Indian challenge at Chennai ends after Somdev-Sanam lose

The Indian challenge at the 2010 Chennai Open came to an end on Saturday with Somdev Devvarman and Sanam Singh crashing out of the men's doubles in the semi-finals.

The experienced pair of Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna, seeded third, had lost a day earlier.

Janko Tipsarevic, who had thrashed Somdev in the singles second round, was his nemesis yet again. He and Yen-Hsun Lu of the Chinese Taipei ousted the Indians 6-3, 4-6, 10-5 and booked a berth in the final.

The duo will take on the second seeded pair of Marcel Granollers and Santiago Ventura on Sunday, the Spanish duo getting the better of the British combine of Colin Fleming and Ken Skupsi 3-6, 6-3, 10-8.

Somdev and Sanam, a wild card entry, had upset fourth seeds Rik De Voest (RSA) and Scott Lipsky in the opener and followed it up by beating Jeff Coetzee (RSA) and Rogier Wassen (Netherlands) in the quarters.

But their splendid run came to a screeching halt against the more experienced Tipsarevic/Lu combine.

"We discussed before the match that even though they were wild cards, they weren't meant to be taken lightly, having upset two good teams earlier," explained Tipsarevic, in the post-match conference.

"And it is this thought that  refrained us from getting worried even when we were losing points and games," he added.

The match was a keenly contested one with both sides having ample opportunities to break serves.

In fact, watching the first set was akin to watching Brokeback Mountain (pun intended) as it witnessed as many as six breaks of serve (in just nine games).

After Somdev had held serve to put the Indians 1-0 up, there were four successive breaks, with each player dropping his serve before Tipsarevic finally held in the sixth.

However, in the seventh game, Sanam failed to hold again and the Serbia-Taipei combine nudged ahead 4-3. Lu held in the next, courtesy a brilliant interception at the net by his partner, to strengthen the lead.

And when Somdev was broken in the 10th game, it cost the Indians the set.

The second set went on serve till the fourth game but thereafter there were as many as three successive breaks. However, the Indian pair happened to get two of those and used the advantage to pocket the set.

The Indian pair won the opening point of the match tie-break but their opponents soon raced to a 6-2 lead and held on.

"The strength of all the four players on the court today was not their serve but their returns," observed Tipsarevic, when asked about the many service breaks.

Sanam concurred.

"There were nine breaks of serve in all but a few of those games were tight," he observed. "But in the end they played the tie-break really well."