Devvarman first Indian to reach second round

Dubai: Qualifier Somdev Devvarman created his own little bit of history here when he became the first Indian to make it past the first round at the annual Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships.

Devvarman, who lost to Marin Cilic for the season-opening Chennai Open title in 2009, notched the best-ever singles show by an Indian in the 18-year history of the Dubai Tennis Championships by advancing to the second round of the main draw following a straight set win against Switzerland's Marco Chiudinelli on Tuesday. But yesterday he could not sustain this run as he went down in three sets 3-6, 6-3, 1-6 against Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis.

Prior to this, the best performance from an Indian was from Leander Paes who unfortunately has not won a single singles match in the three times he competed here before.

In 1997, Paes lost in three sets to Richard Krajicek. In 1999 and ranked a high No. 84, the Indian went down in straight sets to Johan Van Herck and the following year he lost to Fernando Vicente. Rohan Bopanna, who has played here just once in the 2007 qualifiers, never made it to the main draw.

Mahesh Bhupathi, another regular here, has only played in the doubles.