Somdevs qualifying hopes end

Somdev Devvarman has shown he has the big-match mettle ever since he began playing on tenniss professional tour last year,but on Friday,he would be ruing the lost chances during a three-set loss to Polands Lukasz Kubot in the Australian Open qualifiers. In this second-round qualifying match,Somdev had a 4-2 lead in the final set before Kubot managed to wrap up the match 4-6,6-4,7-5.

Somdev started the brighter of the two and wrapped up a rather lacklustre first set 6-4,doing particularly well on the return of serve. But Kubot hit right back in the second,improving his first serve percentage,and conceding no break points. He got just one opportunity to break Devvarmans serve,and he took it.

The decider was a long affair which saw five breaks of serve and 22 chances created by either player in a set that lasted over an hour and half,with almost every game going to deuce. Somdevs poor first serve percentage and his inability to take his chances let him down in the end.

Paes-Lipsky in final

Leander Paes and his American partner Scott Lipsky advanced to the finals of ATP Heineken Open in Auckland,New Zealand after beating Australians Paul Hanley and Jordan Kerr 6-3,6-7 4,10-7.

However,there was disappointment for Bhupathi and Knowles as the third seeds went down fighting 1-6,7-6 4,5-10 to second seeded Americans Bob and Mike Bryan in the semi-finals of the Sydney International.