By IANS,
Calabasas : India’s Somdev Devvarman blew up a set lead against American Alex Bogomolov jr to crash out of the opening round of the $50,000 Mercedes Benz tennis Challenger tournament.
Somdev began on a right note by winning the first set, but lost steam thereafter to be beaten 6-4, 4-6, 3-6, by the American on the hard court here Tuesday.
Bogomolov next meets eight-seed Frank Dancevic who was also stretched to three sets by American wild card Michael McClune before winning 4-6, 6-3 7-6(1).
In the doubles, Prakash Amritraj continued his winning run when he and his partner American Alex Kuznetsov edged past Australian Colin Ebelthite and Canadian Peter Polansky 6-2,4-6 11-9 to move into the quarter-finals.
Amritraj and Kuznetsov can face Somdev and his Australian partner Nathan Healey in the quarters if the India-Australia pair manage to overcome the challenge of third-seeded Izak van der Merwe of South African and American Todd Widom in the opening round.