Global Times - Devvarman, Del Potro through to third round

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Devvarman, Del Potro through to third round

Source: Global Times
[23:22 August 05 2009]
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Somdev Devvarman

India’s Somdev Devvarman avenged a Chennai finals loss to Marin Cilic by upsetting the Croatian sixth seed 7-5, 6-4 Wednesday to reach the third round of the ATP Washington Classic.

In what he called his greatest career victory, the 24-year-old qualifier, who ranks 153rd, connected on 62 percent of his first serves and saved 5-of- 7 break points to advance past 15th-ranked Cilic after one hour, 42 minutes.

Cilic defeated Devvarman in January’s Chennai ATP final, denying Devvarman a stirring triumph in his hometown.

Devvarman, who finally has a day off after four matches in as many days, will next face 33rd-ranked Croatian super server Ivo Karlovic or Germany’s Rainer Schuettler. Devvarman beat Karlovic in his run to the Chennai final.

Chinese Taipei’s 62nd-ranked Lu Yen-hsun made an upset bid of his own but fell short as defending champion and second seed Juan Martin Del Potro of Argentina rallied for a 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory.

Lu broke in the seventh game of the first set and held through to take the set, but surrendered a break in the penultimate game of the second set and another to open the third.

Sixth-ranked Del Potro broke again for a 5-2 lead and held once more to advance to a third-round match against Australia’s Lleyton Hewitt or Israel’s Dudi Sela.

Germany’s Benjamin Becker fired 27 aces to beat American Robby Ginepri 7-6 (7/3), 6-7 (1/7), 7-6 (7/4) and will next meet Roddick, a three-time Washington champion.

Former world No. 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain beat Ecuador’s Nicolas Lapentti 6-4, 6-7 (5/7), 6-0 to reach the second round just two days after losing to Russia’s Nikolay Davydenko in a clay final at Umag, Croatia.

“After a month on clay it was difficult to play a match like this,” said Ferrero.

Ferrero, the 2003 French Open winner, snapped a five-year title drought in April at Casablanca and won the last match to give Spain a 3-2 Davis Cup quarterfinal win over Germany last month.

Agencies