Aus Open: Somdev fails to cross last hurdle

Melbourne: Somdev Devvarman missed out on a chance of featuring in his second successive Grand Slam singles main draw after losing the third and final round of the Australian Open qualifying event in straight sets to 12th seed Blaz Kavcic.

The 27th seed tried his best to make a comeback into the match but eventually lost 3-6, 6-7(4) to his Slovenian opponent, ranked 126 in the ATP chart.

Somdev had last year qualified for the US Open and reached the second round of the singles main draw.

In Saturday's two hour 22 minutes contest, Somdev broke his rival thrice including twice in the second set and dropped his serve twice in each set.

Yuki Bhambri and Prakash Amritraj had also made it to the singles qualifying draw but lost in the first and second round respectively.

Yet again, Sania Mirza will India's lone challenge in the singles when she competes in the women's main draw.