Somdev shocked in first round, Amritraj survives

Somdev Devvarman made a shocking first round exit from the ATP Challenger tennis event in Binghamton following a straight sets defeat at the hands of Sergei Bubka even as Prakash Amritraj made a brilliant comeback to advance to the next level.

It was an intense first round battle between eighth seed Somdev and Bubka which the Ukrainian won 7-6(3), 7-5.

Prakash shrugged off the first set deficit to beat American Ryler Deheart 6-7 (2), 6-3, 6-3 in his first round match of the US$ 50,000 hard court event.

Prakash will lock horns with Bubka in the second round.

In the doubles event, fourth seeds Harsh Mankad and his American partner David Martin advanced to the quarter-finals after a hard-earned win over wild card pair of Laurynas Grigelis and Andrea Stoppini.

Mankad and Martin overcame a first round lapse to beat the  Lithuanian-Italian pair 3-6, 6-3, 10-6 in their first round.