Somdev enters semis of men’s singles tennis

Top seed Somdev Devvarman continued with his fine form and entered the semi final of the men?s singles defeating 6th seed Rubin Statham from New Zealand 6-3 and 6-4 in a tough battle for 102 minutes on Thursday at the ongoing Commonwealth Games (CWG).

After an easy outing against Amaresh Jayawicremesinghe of Sri Lanka in the earlier round, Somdev had his task cut out for the 353 ranked Statham. In the end it was a hard fought victory by the world number 97 Somdev. The win helped the Indian pro to keep his all-win record against the Kiwi.

While the Indian was sharper with his ground strokes, Statham also played intelligently. Statham targetted Somdev?s back hand using his booming serves. But the Indian paid back in the same coin.

In a series of service brakes Somdev twice rallied to bag the first set. A forehand winner helped Somdev level the score at 2-2 and another one guided him to forge a 4-2 lead. Though he dropped the serve in the seventh game following a forehand error, Somdev broke immediately and served out the set with an ace after 46 minutes.

Statham on Thursday tried too hard resulting in unforced errors and one such forehand cost him the opening game of second set and could not recover after that.

In the semi final, Somdev will meet M Ebden of Australia.