Somdev eases into quarters of Delhi Open

Indian tennis star Somdev Devvarman sailed into the quarterfinals of the USD 100,000 ATP Delhi Open after notching up an easy 6-2 6-2 victory over an erratic Di Wu of China here today.

The second round contest between the number one players of the two countries never rose to the level it was expected to as the Chinese made it too easy for the Indian with his never-ending errors.

Wu struggled to negotiate the slow and bouncy court at the R K Khanna Tennis stadium and looked out of sorts today. It took Somdev just 62 minutes to seal a place in the last-eight stage of the ATP Challenger event.

It was first meeting between 96th-ranked Somdev and Wu, who is placed 212 on the ATP ranking charts and the only blemish in the contest was losing his serve in the sixth game of the second set.

"It was not that easy, Wu is a dangerous and tough guy. A couple of points here and there and you could be in trouble. The scoreline suggests that it was easy but it was not," Somdev said at the press conference. "I am happy that I played key points in the first set extremely well. Hopefully I will continue playing the same way."

Talking about Wu, Somdev said, "He enjoys speed courts. He returns extremely well and put you under pressure. Because the court was slow, he struggled and I took advantage of that."

Up next for Somdev is a much tougher challenge in Wu's compatriot Ze Zhang. The 229-ranked Zhang beat Swiss Marco Chiudinelli 7-5 6-4 in a tight second round contest.The slow court was not a problem for Zhang as he served well, returned well and moved well against Chiudinelli, who was ranked as high as 52 in 2010. 

Wu struggled with his first serve right from the outset and his unforced errors pegged him back. The game was of the Somdev's liking and it featured long rallies from the baseline.

Wu smashed one backhand into the net to give Somdev two breakpoints in the third game of the match. Somdev netted a forehand on the first but another error from Wu provided the Indian lead.

A slew of errors from Wu -- a double fault followed by a backhand error after a long rally -- again put the Chinese down 15-40 in the seventh game. Somdev could not capitalise on the first chance but another backhand error from Wu gave the Indian a second break and a 5-2 lead.

Exactly 30 minutes into the match, the Indian served out the set with his fourth ace.On rare occasions when Wu approached the net and dropped volleys, he had Somdev gasping but surprisingly the Chinese did not do use this tactic too often.

Somdev hardly had to earn points as Wu continued to commit unforced errors. A volley into the net put Wu down by a breakpoint in the very first game of the second set and the Chinese followed it up with another unforced error to let the Indian nose ahead.

Wu continued in the same fashion and in no time Somdev raced to a 4-0 lead. Wu got one break back when Somdev dropped his serve in the sixth game but it hardly helped Wu.

In the doubles, fourth seeds Adrian Mememdez-Maceiras and Aleksandr Nedovyesov advanced to the semifinals with a 6-7 (6) 6-1 10-5 win over Matthias Bachinger and Thomas Fabbiano.

Meanwhile, in the women's USD 25,000 ITF event, second seed Ukrainian Olga Savchuk overcame a slugginsh start to beat Thailand's Peangtarn Plipuech 3-6 6-2 6-1.Eighth seed Chinese Qiang Wang thrashed Israel's Deniz Khananiuk 6-2 6-0.