ATP Challenger: Bhambri takes Somdev apart

CHENNAI: Yuki Bhambri is on a roll. On Friday in the $50,000 ATP Challenger tournament at the SDAT stadium, India's No 2 player booked himself a place in the singles and doubles finals playing authoritative tennis.
This comes on the back of his Davis Cup exploits last week and Yuki gave the impression that he is on his way to taking over the mantle of India's No.1 singles player.
The Delhi-lad thrashed current India No 1 and top seed Somdev Devvarman 6-2, 6-4 in the singles semifinal before powering his way to the doubles finals with Michael Venus. The Indo-New Zealand pair took less than an hour to give Ruben Gonzales-Artem Sitak a 6-2, 6-1 hiding.
The script for India got better when TN's Sriram Balaji and Slovenian partner Blaz Rola defeated Ti Chen and Marek Semjan 6-3, 7-6 in the other semifinal.
In the singles semifinal between India's top players at the Centre Court, Yuki dictated play right from the start. Yuki didn't let Devvarman warm-up to the occasion, stretching his opponent's opening service game to a deuce. Yuki went a step further on his Davis Cup teammate's second service game, getting a double breakpoint opportunity at 15-40, but Devvarman escaped with a lucky net-chord.
But Devvarman's luck ran out soon. Yuki broke him in the next two service games to wrap up the set 6-2.
The second set started in the same fashion with Yuki breaking Devvarman in the first game. The top seed, who was feeling the heat, whipped a ball out of the stands after losing the serve and an early end looked a possibility. Yuki had been serving well and Devvarman's body language didn't suggest a comeback. But the experienced pro suddenly shifted gears and started attacking more to get the set back on serve. The trend continued as the set saw seven break of serves.
At 5-4, Yuki was able to serve out the match under pressure, making his third Challenger final. Yuki will play Russia's Alexander Kudryavtsev who defeated compatriot Evgeny Donskoy 7-6, 6-3 in the other semifinal.