India number one Somdev Devvarman registered the biggest win of his career, beating world No 5 Juan Martin Del Potro in the first round of the Dubai Duty Free Championships, on Tuesday. The victory, though, was achieved after the Argentine retired mid-way through the contest.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Tuesday.
Somdev Devvarman recovered from his shock Chennai Open defeat against little-known compatriot Ramkumar Ramanathan to edge past Belgium's Niel Desein in a tight opening round of the ATP Apia International qualifiers in Sydney on Saturday.
India tennis ace, Sania Mirza finds herself at No 6 as the new WTA doubles chart was released on Monday.
Somdev Devvarman failed to make the singles main draw of the Toronto ATP Masters after going down fighting to third seed Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan in the second round of the qualifying event. The 14th seed Indian began well but lost 6-4, 3-6, 6-7(10) to the world number 54 Uzbek in the second and final round.
Nick Kyrgios and Bernard Tomic gave Australia an unwanted reputation as a breeding ground for tennis brats during a tempestuous 2015 and the pair will be firmly under the spotlight in front of home crowds at Melbourne Park. With former world number one Lleyton Hewitt set to retire and the last of his two grand slam titles at the 2002 Wimbledon championships a distant memory, Australia has long yearned for a new force in men's tennis to challenge at the majors. Tomic, 23, and Kyrgios, 20, have both been tagged as the future of the sport in the country but the excitement generated by their undeniable talent gave way to dismay last season as the pair hogged the headlines for all the wrong reasons.
legend Leander Paes and Daniel Nestor disposed off the challenge of Marc Lopez and Rafael Nadal in straight sets to progress to the semifinals of the ATP Aegon Championships.
Indian tennis star Somdev Devraman's top priority at the moment is to get back into the top 100 in ATP rankings and then go for top 70 in the next couple of months.
There comes a moment in all great sporting careers when the puzzle fits together and for Kei Nishikori it arrived on a sweltering early September afternoon in New York.
Somdev Devvarman's struggle on the ATP circuit continued as the fifth seed Indian crashed out of the Zagreb Challenger event after suffering a first round defeat against unseeded Yuri Schukin.
Courtesy his semi-final appearance at the Aptos Challenger, Somdev Devvarman jumped eight rungs to achieve a career-best singles ranking of 127 on Monday.
Vishnu Vardhan won his second Challenger level title of the season with Japanese partner Toshihide Matsui but four other Indians, including Leander Paes, tumbled out of various ATP events across the globe.
The Indian challenge in the ATP Paris Masters tennis tournament ended after Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes, along with their respective partners, crashed out of the doubles event following unexpected second-round defeats.
Croatia clinched a place in next year's World Cup finals on Sunday after holding Greece to a goalless draw at the Georgios Karaiskakis stadium in Athens to complete a 4-1 aggregate victory in their playoff tie.
India's tennis campaign at the Asian Games appears to be falling apart even before the start of the inter-continental event, as a cloud of doubt now hangs over Rohan Bopanna's participation since the top doubles player is keen to salvage his 2014 pro season by playing on the ATP Tour instead of competing in Incheon.
Leander Paes and his partner Lukas Dlouhy rounded off their disappointing campaign at the season ending World Tour Finals with their third successive defeat in London on Friday.
Despite putting up one of his best performances of the season, Somdev Devverman dropped eight places to 124th in the ATP rankings issued on Monday.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Sunday
These items will remain under essential commodities segment till June-end, a move aimed at ensuring availability at reasonable prices and cracking down on hoarders/black marketeers.
Indian wild card entrant Jeevan Nedunchezhian crashed out of the Chennai Open after a bright start soon after Ramkumar Ramanathan stormed into the singles main draw with a superb win over higher-ranked Slovakian Norbert Gombos in Chennai.
IMAGES from Australian Open matches played at Melbourne Park on Friday
Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles survived some stiff challenges from Stephen Huss and Ross Hutchins before taming them to enter second round of AEGON International ATP tournament in Eastbourne, England.
Somdev Devvarman suffered yet another early defeat but Yuki Bhambri and Saketh Myneni continued their impressive run by storming into the singles quarter-finals of the ATP Pune Challenger tournament.
'It's a new era and will be like adapting to a different routine. Moya has come with new ideas and new methods of working that have worked well and we are excited'
Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles quelled a late challenge from the Polish pair of Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski to reach the semi-finals in the euro 2,750,000 Internazionali BNL D'Italia ATP event in Rome on Friday. The fourth-seeded Indo-Bahamian pair beat their sixth seeded opponents 6-3, 6-4 in just 59 minutes.
Andy Murray won his third ATP title of the year beating Novak Djokovic 6-2, 7-5 in the South Florida heat on Sunday to win the Sony Ericsson Open.
At one stage Yuki was a break up, serving for the opening set but lost his serve and eventually the set. After drawing parity, Yuki twice lost his serve to fall behind 0-3 in the decisive set and never recovered.
World number two Roger Federer beat Fernando Verdasco 6-3, 7-6 (7/5) to book a semi-final meeting with Andy Murray at the Indian Wells hardcourt tennis tournament. Murray spoiled Ivan Ljubicic's birthday celebrations, with a 7-5, 7-6 (8/6) victory over the Croatian.
Rohan Bopanna gained three places to be world number 21, and is now country's top ranked player in the ATP doubles chart.
Defending champion Rohan Bopanna went down fighting in the thrilling doubles opening round game at the third edition of Tata Open Maharashtra, in Pune, on Wednesday. Playing alongside local boy Arjun Kadhe, the ace Indian player Bopanna dominated the game initially. However, after winning the first set convincingly, the Indian duo couldn't manage to continue the momentum further in the games against French pair of Benoit Paire and Antoine Hoang as they lost the match 3-6, 7-5, 10-7.
Playing alongside Australian partner Matthew Ebden, the eight-time doubles Grand Slam champion Leander Paes showed his class during a clinical victory over defending champion and second seed Sharan, who was playing alongside New Zealand's Artem Sitak.
It was the best match of Wimbledon's opening week as, amongst the expected histrionics, both men hit the heights with some relentlessly powerful and accurate serving in particular.
Russian world number five Nikolay Davydenko believes he needs to adjust his game and find something extra if he is to challenge the world's top players next season.
Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-haq Qureshi scored their first victory since reuniting as a team, overcoming a spirited challenge from Jean-Julien Roger and Horia Tecau in the first round of the ATP Apia International, in Sydney on Tuesday.
I physically feel very fit. I'm very motivated to keep on playing on a very high level, says Novak Djokovic.
Sania Mirza dropped 10 places to 60 while Somdev Devvarman rose to 320 in the rankings list released on Monday.
'He can say what he wants, I don't have a problem with it. Does he show me the same amount of respect that most other players do? No, he doesn't, but that's the way he communicates these days'
The 29-year-old Spaniard, who needed a final-set tiebreak to fight past Lukas Rosol in the first round, produced a performance of defiant persistence to fend off the challenge of the 24-year-old Dimitrov.
The Indian retired midway through his first round match against seventh seed Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
The eight men to watch during the US Open which starts on Monday.
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