Somdev in 2nd round of South African Open

Johannesburg, Feb 1 (PTI) Indian tennis ace SomdevDevvarman eased into the second round of the ATP South AfricanOpen with a straight-set win over local hope Raven Klaasen inhis opening match here.

Somdev defeated the local qualifier 6-4 6-3 in hislung-opener of the USD 442,500 event.

The Indian faces a tough challenge from here on as hisvery next opponent could be third seed Serb Janko Tipsarevic,who would be squaring off against the Netherlands'' Jesse Hutain his opening match.

Somdev, who was a quarter-finalist in the event lastyear, relied on his powerful serve from the very beginning anddid not offer a single break chance to his rival in theopening set.

The Indian converted one of the four break points heearned in the first set to nose ahead.

The Commonwealth and Asian Games gold-medallist thendominated the second set and broke Klaasen twice, besidessaving a break, to wrap up the issue in one hour and 23minutes.