Somdev crashes out of Australian Open

Melbourne: India's campaign in the singles event of the Australian Open came to an end today after Somdev Devvarman went down to 26th seed Feliciano Lopez of Spain in straight sets in the opening round here.

The unseeded Indian showed a lot of fighting spirit before going down 4-6 4-6 6-7 (2) to World No. 27 in a two-hour and 13 minutes men's singles contest here at the Melbourne Park.

Lopez will now take on unseeded German Michael Berrer, who knocked out Michael Llodra of France 6-4 7-5 6-1.

World number 97 Indian won a total of 89 points as compared to Lopez's 110.

In the first set, Somdev got a great opportunity to make his mark as he got as many as two break points, but the 28-year-old failed to convert even one.

Lopez, on the other hand, used the lone break point he got to his advantage and easily sealed the set in his favour.

In the second set, Somdev showed a lot of improvement as he managed to save two of the three break points that Lopez had got, but he conceded one to go down yet again.

Somdev, however, came out all guns blazing in the third set as he gave a tough competition to his higher ranked opponents.

Both the players converted two break points each to push the match to the tie-breaker. But in the end, Lopez raised his game to beat the Indian comfortably.

Somdev had lost in the second round of the men's singles in 2013.