Tennis News 

At € 370K BCR Open, Bucharest, Romania

[R1] (Q) Somdev Devvarman (IND,243) vs (3) Nicolas Almagro (ESP,18)

[Q3] (8) Somdev Devvarman (IND,243) bt (2) Filippo Volandri (ITA,93) 63 46 63

Somdev Devvarman - SD and Filippo Volandri - FV

First set - FV started and managed to win after 30-40 down

0-1 FV broke SD's serve on 30

0-2 SD broke back on 30

1-2 SD hold on 15

2-2 SD broke after duece

3-2 SD hold after down 0-40

4-2 FV hold on 15

4-3 SD hold after down 0-30

5-3 SD broke on 15 to won first set in 41 mins

6-3

Second Set - SD started and hold after duece

1-0 FV hold on luv

1-1 FV broke Sd's serve on 30

1-2 FV hold on 15

1-3 FV broke on 15 ... At this time SD's 1st serve % was 26%

1-4 FV hold after saving 2 BPs

1-5 SD hold on 15

2-5 SD broke on 30

3-5 SD was down 15-40 but saved 2 set points to hold

4-5 FV hold on 15 to won second set

4-6

Third Set - SD started and FV broke on 30

0-1 FV hold after saving 1 BP

0-2 SD hold on 15

1-2 SD broke after duece

2-2 SD hold on luv

3-2 SD broke again after duece

4-2 SD hold on 30

5-2 FV hold on 15

5-3 SD served out luv game to qualify for maindraw of Bucharest Open

6-3

Buji scored a very exciting victory over former top-25 and very good clay court player Italian Filippo Volandri in 2 hrs 15 mins battle ... Somi was struggling with his serve, managed only 48% first serve percentage against 63% by Volandri ... Somi created 15 break point opportunities and converted 6, other hand Volandri created 11 BP opportuniites and managed to broke 4 times ... Match was close as Somi won 97 pts to 88 pts by Volandri ... Volandri double faulted 9 times and Somi double faulted 2 times and also served 3 aces ... Volandri was in good nick as recently he won 2 clay challengers and was in semis in 1.

Also what I like about this match that Somi had bad day with his serve and most of the time he was falling behind 0-30 or 15-30 ... But he still managed to coming back with his typical grinding way.

Argentine Maximo Gonzalez must have withdrawn from the tournament and so change in the draw ... Somi recieved toughest opponent in qualifiers/lucky losers ... He is facing 23 yrs old Wr No 18 Spanish Nicolas Almagro, who is very tough on clay ... This year Almagro won 2 ATP titles on clay beating Moya and Nalbandian in the final at Costa Do Sauipe and Acapulco respectively ... He was in the final at Valencia on clay ... Also he was quarter-finalist at French Open (where he lost against Rafa) and Rome Masters on clay ... Very solid record on the clay ... Tough match up for Somi but I feel this will be very good preparation against top-20 before Romanian Davis cup tie.