Somdev Devvarman - Back where he belongs

Somdev Devvarman – on the comeback trail

At the end of 2012, there were some serious questions being asked of Somdev Devvarman. The Indian, the highest ranked from the country since Ramesh Krishnan in the late 1980s, had been nearly six months into his comeback from shoulder surgery but showed few signs of getting back to winning form.

In the first six events post his comeback, Devvarman failed to win a single match – six losses in a row including one each to the world no. 228 and world no. 812 made fans wonder if he would ever be back among the game’s elite. His ranking had dropped from a peak of no. 62 in July 2011 to no. 733 in October 2012.

It was not until late October in his final tournament of the season that Devvarman finally won a match – and then another before losing in the quarter-finals of the ATP Challenger in Charlottesville. Next week, just four months later, Somdev will climb to around no. 255 in the world rankings and he could climb further if he wins his second round match at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Wednesday. In spite of his low ranking, Somdev has been able to participate in the main ATP events this season by virtue of his protected ranking. And Devvarman has made the most of the opportunities afforded to him by that protected ranking.

Dubai is his fifth ATP event of the 2013 season and the Indian has won one round in each of those five events – some of his wins coming against quality opponents. Somdev began the year with a win over world no. 106 Jan Hajek in Chennai before going down to world no. 6 Tomas Berdych in the second round. He followed that with a win over Bjorn Phau at the Australian Open before going down to Poland’s Jerzy Janowicz in five sets in the second. In Zagreb, Somdev beat 125th-ranked Michael Berrer before losing to world no. 29 Jurgen Melzer in three sets. And in Marseille, Somdev defeated 39th ranked Benoit Paire before falling to 46th ranked Bernard Tomic.

There have been plenty of positives for Somdev – his shoulder is not giving him any trouble as of now – and he is beginning to win matches consistently once again, beating players he should be beating and some who he should not. In Dubai on Monday, the Indian scored a first round win over world no. 167 Igor Kunitsyn. Somdev had never beaten the Russian in three previous matches but in front of a largely Indian crowd, Somdev proved too consistent for the big hitting Kunitsyn and won 6-1, 6-4.

Somdev’s reward is a second round showdown with former US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro, who saved matchpoints and needed a third-set tiebreaker to defeat Marcos Baghdatis on Tuesday which means he could be weary when he meets Somdev on Wednesday. Add to that, del Potro’s wrist, which kept him out for several months in 2010, seems to be bothering him a bit again.

Devvarman and del Potro have never met on the tour before and the match should hang on the Argentine’s racket. If del Potro can manage to hit more winners and force errors from the Indian, he should win easily. However, if del Potro’s groundstrokes are misfiring, then the Indian could have a shot with his steady counterpunching game.

In October, when Somdev was down in 700s in the rankings, he was ranked in the late 20s among Indian tennis players. Regardless of what happens against del Potro on Wednesday, he will be surge ahead and be India’s #2 player, just a few spots behind Yuki Bhambri, who is playing an ITF Futures this week and an ATP Challenger event next week in Kazakhstan.

The top 100 is still a bit further away for the Indian. But with Devvarman not defending any points until the Olympics, he should soon be back where he belongs – as India’s top-ranked singles player.