Somdev sets up Cilic match in St. Petersburg

Indian tennis ace Somdev Devvarman finally broke his first round jinx as he beat Slovakian Karol Beck in straight sets to advance to the second round of the St. Petersburg Open here.

Somdev steamrolled his Slovakian opponent with a 6-2, 6-3 win in just over an hour. He will meet fourth seed Marin Cilic of Croatia, who defeated Ukraine's Sergei Bubka Jr, in the second round.

The 26-year-old Indian hardly broke a sweat as he pocketed the first set by capitalising on two break points.

Beck showed some resistance in the second set and even broke Somdev once, but the Indian did not allow his opponent to come back into the match. Somdev played with controlled aggression to clinch the second set and the match in the 68th minutes.