After pulling off one of the biggest wins of his career in the last match, Somdev Devvarman gave seventh seed Jano Tipsarevic a run for his money before losing out in a hard-fourth three setter in the quarter-finals of the Serbia Open here today.
Devvarman, who upstaged world number 26 Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in the second round yesterday, lost 3-6 6-3 6-4 to the 36-ranked Tipsarevic.
The 71st-ranked Indian made his fancied Serbian opponent toil hard for 2 hours, 38 minutes and 45 seconds to book his place in the semi-finals of the clay court event.
Tipsarevic will now face the winners of another quarter-final between top seed Novak Djokovic and Blaz Kavic.
Somdev, who broke into top-100 early this year, had scored a thrilling 7-6 (6) 2-6 7-6 (8) win over Garcia-Lopez in the second round.
Indians pull off easy victory in fed cup
New Delhi: India pulled of an easy victory against Malaysia in the Asia/Oceania Final Qualifying of the Junior Fed Cup on Friday. India No. 3 Jasmine Kaur Bajaj took exactly 60 minutes to thrash Jia Wei Ti 6-0, 6-1 and then, Tahira Bhatti sealed the deal in the second singles. Tahira defeated Lyn Yuen Choo 6-2, 6-4 at the DLTA courts.
Having already won the tie 2-0, India gave a walkover to their Malaysian opponents in the doubles. “Snehadevi (Reddy), who was supposed to play the doubles tie, was not feeling very well. Tahira too was exhausted after having played under the hot sun. Thus with the tie already won, we decided to give Malaysia a walkover,” said India captain Shalini Thakur Chawla.
{{/usCountry}}Having already won the tie 2-0, India gave a walkover to their Malaysian opponents in the doubles. “Snehadevi (Reddy), who was supposed to play the doubles tie, was not feeling very well. Tahira too was exhausted after having played under the hot sun. Thus with the tie already won, we decided to give Malaysia a walkover,” said India captain Shalini Thakur Chawla.
{{/usCountry}}With this win, India will be playing for the 9-12th positions on Saturday. If they overcome Uzbekistan, their opponents on Saturday, the Indian juniors will have a chance to finish within the top-10 of the 16-nation meet.