Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo overcomes Somdev Devvarman to reach the second round – US Open 2012
Spain’s 94th ranked player, Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo survived a late scare against the world number 473, Somdev Devvarman of India, as he defeated him in four sets 6-3, 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 in the first round of the US Open in
New York on Monday night.
Devvarman drew the first blood, as he broke the Spaniard in the opening game of the match but the Indian player could not hold his next serve, squaring off the score at 1-1. Hidalgo went on a winning spree, as he captured three
more in a row to move ahead 4-1. Devvarman won a couple of games in the rest of the set but he could not come on equal terms, losing the opener 3-6.
Unlike the previous set, Hidalgo and Devvarman managed to win their opening serves and levelled the score at 1-1. The Spanish player struck in the third and consolidated on it to attain a 3-1 advantage. Hidalgo claimed his second
breakthrough in the seventh and capitalised on them to triumph 6-2.
Third set did not see any break of serve in the first three games, with the score getting to 2-1 in favour of Devvarman. The Indian star hit a blow to his Spanish rival in the fourth and captured his next serve to go up 4-1. Devvarman
sustained his lead till the end to grab it 6-3.
Hidalgo replied by nailing a break in the fourth game of the fourth set to take a 3-1 advantage but Devvarman did not take much time to even out the proceedings at 3-3. The Spaniard struck again in the eighth to gain a 5-3 lead
but he failed to serve out the set in the following game, taking the score to 5-4. However, Devvarman did not take advantage from this life line and dropped his serve again to go down 4-6.
The Spaniard banged in four aces and made five double faults, keeping his first serve percentage at 46 and winning 29 of the 42 points on them.
Hidalgo will meet the 27th seed, Sam Querrey of USA, or Taiwanese player, Yen-Hsun Lu, in the second round.
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