New York, Sep 1 (Inditop.com) India’s Somdev Devvarman had an easy outing while Sania Mirza battled to enter the singles’ second round of the US Open tennis at the Flushing Meadows.
The 161st ranked Devvarman cruised into the men’s second round with a 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 win over 110th ranked Portuguese Fredrico Gil here Monday.
The 24-year-old Devvarman is the first Indian male player to qualify for the singles main draw of a Grand Slam event after seven years. Los Angeles-born Prakash Amritraj was the last Indian to appear in a Grand Slam singles and that, too, came at the Flushing Meadows here in 2002.
In the women’s singles, Sania fought hard for her 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 win over Olga Govortsova of Belarus
It was a tough match for the 22-year-old Hyderabadi and her willingness to force the pace by coming into the net made the difference and proved to be the wining factor.
Sania didn’t sweat much to win her first set. But in the second, she looked out of sorts as the 20-year-old Belarusian came back well to draw parity.
The 74th ranked Sania came back strongly in the third set and took a 5-3 lead and with another break of serve she moved into the second round of the tournament where she will be taking on 10th seed Italian Flavia Pennetta.
rounak