NEWSPost India

If CWG was all about shooter Gagan Narang, Asian Games for India has been all about Somdev Devvarman. The ace tennis star romped home the singles gold medal to make it a grand double for himself and for India. Somdev beat Uzbekistan’s Denis Istomin in straight sets 6-1, 6-2. This is the first time ever in Asian Games history that an Indian men’s tennis player has won a gold medal.

Somdev began the match with a bang breaking Istomin in the very first game and then going to hold his own serve for a quick 2-0 lead. He continued with the momentum early in the 3rd game when he won 2 break points but the big serving Uzbek kept himself in the hunt with some long rallies going his way. But, after an unending game that lasted no less than 15 minutes, Somdev came up with a baseline stunner to clinch advantage and Istomin double faulted immediately afterwards to give Indian the game.

With 2 early breaks, Somdev was never really going to lose momentum and that is what happened in the remainder of the first set as he broke Istomin for the 3rd game in a row and although Istomin engineered a mini comeback breaking Somdev for the first time in the 6th game of the set, it was a case of too little too late for the Uzbek as Somdev broke back again to wrap up the first set 6-1. The one-sided nature of the first set score was largely due to huge number of unforced errors from Istomin although Somdev controlled the proceedings to perfection. Istomin never got his first serve going in the first set and the same was the case early on in the second set.

His poor serve came back to haunt him in the 4th game of the second set when Somdev grabbed two break point opportunities. Istomin double-faulted at that juncture and gifted Somdev the vital break, which saw the Indian go into a 3-1 lead. A frustrated Istomin didn’t let himself down and broke Somdev right back to get the games back on serve in the set.

Istomin’s poor serve came back to kill his chances again in the very next game as Somdev broke him to love and went ahead 4-2. In what was an absolutely crucial game after that, Somdev dished out his best tennis of the match to go ahead 5-2. That lead proved to be decisive as Somdev finished off the match in style by winning the second set 6-2