Tennis News
At $500K South Africa Tennis Open, Johannesburg

[R2] Somdev Devvarman (IND,162) bt Thiago Alves (BRA,134) 64 61

[QF] Somdev Devvarman (IND,162) vs (2) David Ferrer (ESP,18)
[QF] (5) Rajeev Ram (USA,84) vs (3) Feliciano Lopez (ESP,46)

Doubles
[QF] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) bt (2) Johan Brunstrom (SWE)/ Jean-Julien Rojer (AHO) 36 63 9-9 (by Default)
[QF] (3) Rajeev Ram (USA)/ Eric Butorac (USA) bt Prakash Amritraj (IND)/ James Cerretani (USA) 64 76(6)

[SF] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) vs (3) Rajeev Ram (USA)/ Eric Butorac (USA)

Somi scored very dominating win over Brazilian Thiago Alves ... He won match in 67 minutes ... In first set he didn't face a single break point on his serve and broke Thiago's serve in 10th game to won it ... Second set was more dominating though he faced 3 break points on his serve but saved all and other hand he broke Thiago Alves's serve twice in 4th and 6th game ... In this set Somi only lost 14 points and won 31 points ... So next he will most probably face Spanish WR #18 David Ferrer in quarters.

Kash and Cerretani lost close match against solid pairing of Ram and Butorac ... Rohan and Aisam struggled in their quarter-final match against 2nd seed ... They lost first set when their serve got broken in 8th game ... In second set 2nd seed pair broke Aisam's serve in first game when Aisam committed double fault on break point ... But they came back strongly breaking Brunstrom and Rojer's service games to win 5 games on a row to won second set.

In super tie-break with couple of mini-breaks Bops and Aisam take early lead but Brunstrom and Rojer brought tie-break on serve at 8-7 ... Bops and Aisam saved 1 match point at 8-9 to make it 9-all.

In end looks like some controversy with Brunstrom and Rojer as our pair declared winner by Default.

From ATP Tour
Second seeds Johan Brunstrom and Jean-Julien Rojer were leading Bopanna and Qureshi 9-8 in the Match tie-break, when Brunstrom missed a volley into the net to level the score at 9-9. In frustration, Brunstrom tossed his racquet, which accidentally hit Bopanna on the wrist.

Gerry Armstrong, the ATP Supervisor in Johannesburg, was called onto court and followed ATP procedure to default Brunstrom after 77 minutes of play.
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At the Asia/Oceania zone

Group II , Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Group A
India bt Singapore 3-0

Poojashree Venkatesha bt Si Ying Julienne Keong 61 61
Sania Mirza bt Li-Yun "Stefanie" Tan 62 63
Rushmi Chakravarthi/ Sanaa Bhambri bt Li-Yun "Stefanie" Tan/ Clare Fong 60 62

So expected easy winning start for Indians ... Sania and debutant Poojashree Venkatesha won their respective matches.