Somdev Dev Varman ...

[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

[PKBasu]

Terrific stuff from Somdev. He's started his college career in a marvellous manner, and I'm looking forward to the further improvements in his game that the UVa coach is promising...
Also interesting to see that the Harvard team is full of Indians. Look at the unexpected benefits of economic reform unfolding in the tennis arena -- as well as in far better educational opportunities overseas for middle-class Indians. (These things happened for the Japanese in the 1870s, but it's good to see them opening up for Indians now!).

[gvhvhg]

SHANTANU DHAKA!!! thats the same guy who kept showing up to jamaican futures events with WC's....hes alive!

[BSharma]

Is this the Year of the Freshmen in college tennis?

Read what http://www.collegetennisonline.com/ has to say about Somdev and other freshmen.

I am quoting from the above link.

"On the men's side, Virginia freshman Somdev Devvarman captured the UVA Invitational, beating teammate Rylan Rizza in the final 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (5). He also notched a win over VCU's 59th-ranked Arnaud Lecloerec in the quarters.

Last season only one freshman men's player and four women's players finished in the top 30 in the country in singles."

[jayakris]

Somdev is in the entry list for next week's USA F28 futures in Lubbock, Texas. It is one of two futures that U.of.Virginia is sending players to. Of course, Somdev is the only one who has the rank to make it in. He is right now the next one out from the main draw list, but I would expect that he will squeeze in without qualies by Friday.

Jay

[BSharma]

Somdev played in the Icy Hot/ITA Men's All-American Championships at Chattanooga, Tennessee but lost in the first round.

Jonathan Chu, Harvard, def. Somdev de Varman, Virginia, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3

[jayakris]

He was second out from the main draw for the USA F28 at Lubbock (TX) next week. Ther guys below him are in the qualifying draw, so I assume he made it in ... Won't know till the main draw comes out on Monday

Jay

[PKBasu]

It's good to see that UVa actually encourages their players to keep playing a few Futures. That way, Somdev is actually gaining more pro exposure than he might have gained in India. I hope he is given consideration for a wild-card into the Chennai Open -- either into the main draw or at least the qualies. School should be closed then, and it might be worth Buji's while to participate if given a WC.

[gvhvhg]

yes somdev must be the lowest ranked player in the main draw because ryan newport who was just below him in the alternate list was the #1 seed in the qualies

i was just looking at his itf player page

i did not know he was assamese

[jayakris]

Well, the cut did not fall in the end and Somdev ended up as the first one out, from what I see. I guess the university then decided that he could not skip classes and leave by thursday to go there and play qualies. I assume he would have gone had he made it in sometime last week.

Somdev is not in the draw there ..

Jay

[gvhvhg]

ahhhhhhhhh

[prasen9]

I think Somdev is from Tamil Nadu. Typically, the Dev-Varman's are Bengali-speaking and hail from Tripura, but some might have migrated to the state of Assam. Did Somdev say he was of Assamese origin?

-PM

[jayakris]

He is from Tripura. He was in Tamil Nadu only because his dad was posted there and he was getting coached initially in Tamil Nadu. he can speak Tamil, but he is of course from Tripura where his family is. I believe we discussed this in another thread earlier, before we started this SKDV thread ..

Jay

[jayakris]

Somdev played in the Icy Hot/ITA Men's All-American Championships at Chattanooga, Tennessee but lost in the first round .. Jonathan Chu, Harvard, def. Somdev de Varman, Virginia, 36 75 63

Actually Somdev had a couple of good wins in the qualies there.
[Q1] d. Matt Baccarani of (Ball State,NR) 64 64
[Q2] d. Jerry Makowski (Texas A&M,NR) 63 63
[Q3] d. Nestor Briceno (Florida,102) 60 62
[R1] l. Jonathan Chu (Harvard,25) 63 57 36

Somdev was in the consolation final, by the way!

[C1] d. Peter Rodrigues (Duke,108), score unknown
[C2] d. Chris Lam (UCLA,28), 64 63
[C3] d. Peter Odresson (SMU), 62 46 63
[SF] d. GD Jones (Illinois,111), 64 61
[F] l. Alex Slovic (Washington,14) 76(3) 63

Hmmmm ... That is a pretty damn good run, except for the close losses to #25 Chu and #14 Slovic. Wins over #102 Briceno and #28 Lam shos Somdev is fully ready to take on college tennis by storm.

I want to know how so many other freshmen players (like GD Jones, etc) got ranked in the preseason top-120 and everybody forgot about the best freshman joining college! .. Funny. Of course, the later rankings are by computer based on points, and Somdev will be up there soon.

Also,

[Q1] Rohan Gajjar (Arkansas,118) d. Brad Olsen (Montana St.,NR), 61 61
[Q2] Rohan Gajjar (Arkansas,118) d. Matt Lockin (Venderbilt,62) 60 62
[Q3] Rohan Gajjar (Arkansas,118) l. Sebastien Falk (UAB,NR) 63 36 46

[Q1] Amanjot Singh (Louisiana Lafayette, 92) l. Matt Roberts (Arekansas,NR) 36 57

Pretty good work by Rohan Gajjar also, though he did not make the main draw.

Jay

[jayakris]

By the way, Somdev has played a few too many matches for my liking so far - though mostly because of his success and he kept going deep in the draws in various places. 14 college matches and two pro matches in the last 4 weeks which is a whole lot. He should watch it, and not come down with injuries. The good news is that he is getting to play a lot and sharpen himself.

By the way, Nestor Briceno (Florida) whom Somdev beat this week, had beaten him in straight sets in the final qualies of a US futures back in May. So he got nice revenge on Briceno.

Jay