Guangzhou: India’s young tennis ace Somdev Devvarman won the individual tennis event to get India it’s seventh gold medal on the eleventh day of the Asian games 2010. It is the first time an individual gold has been won in tennis.
Devvarman beat Dennis Istomin of Uzbekistan 6-1, 6-2 and the dominant win sealed India’s moment of glory in tennis at the Asiad after Somdev had yesterday played a major role in scripting the sixth gold medal win in the form of the doubles event victory.
Devvarman had inched closer to the historic tennis gold as the gritty Indian overcame a stunning second-set lapse to tame Tatsuma Ito and seal a place in the men’s singles summit clash in the semifinals.
India has won three bronze medals in men`s singles so far. Leander Paes had won it in 1994 in Hiroshima Games and Mahesh Bhupathi and Prahlad Srinath had won it during 1998 Games in Bangkok.
In total, Somdev won three medals at this edition of the Games as he had earlier won a bronze in team event as well.
India rounded off its tennis campaign with five medals, two more than what the country had got at the Doha Asian Games in 2006.
At Doha, Leander Paes had won two gold medals -- in men`s doubles with Mahesh Bhupathi and in mixed doubles with Sania Mirza.
Sania had won a sliver in the women`s singles.
The final match between Somdev and Istomin never rose to expected heights as the Uzbek was erratic and failed to curb his unforced errors, which helped Somdev`s cause.
The Indian broke the Uzbek twice in the opening set to take a comfortable 5-0 and served it out in the seventh game, having dropped his own in the sixth.
The second set was no different as Somdev again rode on double break after initial resistance from Istomin to seal the gold medal.
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