Commonwealth Games and Asian Games tennis champion Somdev Devvarman of India broke serve three times to overcome local Raven Klaasen 6-4, 6-3 on Monday in a South African Open first-round clash.
German Simon Greul and South African Rik de Voest were other winners as the ATP event began with three predictable results at the sprawling Montecasino entertainment center in a plush northern Johannesburg suburb.
Devvarman, who struck Commonwealth gold in New Delhi in October and Asian gold in Guangzhou the following month, always had the measure of qualifier Klaasen.
The first service break gave the 25-year-old Indian the opening set before a modest crowd that watched the action in perfect conditions on a center court created in a car park.
Another break in the second set set up Devvarman for success and a Klaasen ace when 30-15 behind in the ninth game did not prevent his opponent breaking service again and clinching an 83-minute victory.
Stuttgart-based Greul, who turns 30 this year, is ranked 48 places higher than Brazilian Thiago Alves and it showed as he was seldom extended en route to a 6-2, 7-5 victory.
Closest duel of the opening day was the first with wildcard de Voest being taken to three sets by Italian Stefano Galvani before emerging a 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (8/6) victor of a game that began in sunshine and ended under floodlights.
MOVIESTAR OPEN
AP, SANTIAGO
Defending champion Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil defeated Filippo Volandri of Italy 6-2, 6-2 in the first round on Monday at the Movistar Open, the first clay-court tournament of the ATP season.
Albert Ramos-Vinolas of Spain beat Argentina’s Leonardo Mayer 6-4, 6-4, Russian Igor Andreev downed Eduardo Schwank of Argentina 6-3, 7-6 (7/4), and Pablo Andujar of Spain defeated Australian Peter Luczak 6-4, 6-4.
In other first-round matches, Brazil’s Ricardo Mello won against Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo of Spain 6-4, 6-7 (5/7), 7-6 (8/6), and Spain’s Tommy Robredo defeated Frederico Gil of Portugal 2-6, 6-3, 6-4.
ZAGREB INDOORS
AP, ZAGREB
Fifth-seeded Florian Mayer struggled through to the second round of the Zagreb Indoors on Monday, overcoming Croatian wildcard Franco Skugor 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (8/6).
Elsewhere, Ivan Dodig upset Marcel Granollers 6-3, 6-2, Michael Berrer beat Nikola Mektic 7-5, 6-1 and Lukas Lacko defeated Marsel Ilhan 4-6, 6-4, 7-5.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier