Somdev Devvarman

Somdev Devvarman

Country (sports)	India
Residence	Charlottesville, VA, U.S.A.
Height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Turned pro	2008
Plays	Right-handed (two-handed backhand)
Prize money	$371,245
Singles
Career record	17–20
Career titles	0
Highest ranking	No. 94 (25 October 2010)
Current ranking	No. 108 (17 January 2011)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open	1R (2011)
French Open	1R (2010)
Wimbledon	-
US Open	2R (2009)
Doubles
Career record	3–6
Career titles	0
Highest ranking	No. 197 (8 November 2010)
Last updated on: 7 June 2010.

Olympic medal record
Representing India
Commonwealth Games
	2010 Delhi	Singles
Asian Games
	2010 Guangzhou	Singles
	2010 Guangzhou	Doubles
	2010 Guangzhou	Team

Somdev Devvarman (born in Guwahati, Assam: 13 February 1985), is a tennis player from India. His parents are from a small state of Tripura in India. Although born in Tripura but due to his fathers job in his childhood he had to be with his father wherever his father was posted. He began playing tennis at age 9 in Chennai, where he grew up. After competing on the Indian circuit all through his childhood, he hit the headlines as a student at the University of Virginia, USA, for being the only collegiate player to have made three consecutive finals at the NCAA, winning it back to back in his junior and senior years. Only three other players have matched that record since 1950. His 44-1 win-loss record in 2008, is however, unprecedented.

Somdev finished University with a degree in sociology and turned pro in the summer of 2008. He won his first career title that year at a Futures Tournament in Rochester, New York. His best achievement so far on the ATP World Tour has been reaching the finals of the Chennai Open in 2009, as a wild card entry. In 2010, Somdev won the Gold medal in the Men's Singles event of XIXth Commonwealth Games at the R.K.Khanna Tennis Stadium in New Delhi and followed it up with both Mens Singles and Doubles Gold in the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou, China.

Amateur results

Devvarman started competing in futures tournaments when young and competed in his first tournaments in 2002 when living in India, aged 17. His biggest achievement during this time was a victory in the Kolkata F2 championship in 2004 after which he rose to 666 in world ranking. He moved to the USA later that year and competed less regularly while at the University of Virginia. Somdev Devvarman is a successful college tennis player, he won the 2007 NCAA Singles Championship by defeating Georgia Bulldogs senior John Isner in the final, Devvarman scored a 7–6 (7), 4–6, 7–6 (2) win over the tournament's No. 1 seed. A year later he defeated Tennessee's J.P. Smith 6–3, 6–2 to win his consecutive NCAA Singles National Championship. Devvarman becomes the 13th player in the 124-year history of the tournament to win consecutive titles, and just the fourth to do so in the past 50 years with an unprecedented 44-1 record in 2008. Three of Devvarman's college conquests, John Isner, Kevin Anderson, and Jesse Levine have successful pro careers. The University of Virginia retired Devvarman's jersey in 2009.

Professional results

Early career

After graduating from UVA, Devvarman signed with Mamba International, a sports management company based in Charlottesville, and started his professional career at the $10,000 Futures tourney in Rochester, New York where he won the singles title. He and his former UVA partner, Treat Huey, won the doubles title. The next week at another $10,000 Futures match in Pittsburgh, Devvarman and Huey won the doubles title and Devvarman the singles.

Devvarman made the final of the Kennedy Funding Invitational in New York in July 2007. In a clay court non-tour event which included several players ranked in the ATP top 150, Devvarman defeated Ricardo Mello, Robert Kendrick (ranked 99th) and Justin Gimelstob before losing a three-set match to no. 69 Michael Russell in the final. He returned and won the tournament in 2008 beating Sam Querrey, ranked #44, and Dudi Sela, ranked #76 along the way.

On 27 July 2008, Devvarman won the Lexington Challenger, first coming through qualifying and then beating players including Bobby Reynolds (ranked 90th), Xavier Malisse and Robert Kendrick to take the title. He received automatic entry into the Vancouver Open starting 28 July and reached the quarterfinal before his first professional defeat, by Go Soeda.

