Somdev leads seeds into second round at Tashkent Challenger
Tashkent, Oct. 12 -- Second seeded Somdev Devvarman fresh from his gold medal triumph at the Commonwealth Games, lead third seeded Fredrico Gil, fourth seeded Justin Brown, fifth seeded Karol Beck into the second round of the 1, 25,000 dollar Tashkent Challenger, an ATP Challenger series event being played at the Olympic tennis Stadium.
However, the stars of the day were tall Croat Franco Skugor who upset sixth seeded Konstantin Kravchuk of Russia, and local star Farrukh Dustov won a thriller against Laurent Recouderc of France.
On the second day of the event today, the 23 year Skugor registered the first upset of the event scoring a 7-6(4) ,6-4 win over sixth seeded Russian and 130th ranked Konstatin Kravchuk.
Wild card Farrukh Dustov the local favorite cheered by his home crowd played patchy tennis to score a 7-6(3), 6-7(4), 6-4 win over Laurent Recouderc and become the second Uzbek player to make it to the round of 16.
Second seeded and the 95th world ranked Somdev Devvarman displayed clinical precision to outplay qualifier Ante Pavic of Croatia 6-2,6-4 in one hour 20 mins. Somdev, a favorite for the title here, will take on Canadian Milos Raonic ranked 155 in the round of 16 tomorrow.
It was a good for Indians in Tashkent as Purav Raja partnering Sadik Kadir of Australia outplayed Frederico Gil of Portugal and Dusan Lodjda of Czech Republic 6-1, 3-6, 10-3 to enter the quarterfinals. Following are the results (First Round): Ivan Sergeyev(UKR) bt Vaja Uzakov (UZB) 6/2 6/4, Milos Raonic (CAN) bt Evgeny Kirillov (RUS) 6/2 6/3 [ S.3], Frederico GILL (POR) bt Andreas Menendez- Marceas (ESP) 6/4 7/6(6), Franco Skugor (CRO) bt [S.6] Konstantin Kravchuk (RUS) 7/6 (4) 6/4, Farrukh Dustov (UZB) bt Laurent Recouderc (FRA) 7/6 (3) 6(4)/7 6/4, Vasek Pospisil (CAN ) bt Alexandre Kudravtsev (RUS) 6/4 6/3 [S.5], Karol Beck (SVK) bt Clement Reix (FRA) 6/1 6/1, Rameez Junaid (AUS) bt Noam Okun (ISR) 2/6 6/3 6/2 [S.4], Dustin Brown (JAM) bt Simon Stadler (GER) 7/6 (5) 7/6 (4)10), Uladimir Ignatik (BLR) bt Sergey Shipilov (UZB) 6/2 6/2 [S.2], Somdev Devvarman (IND) bt Ante Pavic (CRO) 6/2 6/4. Published by HT Syndication with permission from United News of India. For any query with respect to this article or any other content requirement, please contact Editor at htsyndication@hindustantimes.com
