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Somdev loses to Garcia-Lopez

Last updated on: April 08, 2011 14:30 IST

Somdev Devvarman failed to make it to the quarter-finals of the US men's clay-court championship in Huston.

The Indian ace was beaten by third seed Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain 4-6, 1-6.

Somdev, who had good outings in the hardcourt events at Indian Wells and Miami, had registered a solid opening round victory over Robert Kendrick of the United States, but clay-court specialist Garcia-Lopez proved too strong for him on Thursday.

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The world No 26, who received a bye in his first round of the US $442,500 ATP event, overcame five double-faults before getting the better of the Indian in 87 minutes and booking a berth in the last eight stage.

The Spaniard started on a positive note, breaking Somdev in the fourth game to race to 4-1 lead in the first set. The Indian broke back immediately but eventually lost control in the tenth game and surrendered the set.

The second set was a lop-sided affair, as Garcia-Lopez stole a series of games to cruise home and set up a quarter-final meeting with Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay.