New York, Aug 31 (IANS) It was a tough day for Indian tennis players at the US Open, which saw only singles player Somdev Devvarman knocked out, doubles specialists Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania Mirza also losing their respective matches.
Rohan Bopanna was the only Indian in the circuit to register a win but there were mixed feelings for him as well after the Bangalorean won his men’s doubles match but lost mixed doubles rubber.
Devvarman, who won a marathon first round match against Serb Lukas Lacko, lost in straight sets to Italy’s 20th seed Andreas Seppi. Seppi won 7-6(8), 6-4, 7-5 on Court 13.
Devvarman, though, didn’t make it easy for the higher ranked Italian, making him fight for every point. The first set went down to the wire with Seppi edging the Indian in a nerve-racking tie-break.
In the second set, Seppi attacked the net, winning eight out of the nine points at the net and hitting 14 winners in comparison to Devvarman’s four.
The final set was again neck and neck but the Indian faltered due to non-conversion of break points. Devvarman managed to convert only two of the seven break points he had won while Seppi converted three of five.
Meanwhile, sixth seeds Bopanna and France’s Edouard Roger-Vasselin easily defeated unseeded American pairing Bradley Klahn and Sam Querrey 6-2, 6-4 on Court 8 to move into the second round of men’s doubles where they will face Russian duo Nikolay Davydenko and Mikhail Elgin.
However, third seeds Bopanna and German Julia Goerges were upset by American-Mexican combine Abigail Spears and Santiago Gonzalez in three sets in the first round of mixed doubles on Court 8. After losing the first set 6-7(1) in the tiebreak, the Indo-German pair pushed the match into the decider by winning the second set 6-2.
But Spears and Gonzalez came out on top to win the super tiebreak 10-6.
Bhupathi, partnering Swiss great Martina Hingis, lost his mixed doubles first round tie to Yung-Jan Chan of Chinese Taipei and Swedish Robert Lindstedt in a close match. Chan and Lindstedt won 7-6(5), 7-6(5) on Court 4 to advance to the next round.
In another first round mixed doubles encounter, eighth seeds Liezel Huber of United States and Brazilian Marcelo Melo defeated Sania and Romanian Horia Tecau in three sets on Court 14. Huber-Melo won 4-6, 7-6(10), 10-4.
