Indian Somdev Devvarman went down in straight set to van Ljubicic of Croatia in the first round of men’s singles and made a first round exit from the French Open here on Tuesday.
Somdev, world No.66, lost 4-6, 3-6, 4-6 to the world No.36 in a match that lasted two hours.
Somdev looked in brilliant touch and broke the former world No.3 early in the first set to take a 4-2 lead. But the Indian lost the plot midway and was broken twice by Ljubicic,who pocketed the set in 46 minutes.
In the second set, Ljubicic and Somdev were tied at 3-3. But once again the Croatian showed his experience and broke the Indian in the seventh game to win the set 3-6.
Ljubicic, who made it to the third round in the French Open last year and made the semi-finals in 2006, next faces the winner of the match between Sam Querry (USA) and Philipp Kohlschreiber (Germany).