Tennis News
At $ 1.619M Dubai Tennis Championships, UAE

[R2] (Q) Somdev Devvarman (IND,143) l Marcos Baghdatis (CYP,37) 36 63 16

Doubles
[R1] (WC) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) l Robert Lindstedt (SWE)/ Arnaud Clement (FRA) 75 67(5) 8-10

[QF] (3) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Max Mirnyi (BLR) l Simon Aspelin (SWE)/ Paul Hanley (AUS) 46 46

In first set Somi was struggling with his serve and Baghdatis take advantage of it breaking him in 4th game ... With that single break Baghdatis won first set in 32 mins ... In second set Somi started serving well and was able to put pressure on Baghdatis's serve ... He got crucial break in 8th game and with that break Somi make it 1 set all after winning second set in 38 mins ... But from third set Somi's serve was deteriorating ... Other hand Baghdatis also had poor service games ... But difference was Baghdatis was able to hold and Somi didn't ... Baghdatis broke Somi's serve in 2nd game ... Then in 3rd Baghdatis saved 4 break points including 0-40 down before holding his serve ... He again broke Somi's serve with ease in 4th game ... Then in 5th game Somi broke Baghdatis serve to won first game of third set ... But again in 6th game Baghdatis broke Somi's serve with ease ... In 7th game Somi had 6 break point chances including up 0-40, but Baghdatis saved those and converted 2nd match point to won match in 1 hour 45 mins.

In third set Somi had chances on Baghdatis's serve which he failed to take and other hand he struggled to hold his serve once in third set ... But still overall encouraging performance that he is showing his presence on the tour.

But in doubles our both pairs lost ... Bops and Aisam put valiant effort against experienced doubles players but lost in super tie-break ... Other hand Hesh's partnership with Max is still not clicking.

Match Notes
First Set

Baghdatis serving first, MB hold @15, served 1st ace of the match
0-1 Somi hold after deuce
1-1 MB hold @15, served 1st double fault
1-2 MB broke Somi @ luv ... :-( Tough time
1-3 MB hold @15
1-4 Somi had a good service game, hold @ luv, served his 1st ace of the match ... C'mon need break of serve
2-4 MB hold @30, served 2nd double fault of the match
2-5 Again Somi hold @ luv
3-5 Somi played excellent game, he saved 2 set points and had a opportunity to break but MB saved that break point and converted third set point to won set in 32 mins
3-6

After his first 2 service games Somi looks settling down in this match ... Hoping better performance in second set.

Stats - Somi 1st serve % 70, MB 45% ... Somi 1 ace, MB 1 ace and 2 DFs ... Somi had 1 break point chance but couldn't convert it and other hand MB converted 1 he got ... Total points won, Somi 22 and MB 29

Second Set

Somi hold @15
1-0 MB hold after couple of deuce, served 2nd ace of the match
1-1 Somi hold @30
2-1 MB hold
2-2 Somi hold

Sorry guys, Was watching mesmerized inning by Tendulkar, who become first batsman to scored double century in ODI ... SIMPLY AMAZING!!!

3-2 Back to update ... MB hold
3-3 Somi hold after saving 1 break point, served 2nd ace of the match
4-3 Somi broke @30, MB served 3rd ace of the match ... Now need to hold his serve ... Go Somi
5-3 Hold it style @15 to won second set in 38 mins ... So now match in decider
6-3

Stats - Somi 1st serve % 70, MB 69% ... Somi 1 ace, MB 2 aces ... Somi had 1 break point which he converted and MB didn't converted 1 bp which he got ... Total points won, Somi 31 and MB 25 (Total points - Somi 53 and MB 54)

Third Set

MB hold @15
0-1 Damn, Somi started on wrong foot ... Lost his serve @30 ... Now he need to do catching up
0-2 Somi immediately take control of the situation and had a triple break point chances in that MB served 3rd double fault of the match ... But MB saved all 3 break points, then again Somi had a break point after deuce ... This time also MB saved ... And then MB had Adv but Somi brought back to deuce ... At this crucial moment MB served his 4th & 5th aces of the match to hold game ... Big missed opportunity of breaking back MB's serve .. Noe tough task for Somi to comeback in the match
0-3 Another service break :-( Somi saved 1 break point but broke @30
0-4 Somi broke MB's serve to won first game of third set ... :-) Still 1 break down
1-4 :-( But he couldn't managed to hold his serve and again got broken @15 .. So MB serving for the match
1-5 MB served 2 double faults and was down 0-40 ... But he again saved all break points ... Somi created 4th chance of breaking serve, this time also MB saved that ... Somi had 5th break point chance but again MB saved it ... At last MB surged ahead in the game and gave himself 1st match point, this time Somi saved it and MB served double fault #6 to gave 6th break point ... But MB saved that and served 6th ace of the match to gave himself 2nd match point which he converted to won match 1 hour and 45 mins
1-6

Stats - Somi 1st serve % 59, MB 49% ... Somi 0 ace, MB 3 aces and 4 double faults ... Somi had 11 break point chances and converted 1, MB had 4 and converted 3 ... Total points won, Somi 22 and MB 32

Total points won in the match - Somi 75 and MB 86
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At $35K+H Meknes Challenger, Morocco (clay)

[R1] (1) Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Adil Shamasdin (CAN) bt Adrian Menendez (ESP)/ Lamine Ouahab (ALG) 76(4) 57 12-10

In first set both pairs traded early breaks but in tie-break our pair prevailed ... In second set our pair was down 0-4 but then they fought back to make 5-4 but lost serve in 11th game to lost set ... Super tie-break were very close as both pairs were going neck to neck but Harsh and Adil managed to convert second match point to move into quarters.
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At $15K Australia F2 Futures, Berri (Grass)

[R2] (8) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,382) bt Sadik Kadir (AUS,387) 63 76(4)

[QF] (8) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,382) vs (1) Greg Jones (AUS,218)

Good win by Vishnu over similar ranked good grass player ... Next he is facing top-seed Jones but Vishnu having game to surprise him.