Somdev out; Bopanna in doubles semis at Tashkent

New Delhi:

India challenge ended in the singles event of the Tashkent ATP Challenger with the straight set defeat of Somdev Devvarman even as Rohan Bopanna advanced to the doubles semi-finals along with partner Yen Hsun Lu.

Seventh seed Somdev lost 3-6 4-6 to Russia's Alexandre Kudryavstev in the second round of the USD 1,25,000 hard court event at the Olympic tennis Stadium on Wednesday.

Bopanna though kept the Indian interest alive when he and Taipei's Lu prevailed over Spanish pair of Inigo Cervantes-Huegun and Guillermo Plaso 6-3, 6-4 in the quarter-finals.

The second seed Bopanna and Lu will now take on local favorites Denis Istomin and Murad Inoyatov, who scored a 6-3, 6-0 win over Russian pair of Michail Elgin and Evgeny Kirillov.

In the Somdev match, Kudryastev broke the Indian in the fourth game and served consistently well to take the set.

In the second set, the Russian hit unbelievable winners on both the flanks to break the off colour Indian Davis Cupper in the seventh game to take a 4-3 lead and quicky wrapped up the match.

Somdev got nine ATP ranking points for his effort and USD 2,150 as prize money.