In August 2008 Devvarman made the quarterfinal of the Legg Mason Tennis Classic, first beating Sam Warburg, Jamie Baker and Go Soeda to qualify and then beating Taylor Dent and Robert Kendrick in the main draw before losing to Russian Igor Kunitsyn.

As of 8 September 2008, Devvarman lost to world no. 18 Nicolás Almagro after winning the first set in the first round of the BCR Bucharest Open, having beaten 93rd-ranked Italian Filippo Volandri in the final round of qualifying. Devvarman ended 2008 ranked as world number 204. He had started the year at 1033.

2009

Devvarman reached his first ATP Tour final at the 2009 Chennai Open, the first tournament of the new season, beating two-time Chennai Open former champion and world number 42 Carlos Moyá of Spain and 25th ranked Ivo Karlović of Croatia. Rainer Schüttler of Germany pulled out due to injury in the semi-final meaning that Devvarman progressed to the finals. In the final of the 2009 Chennai Open he lost to Marin Čilić of Croatia, 6–4, 7–6(3).

At the year's first Grand Slam, The Australian Open, Somdev was seeded 28th in singles qualifying. He beat Prakash Amritraj 6–4, 3–6, 6–4 in his first qualifying round then lost to the unseeded Łukasz Kubot of Poland in the second round 4–6, 6–4, 7–5. After some poor results in qualifying and challenger tournaments, Somdev had a successful Davis Cup campaign, winning both his matches against Chinese Taipei, including a critical reverse singles match against world # 59 Yen-Hsun Lu by a score of 6–1, 6–2, 6–3 to lead India to victory.

In the second Grand Slam of 2009, the French Open, Devvarman was seeded 26th in singles qualifying. He defeated João Souza of Brazil 6–2, 2–6, 7–5 in the first round and ousted Brit Alex Bogdanovic 6–2, 6–7(3), 6–4 before losing to the # 3 seed and world # 96 Marcos Daniel 0–6, 1–6 and so went out of the tournament. At the third Grand Slam of the year, Wimbledon, Somdev, seeded 14th in qualifying, failed to advance to the singles draw, losing in the first round to Jean-Rene Lisnard of Monaco, 3–6, 2–6. In doubles, Devvarman and doubles partner Kevin Anderson advanced to the main draw, but lost to the 4th seeded pair Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles.

Devvarman had a poor clay and grass court season, but was more successful upon return to hard court, reaching the semi-final of the Comerica Bank Challenger. He then caused a major upset in the Legg Mason Tennis Classic, avenging his defeat in the Chennai Open against Marin Čilić. After beating Poland's Jerzy Janowicz, Devvarman became the first Indian to be in the main draw of a Grand Slam singles tournament since Prakash Amritraj in 2002.

In US Open 2009, Devvarman beat Janowicz to qualify for his first Grand Slam singles main draw. He beat Frederico Gil 6–3, 6–4, 6–3 in the first round; In the second round he lost to 24th seed Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany 6–3, 6–4, 0–6, 6–2.

2010

Devvarman reached the ATP Tour Quarterfinal of the SA Open in Johannesburg. He also reached the second round of the ATP World Tour 500 series Dubai Tennis Championships where he lost against Marcos Baghdatis. He also lead India's Davis Cup team in their match against Russia.

Somdev qualified for the 2010 French Open and lost to Switzerland's Marco Chiudinelli 6–3, 3–6, 6–3, 3–6, 6–3 in the first round. He achieved direct entry to the 2010 US Open where he lost to South Africa's Kevin Anderson 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 in the first round. Somdev competed at Wimbledon in the doubles draw with former UVA teammate, Treat Huey, where they lost to Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, 7-6(6).

On 10 October 2010, Somdev won the Men's Tennis gold medal in the Commonwealth Games 2010 at Delhi in by beating Greg Jones of Australia in straight sets. The score was 6-4 6-2. On 23 November 2010, Somdev also won the Men's Singles Tennis gold medal in the 2010 Asian Games at Guangzhou, China by beating Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan in straight sets 6-1 6-2. The day before, he had teamed up with Sanam Singh to win the Gold in Mens Doubles event.

