Somdev Dev Varman ...

[Dhruv]

Q4 did I see Q4. Ouch .

[jayakris]

Ye. Q4. What a pain. When he entered for the two futures in Florida, he had checked the previous weeks entry cuts and it was consistently below 750 or so for the $10s. Worked correctly for USA F11 last week and everything went totally weird for this week as a whole buinch of top-400 guys decided to play a $10K in the US.. So he is looking at having to win 5 rounds for a point this week. It is always good to go through these things - makes a man out of you fast!

Jay

[nkoth]

US F15:

[Q4] Nestor Briceno (USA) d. (8)Somdev K. Dev Varman (IND) 64 60

however, Somdev makes it anyway!

[R1] (SE)Melvyn Op Der Heijde (NED) vs (LL)Somdev K. Dev Varman (IND)
[R1] (4)Andres Pedroso/Todd Widom (USA) vs Somdev K. Dev Varman/Chris Kwon (IND/USA)

Go Buji!
-neil

[PKBasu]

Ah, good news in the end. This guy Briceno has been his nemesis, but hopefully Buji will now find his form and go far in this tournament.

[nkoth]

Somdev plays his R1 match Wed morning...

[R1] (4) Andres Pedroso/Todd Widom (USA) d. Somdev K. Dev Varman/Chris Kwon (IND/USA) 75 57 75

Close match against the #4 seeds...

-neil

[PKBasu]

(R1) Somdev Dev Varman (IND) d. Melvyn Op Der Heijde (NED) 6-3, 4-1 retd. (right shoulder)

Nice easy win over the Special Exempt (who was two games away from defeat when he copped out).

[kathiresan_v]

hey, good win for Somdev. Go Somvev!!!

Kathir

[PKBasu]

Tough second round for Somdev:

Somdev Dev Varman (IND, 689) vs. (7) Jose De Armas (VEN, 364)

Playing a South American on clay...of course Somdev has beaten similarly-ranked Europeans on the red clay of the Saturday Club in Kolkata.

[PKBasu]

Jose De Armas (VEN, 364) d. Somdev Dev Varman (IND, 689) 62 36 61

Nice fight from Buji there, especially in winning the second set. He is making progress at 19, although one wishes he hadn't had to sacrifice a crucial month and a half because of his (delayed) school exams.

[jayakris]

Well at least he got ONE point for the trip to US. And some pretty good match practice. That always helps!

Hope he will be able to play the Indian satellites and would not get troubled by exams in the middle of that, but it seems that is what may happen

This was the 6th singles match at this place for Somdev. He may even have been too tired to keep up the comeback in the second set today against DeArmas.

Jay

[jayakris]

Somdev has joined the University of Virginia for college tennis. He is in Southern California for one ITF futures (Calremont $15K). All the results are in the Harsh Mankad thread ..

Jay

[PKBasu]

Good enough decision on Somdev's part to go to college in the US straight from high school (and at a school that is good at both academics and sports). I wish, though, that he had played a bit more on the circuit over the summer, especially the India or Pakistan satellites and a Futures or two in the subcontinent (although it is understandable to want to rest a bit and get prepared for University life in the US). Somdev showed tremendous promise in winning the clay Futures at the Saturday Club in Kolkata in April, but has hardly built on that foundation in the intervening months. Playing college tennis would be good for his game, but he should not neglect any opportunities to play Futures during the off-season or holidays from college -- because having a pro ranking is important to the future. As Harsh discovered, it is very tough to start from scratch on tour (even though he had a Canada Futures title), even after a glittering record in college tennis.
It would, of course, be useful for the India satellites and Futures to be timed to help Indian kids who are in university in the US -- as indeed this year's were (albeit perhaps by accident).

[jaydeep]

Well said PKB ... Indian players should remember how much life of player become tougher on Pro circuit ... And when they have old examples, then they should try to do needful ... Somdev should used those few months break in playing India and Pakistan futures ... Winning and loosing doesn't matter, in that process atleast he earns few more ranking points and also got some handful experiance on circuit ... But moving base to US is good move by Somdev and his parents.

Jaydeep.

[BSharma]

Check out the Univ of Virginia tennis news.

Cavalier Men's Tennis Completes Recruiting Class. Chirico and Devvarman complete class of five

His tennis schedule for 2004-05:
2004-05 Men's Tennis Schedule

[jayakris]

From the UVA website:

Devvarman wins UVa Fall Invitational Championship
First-year player defeats teammate Rizza in three-set epic
Sept. 26, 2004

CHARLOTTESVILLE - Virginia first-year Somdev Devvarman (Tamil Nadu, India) captured the Flight A singles title of the UVa Fall Invitational, his first collegiate event. Devvarman won the title defeating teammate Rylan Rizza (Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif.) in a three set epic.

Devvarman downed Rizza in a three-hour match, 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (5). Devvarman and Rizza split the first two hard fought sets. The two players then held serve in the third set until the score was 5-5. Devvarman then broke Rizza to take a 6-5 lead. However, Rizza broke back to force a tiebreaker for the championship title. The tiebreaker was tied at 5-5 before Devvarman won the final two points to capture the championship.

In the semifinals Sunday morning, Devvarman defeated No. 8 seed Todd Paul of Wake Forest 6-3, 6-3. Rizza, seeded sixth at the event, defeated teammate Marko Miklo (Bratislava, Slovakia), the No. 7 seed, 1-6, 6-3, 6-2.

"This tournament provided three great days of collegiate tennis and was capped off by a tremendous singles final," said Virginia head coach Brian Boland. "I am proud of both Somdev and Rylan. They each had a terrific weekend of tennis and played an entertaining championship match that was played at an extremely high level for September. We still have a lot of improving to do, but it was a great performance this early in the season."

In other championship action on Sunday, Harvard's Shantanu Dhaka defeated William & Mary's Alexandru Cojanu for the Flight B title. Harvard's team of Jonathan Chu and Ashwin Kumar won the Flight A doubles crown, while Ben Zink and Will Shaw of NC State took the Flight B doubles title.

------------

Here are Somdev's results I found from this tournament --

d. Will Shaw (NCSU), 75 62
d. Henrique Cancado (ODU), 61 60
d. (5) Arnaud Lecloerec (VCU,59), 64 63
d. (8) Todd Paul (WF), 63 63
d. (6) Rylan Rizza (UVA,75), 75 46 76(5)

Is Buji good or what? He has beaten two top-100 college players already (not to mention beating last years #1 in Claremont recently). What a way to start a college career. I am sure the Virginia coach must be simply ecstatic now. UVa could be a big force this year in college tennis.

Jay