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Somdev packs off Baghdatis

Murray, Ljubicic fall by the wayside; Nadal, Wozniacki progress
Last Updated 13 March 2011, 17:34 IST
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Somdev, the Indian number one, sent his 19th seed opponent packing 7-5, 6-0 in a second round match of the $3,645,000 prize money hard court ATP event.

Baghdatis is currently ranked 22nd in the world while Somdev is 84th. In the round of 32, the Indian will meet Belgian Xavier Malisse who also stunned 15th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France 7-6 (8-6), 7-5 in another second round match on Saturday night.
If Somdev beats Malisse, he has the chance to play against world number one Rafael Nadal of Spain as both have been placed in the top half of the draw.

Nadal play another qualifier Ryan Sweeting of the United States in the third round and the winner will play the victor of the match between Somdev and Malisse in the pre-quarterfinals.

Somdev had made it to the main draw of the tournament along with Davis Cup team-mate Rohan Bopanna after playing in the qualifying round. He had beaten Adrian Mannarino of France 6-2, 6-3 in the first round.

Bopanna, on the other hand, had crashed out in the first round after losing to wild card Bernard Tomic of Australia 7-6, 6-7, 4-6.

Sania Mirza went down to 25th seed Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia 6-3, 6-3 in the first round on Friday.

Murray ousted
Fifth seed Andy Murray, sixth-seeded David Ferrer and defending champion Ivan Ljubicic all fell by the wayside on a day of startling upsets at the Indian Wells ATP tournament on Saturday.

British world number five Murray was eliminated 7-6, 6-3 by American qualifier Donald Young, Spaniard Ferrer crashed out 7-6, 6-3 at the hands of Croat Ivo Karlovic and Ljubicic was beaten 5-7, 6-4, 6-2 by Argentine Juan Martin del Potro.

Spanish world number one and top seed Rafael Nadal, however, had little trouble with his opening match as he demolished South African qualifier Rik de Voest 6-0, 6-2 after just an hour on the showpiece center court.

Frenchman Gilles Simon beat German Rainer Schuettler 6-3, 7-6. Del Potro will next meet Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov, a 6-4, 6-4 winner against Romania’s Victor Hanescu. Top seed Caroline Wozniacki barely raised a sweat as she pummelled American wildcard Sloane Stephens 6-3, 6-2 in the second round of the women’s section. In other second-round matches, eighth seed Victoria Azarenka of Belarus beat Russian Ekaterina Makarova 6-4, 6-3 while 16th-seeded Russian Maria Sharapova scraped through 7-5, 6-7, 6-1 against Spaniard Anabel Medina Garrigues.

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(Published 13 March 2011, 09:54 IST)

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