India's Devvarman and Sania Mirza reach tennis finals

NEW DELHI: India's Somdev Devvarman pulled off the first leg of what he hopes will be an Australian double to reach the men's singles final at the Commonwealth Games tennis tournament on Friday.

The top seed won through 6-3, 6-1 against Matt Ebden and will face another Australian, Greg Jones, in the final.

Devvarman, who has broken into the ATP world top 100 this year after a successful college-playing career in the United States, opened strongly with a break of serve to lead 2-0, but Ebden was soon back on level terms with a break of his own.

Cheered on by a small but vociferous block of fans, Devvarman secured a second break of serve in the seventh game to move into a 5-3 lead and broke again in the following game on the back of an Ebden double-fault.

The fleet-footed Indian was in full control of the exchanges and with Ebden struggling to stay with him, the top seed pounced again in the fifth game of the second set to take a 3-1 lead.

When he added another break two games later it was all over as Devvarman stayed on course to become the first ever Commonwealth Games tennis champion.

The other semi-final opposed two Australians, and it was fifth-seed Jones who battled through a strength-sapping encounter to defeat second seed Peter Luczak 6-7, 6-4, 6-2.

In the first of the women's semi-finals, Indian glamour girl Sania Mirza clawed her way back from a 1-6, 1-3 deficit to defeat young Australian Olivia Rogowska 1-6, 6-4, 6-4.

She will play the winner of the other semi-final opposing two Australians - top seed Anastasia Rodionova and fourth seed Sally Peers.