Asian Games tennis: Somdev in line for second medal, Sania gets bronze

GUANGZHOU - Somdev Devvarman assured himself of a second medal Sunday by entering the men’s singles semifinals and later made it to the doubles final, while Sania Mirza had to settle for a bronze after her semifinal loss in the women’s singles in the Asian Games tennis here.

Sania, ranked-166th, lost to third-seeded Uzbek Akgul Amanmuradova 6-7(7), 3-6, 4-6 in a marathon two hours and 49 minutes. Sania was a women’s singles silver medallist in the previous edition at Doha.

In the men’s singles, Somdev remained on course for a gold with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over China’s Ze Zhang in the quarterfinal. Somdev was down 1-4 against sixth-seeded Ze before winning eight games in a row to put it beyond the Chinese.

The Indian played a power-packed game from the backcourt and also rushed to the net hitting some crisp volleys.

Ze made a brief comeback, breaking Somdev in the fourth game of the second set, but failed to sustain the momentum as the Indian wrapped up the match in nearly two hours at the Aoti Tennis Center.

The win has assured the Indian, of atleast a bronze. Somdev, the 2010 Commonwealth Games gold medallist, next plays Japan’s Tatsuma Ito.

Somdev, later partnering Sanam Singh, entered the men’ doubles final defeating South Korea’s Jae Cho-Soong and Hyun Joon Kim 6-3, 7-5. The sixth-seeded Indians next play second-seeded Chinese Maoxin Gong and Zhe Li for the gold.

However, it was end of road for seventh-seeded Karan Rastogi who lost 2-6, 6-4, 5-7 to top seed Dennis Istomin of Uzbekistan in the quarterfinal.