The highest-ranked Indian Somdev Devvarman has been handed a stiff opening round opponent in Chinese Taipei’s sixth seed Yen-Hsun Lu at the Aircel Chennai Open, which starts on Monday.
The 31-year-old is ranked 38 in the world — exactly 100 places above Devvarman — and has among his 2014 season’s highlights a final appearance in Auckland and a win over Tomas Berdych at the Cincinnati Masters.
“Its going to be really tough,” said Devvarman, who is in the same quarter as Spanish third seed and 2013 finalist Roberto Bautista-Agut. “He is coming off a superb year. He is among the top 40 in the world.”
“I have met him once before in Davis Cup and I won then.”
At the draw ceremony on Saturday, the top four seeds — Stan Wawrinka, Feliciano Lopez, Bautista-Agut and David Goffin — received byes, as has been the norm in recent years.
Of them, Wawrinka and Goffin have been placed in the top half, along with the seventh and eighth seeds Marcel Granollers and Gilles Muller. Lopez and Bautista-Agut are in the bottom half, with fifth seed Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and Lu.
Ramkumar meets Ito
The other Indian in the main draw, Ramkumar Ramanathan, will play Japanese World No.93 Tatsuma Ito, who in September last year handed Wawrinka a 7-5, 6-2 first-round defeat in Tokyo.
Of particular interest might be the mouth-watering second-round clash between Wawrinka and the teen-sensation Borna Coric, if the latter gets past the Dutchman Robin Haase in the opener.
In the doubles, Leander Paes will pair up with South Africa’s Raven Klaasen — his 99th doubles partner — and the two are top-seeded.
They meet Slovakia’s Lukas Lacko and Austria’s Andreas Haider-Maurer in the first round.
Mahesh Bhupathi and Saketh Myneni, who were granted a wildcard, face Colombians Alejandro Falla and Alejandro Gonzalez.
Victories for the two Indian doubles legends in their respective openers will see them pitted against each other in the next round.
The other Indian wild card pair of Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and N. Sriram Balaji will play Lu and Britain’s Jonathan Marray.
In Saturday’s qualifying rounds, of the 17 Indians in the fray, six, including Yuki Bhambri, progressed to the second round.
At least one Indian is guaranteed a spot in the final round, with Bhambri taking on Vijay Sundar Prashanth next.
Qualifying results:
First round (Indians unless specified) : Alexander Kudryavtsev (Rus) bt Mohit Mayur 6-7(4), 7-5, 6-2; Evegeny Donskoy (Rus) bt Mate Pavic (Cro) 6-4, 6-4; Illya Marchenko (Ukr) bt Frantisek Cermak (Cze) 6-3, 6-4, Aljaz Bedene (Slo) bt Sumit Nagal 6-2, 6-0; Luca Vanni (Ita) bt Raswant Ravi 6-2, 6-2; Peter Torebko (Ger) bt Oliver Marach (Aut) 6-3, 1-0 (retd.); Yuki Bhambri bt Sidharth Rawat 6-1, 6-3; Michael Venus (Nzl) bt Chandril Sood 6-3, 6-4.
Thomas Fabbiano (Ita) bt Rahul Manoah 6-0, 6-0; Kaza Vinayak Sharma bt Danai Udomchoke (Tha) 3-6, 6-4, 6-2; Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan bt Lakshit Sood 6-2, 6-2; Egot Gerasimov (Blr) bt Akash Wagh 6-1, 6-0; Sasikumar Mukund bt Fahad Mohammed 6-3, 6-4; Vishnu Vardhan bt Suraj Prabodh 6-1, 6-3; Vijay Sundar Prashanth bt Nikki Poonacha 6-1, 5-2 (retd).
A possible second round clash between Wawrinka and Coric in singles and Paes and Bhupathi in doubles
