Somdev Devvarman teases Fernando Verdasco, but misses his chances

When you try hard, sometimes it becomes counterproductive. The 97^th ranked Somdev was at his best and calling the shots as he led 4-0 in the first set tie-break and held four setpoints at 6-2, but lost his way, as the 31^st ranked Fernando Verdasco clawed his way to record a 7-6(6), 6-3 victory in the first round of the $3,566,050 China Open ATP Tour event on Monday.

Somdev lost six points in a row and the last of the four setpoints, on a double fault. He had exchanged breaks with the Spanish left-hander earlier in the first set, and lost serve in the eighth game of the second set that proved decisive.

When Somdev qualified for the main draw on Sunday, my former colleague Ritesh Gupta was understandably excited but felt discouraged that the country’s No.1 player could run into the top-seeded Novak Djokovic in the second round.

Gently reminded that he had to first cross Verdasco, Ritesh felt that the Spaniard would need to be in his groove, as Somdev could frustrate him with slow extra balls. Somdev did live up to the faith, though he failed to progress.

For his efforts, Somdev was rewarded with 20 ATP points, for qualifying into the main draw, and $16,100 for losing the first round. Not a bad bargain, even though there was no doubt that Somdev was capable of making it to the second round, to possibly fetch himself a better reward.

Another Asian to mess it up in a much more agonising fashion was Di Wu of China, who led 4-3 in the second set tie-break, after winning the first set, before he delivered a doublefault to be on par, against the towering eighth seed, John Isner. The American went on to win the match 5-7, 7-6(4), 6-3.

The 22-year-old is one of the best Chinese talent. He had lost to Yuki Bhambri in the Asia-Oceania junior tennis in Delhi in 2007, rather tamely, winning a mere four games in the final. But there was no doubt about his prodigious talent even then.

I recall writing a few nice lines on him then, first before the final and after Yuki had won.

It will be a tough task for Yuki to match the talented Chinese boy Di Wu who is indeed a champion in the making, despite an unflattering rank of 292. With a silken smooth all-round game, a fabulous blend of power and touch, Di Wu ran his Thai opponent, the sixth-seeded Peerakit Siributwong, so hard that the latter gave up midway through the second set, complaining of fatigue and an upset stomach.

Being a tough competitor, Yuki would be able to test his ability amply on the morrow against the Chinese who is a delight to watch with his high quality game and is, in fact, quite ready to project a positive image of the Chinese men’s tennis around the world in the months to come.

Yuki, who went on to win the Orange bowl, the Australian Open junior title and became World No.1 junior later, was able to seize the chance early and overwhelmed the Chinese in the final. In fact, Yuki won the doubles also, and one of the opponents in the final was Bernard Tomic of Australia !

Generally sticking to his top-spin drives, Yuki took everyone’s breath away with moments of superb strokeplay that caught his opponent stranded after tough rallies. He served well throughout and was quick to the ball most of the time in taking the sting away from his opponent’s challenge.

The Chinese was a very good player, but he was not allowed to ply his trade this day by the crafty Yuki, who came up with such a drop on setpoint in the first set that the Chinese fell over and hung on the net like a piece of cloth, unable to control himself after hitting his shot.

Well, that was six years ago. The 22-year-old Di Wu was ranked a career-best 161 in May this year, and will be heard more in the big league.