And then there were two. Sanam Singh and Saketh Myneni were ousted but Somdev Devvarman and Yuki Bhambri earned spots in the $100,000 ATP Challenger Delhi Open semifinals at the DLTA Complex on Friday.
The Indians will meet Belgian opponents in the last four. While Bhambri meets fourth seed Ruben Bemelmans, Devvarman will play Myneni’s conqueror Coppejans.
The fifth-seeded Devvarman overcame Sanam in a three-set encounter that saw the latter press the self-destruct button. After besting top seed James Duckworth in the previous round, Sanam said that he had exited many tournaments at the quarterfinal stage and he would seek to change that.
Against Devvarman, Sanam was presented with a great opportunity to improve on his record but he inflicted damage upon himself.
The first set had seen a different Sanam. With Devvarman once again steady from the back of the court, his opponent needed to be aggressive.
Sanam mixed his game up with well-placed drop shots and regular forays to the net. This approach had Devvarman in trouble as he was broken twice in the first set; the decisive service break arrived in the eighth game.
Sanam, understandably, persisted with the approach in the following set but he suddenly lost his touch and failed to rediscover it. A string of error-strewn games meant that the second set finished in no time and even the third drifted towards Devvarman.
Frustrated, Sanam handed a thrashing to his racquet and a change of equipment momentarily energised him. However, it proved to be a false dawn.
Unlike Devvarman, Bhambri didn’t drop a set but he wasn’t at his best in his straight-set win over Moldovan Radu Albot.
The wild-carded Indian confessed he expected a tougher examination from a player who has been his training partner in the past.
However, Albot remained inconsistent throughout and lost 7-6(3), 6-3.
Bhambri, in his own words, delivered a performance that was “up and down.” Against a “counter-puncher” like Albot, he realised he needed to dictate the rallies and force the pace. The Indian should not have let the first set go to a tiebreak as he twice went a break up and even served for a one set lead at 5-4.
However, even when the chances went away, Bhambri recovered quickly enough and won the final set with ease.
Myneni failed to play at his best too and was consummately defeated by Kimmer Coppejans.
With his Belgian opponent delivering a strong performance from the baseline, the Indian could not fight at a similar level. A weaker serve than usual hurt Myneni’s cause further.
The results (India unless specified):
Singles: Quarterfinals: Somdev Devvarman bt Sanam Singh 4-6, 6-1, 6-3; Kimmer Coppejans (Bel) bt Saketh Myneni 6-4, 6-3; Ruben Bemelmans (Bel) bt Luke Saville (Aus) 6-4, 6-4; Yuki Bhambri bt Radu Albot (Mda) 7-6 (3), 6-3.
Doubles: Semifinal: Egor Gerasimov (Blr) & Alexander Kudryavtsev (Rus) bt Alex Bolt & Andrew Whittington (Aus) 6-3, 7-6(1); Riccardo Ghedin (Ita) & Toshihide Matsui (Jpn) bt N. Sriram Balaji & Vishnu Vardhan 5-7, 6-4, 10-5.
