Tennis News
At $450K Chennai Open ATP Tennis Tournament, India (5 - 11 Jan 2009)

[F] (WC) Somdev Devvarman (IND,202) l (3) Marin Cilic (CRO,27) 46 67(3)

Som was tentative in the first set while playing in his first ATP final at home ... Marin was dominating on his serve in the beginning other hand Somi was struggling to hold his serve saving few break points ... In 5th game Som had 2 break point chances but he couldn't convert it ... Som serve broken when he double faulted to lose the first set ... Som started badly in second set losing his serve on love in second game ... Marin saved few break points in next game ... But Som managed to break Marin's serve when he was serving for that match ... Som had 2 break points in 11th game but he couldn't convert those ... Marin played solid tie-break to win set and match with 2 mini-breaks in 2 hrs.

Overall very satisfying Chennai Open for Somi ... Where he participated as wild-card holder and reached in the final scoring few big upsets ... Very positive start of season 2009 for Somi ... With this performance he will be just outside top-150 in tomorrow's updated ranking list.

Somdev Devvarman - "Losing is not fun, but I don't want to be too negative on myself. I will try to learn from the chances I missed today and improve my game. I'm now looking forward to playing the qualifying in Melbourne and hope to play well there."

"I had a lot of chances but Cilic came up with good shots on break points. That is what makes a good tennis player and I can learn from that."

"This was a great week for me and I hope to play more tour events in the upcoming months. It is my goal to move up further in the rankings and to become a better player."
-----------------------------------------------------------
At US$480,750 Heineken Open, Auckland, New Zeland

[Q2] Rohan Bopanna (IND,332) bt Benoit Paire (FRA,628) 57 63 62

[Q3] Rohan Bopanna (IND,332) vs Gilles Muller (LUX,94)

Another slow start Bops but again he recovered quickly after losing first set ... He won next 2 sets easily against Frenchman ... In the final qualifying round he is facing top-100 player, Gilles Muller.