Somdev earns first-round win in St Petersburg

St Petersburg: Indian tennis ace Somdev Devveraman finally broke his first round jinx as he beat Slovakian Karol Beck in straight sets to advance to the second round of the St Petersburg Open on Wednesday.

Somdev steamrolled his Slovakian opponent with a 6-2, 6-3 win in just over an hour. He will meet fourth seed Marian Cilic of Croatia, who defeated Ukraine's Sergei Bubka, in the second round.

The 26-year-old Indian hardly broke a sweat as he pocketed the first set by capitalising on two break points.

Beck showed some resistance in the second set and even broke Somdev once, but the Indian did not allow his opponent to come back into the match. Somdev played with controlled aggression to clinch the second set and the match in 68 minutes.