.
Yuki Bhambri, runner up to Devvarman at Delhi, beat Enrique Lopez Perez 6-2, 6-2 to make smooth progress into the second round.
In doubles action, Devvarman and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan upset the third seeded duo of Saketh Myneni and Sanam Singh 2-6, 6-2, 10-5.
The results:
First round: Egor Gerasimov (Blr) bt Sumit Nagal 7-5, 7-5; Ruben Bemelmans (Bel) bt Mohamed Safwat (Egy) 6-2, 1-6, 6-3; Richard Becker (Ger) bt N. Sriram Balaji 7-5, 7-5; Kimmer Coppejans (Bel) bt Toni Androic (Cro) 6-2, 6-4; Ti Chen (Tpe) bt Luke Saville (Aus) 6-3, 3-6, 6-2; R. Ramkumar bt Somdev Devvarman 4-6, 6-3, 6-4; Radu Albot (Mda) bt Nikola Mektic (Cro) 7-5, 4-6, 6-3; Yuki Bhambri bt Enrique Lopez-Perez (Esp) 6-2, 6-2; Alexander Kudryavtsev (Rus) bt Prajnesh Gunneswaran 6-3, 7-6(7).
Doubles: Somdev Devvarman & Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan bt Saketh Myneni & Sanam Singh 2-6, 6-2, 10-5; James Duckworth & Luke Saville (Aus) bt Kimmer Coppejans (Bel) & Frederico Ferreira Silva (Por) 6-4, 6-3; Ti Chen (Tpe) & Enrique Lopez-Perez (Esp) bt Sasi Kumar Mukund & N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth 6-3, 6-1.