If you haven’t heard of Indian tennis player Somdev Devvarman, you might want to start taking notice. American Taylor Dent certainly did today as he went down in defeat in three sets during the first round of the Legg Mason Classic in Washington, DC.
Devvarman who just turned pro in June, won the match 7-6 (3), 2-6, 6-1 to advance to the next round. While you might be wondering if Devvarman belongs to the rising group of youngsters currently making noise on the ATP tour, he is in fact already 23 years old and a veteran of College tennis in the United States.
While playing for the University of Virginia, Devvarman amassed am impressive 44-1 record at the College level this past year. He made college tennis history by making it to the NCAA finals three times in a row, and came away a winner on the last two.
Referencing the longer road it took him to reach the pro tour, Devvarman said that he and fellow former College player John Isner have, ‘both done four years in school, we’ve experienced something different…from being a generic pro tennis player.’
‘I’ve had such a great time in college that I wouldn’t trade it in for anything.’
This year Devvarman has also enjoyed much success at the Futures and Challenger level. He won a hard court future and two clay court future’s earlier in the year. He then won the hard court Challenger tournament in Lexington three weeks ago, beating five players inside the top 200 in the world. Devvarman’s ranking at the time – 566. Some of the names he beat en route to the title are familiar in the tennis world; Bobby Reynolds, Andrea Stoppini, Xavier Malisse and Robert Kendrick. Impressive notches in the belt of someone so inexperienced at that level of play.
Although Dent has not had much match play after his two year injury layoff, he still represented a more powerful opponent than the 5’11’, 160lb Devvarman was accustomed to. Dent’s booming serves regularly topped 130mph while Devvarman’s were lucky to crack 115mph. Dent also brought a style of play rarely seen anymore. He is one of the few serve and volley guys left on tour.
Devvarman eventually took advantage of Dent’s lack of match play and waited for the American’s errors to pile up and his fitness level to drop. Dent acknowledged this in an interview we had after the match.
‘For playing me right now, for playing a guy like me who’s just coming back, not fresh, it’s a great strategy cause I’m gonna make a lot of errors and I’m gonna get tired out there.’
‘The adjustments I would have had to make today I just didn’t have the legs to make them…but that’s where it’s tough being a serve and volleyer, you have to move faster.’
All things being equal, Dent did put up a good fight for a guy who is still trying to find his game and his stamina. He plans now to return to Florida and work at the Bollettieri Academy on his legs and his cardio to prepare for a strong 2009 showing. He decided against asking for a wild card into the US Open later this month.
‘Right now just playing three sets out here is pretty taxing on my body and I just need a little more time to get ready for the three out of five sets.’
‘What I’m really aiming for, my big goal is the Australian Open.’
It sounds that while Taylor Dent still needs time for his body to return to form, mentally he has developed a well thought-out plan that we can only hope he can execute.
