Tennis News
At Davis Cup World Group Play-Off 2010, Chennai, India


India vs Brazil 0-2

Day 1
[R1] Rohan Bopanna (IND,479) l Thomaz Bellucci (BRA,27) 76(2) 67(7) 57 64 8-10
[R2] Somdev Devvarman (IND,113) l Ricardo Mello (BRA,75) 64 26 76(3) 26 46

In the first match, very solid service games by Rohan in the first set ... he didn't give a single break point and managed to keep pressure on Bellucci's serve ... He had couple of break point chances but didn't manage to convert ... But in ti-break he dominated from the start to comfortably won first set.

In second set Rohan broke Bellucci's serve in the first game but Bellucci immediately broke back in next game to make it 1-all ... Both players hold their service game to take set into tie-break ... In tie-break Somi had 3 set points at 6-3 but Bellucci hit 2 superb backhands down the line and then take crucial mini-break to won second set.

After losing second set Rohan was looking distrubed and Bellucci take advantage of breaking him in the first game ... Rohan saved 2 set points in 10th game before breaking Bellucci's serve in 10th game to make it 5-all but Rohan played loose service game and Bellucci broke back him in 11th game ... And then served out for the set to take 2-1 sets lead.

In fourth set Rohan played very controlled game and keeping pressure on Bellucci's serve ... Most crucial break came in 10th game when Rohan converted 3rd set point to make it 2 seta all.

In 1st game of fifth set Bellucci broke Rohan's service but then Rohan played excellent next 4 games ... He broke Bellucci's serve in 2nd and 4th games with scintillating backhand and forehand returns to take 4-1 lead ... At 5-2 Rohan wasted 3 match points on Bellucci's serve and then played loose 9th game to gave break back ... At 5-4 Bellucci take medical break ... Bellucci take crucial break in 17th game and hold to won this match after superb comeback after almost 4 and 1/2 hrs quality battle.... This win gave Brazil crucial one point.

Disappointing performance by Somi against Mello ... Somi started well breaking Mello early in the match and won first set ... But got broken in 2nd game of second set and then again got broken in 8th game to lose second set easily ... In third set Somi broke Mello's serve in 1st game and then while serving for the set Somi failed to hold his serve but in tie-break he dominated to won second set and take 2-1 lead ... But from 4th set Somi was struggling with his serve and increased his unforced errors ... Mello broke Somi's serve in 3rd game after Somi saved 2 break points in first game ... He again broke Somi in 5th game to won 4th set comfortably ... In 5th set Mello take crucial break in 9th game and then Mello served out for the match ... This match was also going for 4 hrs and 12 mins.

Tough task for Indians to win next 3 matches to make tie in their favor.
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At $220K Guangzhou International Women's Open, Guangzhou, China

[QF] Sania Mirza (IND,144) l Shuai Zhang (CHN,101) 46 61 46

Zhang broke Sania's serve in 2nd game to take 2-0 lead but Sania immediately broke back to make it 2-all ... But lost set after another break ... In second set she served well and broke her opponent's serve 3 times to won set comfortably ... In third set Sania again struggled with her service ... At 4-5 she had couple of break points at 15-40 but failed to take advantage and lost the match.
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At $15K Australia F6 Futures, Darwin

[QF] (4) Karan Rastogi (IND,460) l (5) Hiroki Moriya (JPN,467) 06 76(2) 67(0)

Karan is showing very inconsistency in his game, one day solid win and next day average performance.
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At $10K USA F23, Claremont, CA

[R2] Karunuday Singh (IND,1041) bt (2) Dimitar Kutrovsky (BUL,581) 26 62 64

[QF] Karunuday Singh (IND,1041) vs James Duckworth (AUS,1039)

Doubles
[SF] (4) GONZALES (PHI)/ SINGH (IND) l FOGLEMAN (USA)/ KEARNEY (USA) 57 63 5-10

Only good news of the day ... Karunuday scored superb win over 2nd seed Bulgarian player ... What a comeback victory for Karunuday.