Somdev survives marathon

Created On: 30 Aug 2013 2:54 PM IST

It was a thrilling start to Somdev Devvarman at the US Open tennis at the Flushing Meadows in late night Wednesday match. The 28-year-old Indian survived several anxious moments and rain interruptions to win his men singles first round match against 24-year-old Slovak Lukas Lacko after a marathon 191-minute battle at the US Open tennis here at Flushing Meadows. Coming off from a shoulder injury that sidelined him for close to a year, Somdev at 114 was ranked 30 places behind his opponent.

New York (Agencies): It was a thrilling start to Somdev Devvarman at the US Open tennis at the Flushing Meadows in late night Wednesday match. The 28-year-old Indian survived several anxious moments and rain interruptions to win his men singles first round match against 24-year-old Slovak Lukas Lacko after a marathon 191-minute battle at the US Open tennis here at Flushing Meadows. Coming off from a shoulder injury that sidelined him for close to a year, Somdev at 114 was ranked 30 places behind his opponent.

Somdev, who led two sets to one when rain interrupted the match, returned to clinch it over five sets 4-6, 6-1, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4.

When play resumed, Lukas took the tight fourth set, but the Indian got the better of him in the decider. The Indian next plays World No.20 Italian Andrea Seppi, who overcame Belgian veteran Xavier Malisse in four hard-fought sets, 6-3, 3-6, 7-5, 7-5.

Two-time champion, 33-year-old American, Venus Williams, was knocked out after being beaten 3-6, 6-2, 6-7 by Chinese opponent Zheng Jie after a three-hour slugfest.

Li Na in third round

There were no such hiccups for Pole Agnieszka Radwanska and China’s Li Na, who entered the women singles third round. Radwanska defeated Spaniard Maria-Teresa Torro-Flor 6-0, 7-5 while fifth seeded Li Na downed 100th-ranked Swede Sofia Arvidsson 6-2, 6-2. Radwanska next runs into Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the third round and Li Na faces her 2012 conqueror Laura Robson of Great Britain.

Murray breezes through

Defending US Open champion Andy Murray raced into the second round with a 6-2, 6-4, 6-3 win over veteran Frenchman Michael Llodra. The third seeded Murray needed just 98 minutes to get past the 33-year-old Llodra.

Murray will now take on Argentine Leonardo Mayer for a place in the last 32.