 | « Back to article | Print this article |
Top seed Yen Hsun Lu of Taipei and seventh seeded Somdev Devvarman of India made it to the second round of the $125,000 ATP Tashkent Challenger at the Olympic Tennis Stadium in Tashkent.
Lu outplayed Indian wild card Rohan Bopanna 6-4, 6-2 while Devvarman demolished 281-ranked Spaniard Guillermo Olaso 6-3, 6-2 in first round matches.
Lu broke Bopanna in the seventh game of the first set, and in the third and seventh games of the second set to win his opening match.
"I was extremely focused and am happy that I served well and played an all-round game," said Lu, the defending champion.
"It's very difficult to play the first round at any event and playing first round with a player like Bopanna is tougher; but I'm happy with the way I played," said Lu after the match.
Lu and Bopanna will now pair in the doubles, where they are seeded second.
India's rising star Devvarman played solid tennis to demolish Olaso. He broke the Spaniard in the sixth game before going on to win the first set.
Breaks in the third and seventh games of the second were enough for the Indian to wrap the match in 67 minutes.
Somdev will take on the winner of the match between Latvia's Deniss Pavlovs and Russia's Alexandre Kudryavtsev.
Ito Tatsuma of Japan, ranked 237, found himself a lucky entrant into the second round as sixth seed Rajeev Ram of the United States retired after painful back spasm with the scores 6-5 (deuce) .
"I lost to him at the Chennai Open earlier, but I'm lucky this time," said a relieved Ito, the third seeded Japanese, after the match.
Oleksandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine, ranked 159, played some acrobatic tennis to account for Spain's Inigo Cervantes-Huegun 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 in an hour and 56 minutes.
Dolgopolov will take on top seed Lu Yen Hsun in the second round.
In a first round doubles match, Martin Klizan of Slovakia and Yuri Schukin of Kazakhstan upset the third seeded pair of Konstantin Kravchuk and Alexandre Kudryavtsev of Russia 4-6, 7-6(10), 12-10 to make it to the last eight.