Ljubicic sends Somdev packing

Indias Somdev Devvarman crashed out in the first round of the mens singles event after a 4-6,3-6,4-6 defeat against world no 37 Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia.

Indias Somdev Devvarman crashed out in the first round of the mens singles event after a 4-6,3-6,4-6 defeat against world no 37 Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia on Tuesday.

The big-serving Croat took little over two hours to quell the challenge of the top-ranked Indian. It was always going to be a tough match for Somdev,who doesnt fancy playing on the clay courts. Ljubicic,who is known to be a clay-court specialist,fired 10 aces compared to four by the Indian.

It was Somdevs second serve that let him down. While Ljubicic got 70 per cent of his second serve in,Somdevs success with the second serve was a mere 47 per cent. Not only did the Croat had superior baseline game but time and again he created pressure on the Indian ranked 66th in the world with his timely net approaches. Ljubicic hit as many as 40 winners through the match.

Somdevs only break point conversion came in the first set when he got four chances to break his opponent. Ljubicic on the other hand,converted both the break points to wrap up the first set. Somdev couldnt put up much resistance in the second set which he lost in only 29 minutes. He tried to put up a fight in the third set but Ljubicic didnt have to break much sweat in moving to the next round.

Sania-Vesnina advance

However,there was good news in the doubles event with Indian ace Sania Mirza and her partner Elena Vesnina moved into the second round of the womens doubles event on Tuesday with a straight set win over Russian pair of Vera Dushevina and Ekaterina Makarova. The seventh seed Indo-Russian duo defeated Dushevina and Makarova 7-6 2 6-2 in one and 33 minutes.

Irrespective of the scoreline,Sania and Vesnina had to go through some tough times in the first set as it went into a tie-break with the Indo-Russian combination later pocketing it in 55 minutes.

Sania-Vesnina pair,however,dominated the second set and broke the Russian pair twice to seal the match in their favour. They will next face the winners of the match between German-Swede pair of Kristina Barrois and Johanna Larsson and American duo of Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears.

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Sania will also take on 12th seed Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland in the singles second round.