Somdev Stuns World No. 31 Raonic, Sania Loses to Kirilenko


Miami, March 26 (IANS) India had mixed luck at the Sony Ericsson Open tennis tournament as Somdev Devvarman pulled off a sensational 7-6(5), 7-5 victory over world No.31 Milos Raonic of Canada to enter the third round of the men's singles, while their top woman player Sania Mirza lost to Russian Maria Kirilenko 7-5, 3-6, 0-6, here Friday.

Somdev, who touched the career high rank of 73 this week, broke the Canadian's service four times to win the match in just over two hours.

The 26-year-old Indian next plays the winner of the match between sixth seed David Ferrer of Spain and qualifier Igor Kunitsyn of Russia.

Raonic, who got a bye in the first round, had won his first career ATP title earlier this year.

Somdev has had a terrific run in the last one month, having beaten three top 50 players -- Marcos Baghdatis (20) and Xavier Malaisse (45) at the BNP Paribas World Tour Masters at Indian Wells before losing to World No. 1 Rafael Nadal and before coming to play on the US circuit he beat Janko Tipsarevic (44) in the Davis Cup tie against Serbia.

He also gave good account of himself against then World No. 2 Roger Federer in Dubai.

Sania, who beat Kirilenko in their both previous meetings, looked like maintaining her unbeaten record against the Russian when she took the first set. But the 27th ranked Russian broke the 99th ranked Indian midway the second set, and thereafter, there was no looking back for her.

Sania had a couple of opportunities to break back but her serve let her down.

A set-all, Kirlienko breezed through the decider, giving no chance to the Indian to get back into the match.

  

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Title: Somdev Stuns World No. 31 Raonic, Sania Loses to Kirilenko



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