Somdev rose to a career high ranking of 94 on 25 October.

Playing Style & Equipment

Devvarman is an all-court and mainly defensive baseline-type player; he rallies from the back of the court aiming to keep the ball in play, relying on his fitness and athleticism to wear down his opponents. He is sponsored by Lacoste and Babolat.

ATP Tour Titles

Singles

Wins (6)

Legend (Singles)

Grand Slam (0)

Barclays ATP World Tour Finals(0)

ATP World Tour Masters 1000 (0)

ATP World Tour (0)

Challengers (2)

Futures (4)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score
1.	8 March 2004	Kolkata	Clay	Yordan Kanev	6–4, 6–2
2.	7 January 2008	Wesley Chapel	Hard	Dušan Vemić	4–6, 6–4, 6–4
3.	23 June 2008	Rochester	Clay	Alexander Domijan	6–2, 6–2
4.	30 June 2008	Pittsburgh	Clay	Travis Helgeson	6–3, 6–1
5.	19 July 2008	Lexington	Hard	Robert Kendrick	6–3, 6–3
6.	26 September 2010	İzmir	Hard	Marsel İlhan	6–4, 6–3

Runner-ups (3)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in final	Score in final
1.	3 November 2008	Nashville	Hard	Robert Kendrick	6–4, 7–5
2.	5 January 2009	Chennai	Hard	Marin Čilić	6–4, 7–6
3.	8 November 2009	Charlottesville	Hard	Kevin Kim	6–4, 6–7, 6–4

Doubles

Legend (Singles)

Grand Slam (0)

Tennis Masters Cup (0)

ATP Masters Series (0)

ATP Tour (0)

Challengers (0)

Futures (3)

Wins (3)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents in the final	Score
1.	7 January 2008	Wesley Chapel	Hard	Treat Huey	Ladislav Chramosta Daniel Lustig	6–2, 6–2
2.	23 June 2008	Rochester	Clay	Treat Huey	Bryan Koniecko Justin Kronauge	6–1, 4–6, [12-10]
3.	30 June 2008	Pittsburgh	Clay	Treat Huey	Adam El Mihdawy Rhyne Williams	6–3, 6–2

Runners Up (1)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents in the final	Score
1.	13 October 2008	Wesley Chapel	Hard	Nathan Healey	Ilija Bozoljac Dušan Vemić	1–6, 6–3 [13-11]

Career Summary

To prevent confusion and double counting, information in this table is updated only once a tournament or the player's participation in the tournament has concluded. This table is current through to the 2009 US Open, from which Devvarman was eliminated on 3 September 2009.

A	A	0 / 0	0–0
Wimbledon	A	A	0 / 0	0–0
U.S. Open	A	2R	0 / 1	1–1
Grand Slam SR	0 / 0	0 / 1	0 / 1	N/A
Grand Slam Win-Loss	0–0	1–1	N/A	1–1
Indian Wells Masters	A	A	0 / 0	0 – 0
Miami Masters	A	A	0 / 0	0 – 0
Monte Carlo Masters	A	A	0 / 0	0 – 0
Rome Masters	A	A	0 / 0	0 – 0
Madrid Masters	A	A	0 / 0	0 – 0
Canada Masters	A	A	0 / 0	0 – 0
Cincinnati Masters	A	A	0 / 0	0 – 0
Shanghai Masters	N/A		0 / 0	0 – 0
Paris Masters	A		0 / 0	0 – 0
Masters SR	0 / 0	0 / 0	0 / 0	N/A
Masters Win-Loss	0–0	0–0	N/A	0–0
ATP Tournaments Played	2	4	N/A	6
ATP Final Appearances	0	1	N/A	1
ATP Titles	0	0	N/A	0
Year End Ranking	204	126	N/A	N/A

External links

• "Unofficial website of Somdev Devvarman"
• Somdev Devvarman at the Association of Tennis Professionals
• "2007 NCAA Men's Tennis Champ": Interview by Ranjit Souri in The desiConnect
• "Assam's Loss, India's Gain" in "The Telegraph" on February, 02, 2007