1st round defeats for Somdev, Divij-Raja pair in Challengers

Istanbul: After a terrific performance at the US Open, Somdev Devvarman has made a shock first round exit from the ATP Challenger event in Istanbul.

Somdev, seeded second, lost 2-6 3-6 to Russian Konstantin Kravchuk in the opening round the USD 75,000 hard court event. It was first meeting Somdev, ranked 101 and Konstantin, who is placed 74 places below the Indian in the ATP ranking charts. Somdev had won four matches in the US Open, before losing the second of singles main draw to Italian Andreas Seppi. Meanwhile at the euro 64,000 Petange Challenger event in Luxembourg, third seeded pair of Divij Sharan and Purab Raja also bowed in the first round after a 3-6 3-6 defeat against Maximilian Neuchrist of Austria and Jurgen Zopp of Estonia. Divij also had outstanding performance at the US Open, reaching pre-quarterfinals with Taipei partner Yen-Hsun Lu. PTI