India's Somdev Devvarman advanced to his second ever semi-final on the ATP Tour with a 3-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-1 victory over local favourite Rik De Voest at the SA Tennis Open in Johannesburg. The Commonwealth gold medallist has been this far in an ATP event only once before when he reached the finals of the ATP event in Chennai.
Devvarman's opponent in the semis will be another South African Izak van der Merwe . The 170th ranked wild card entrant defeated Simon Greul of Germany 7-6 (5), 6-2. The 170th-ranked Van der Merwe broke his opponent twice in the second set to win at Montecasino.
Devvarman reached the quarter-finals here last year and besides defending those points, he will gain an additional 45 ranking points atleast which will move him back close to his career best ranking of #94. A win in the semis tomorrow will assure him of a new career best ranking in the late 70s next week.
Meanwhile in the ITF Futures in Cambodia, top seed Karan Rastogi beat compatriot Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan 6-1, 6-0 to advance to the finals where he will face another Indian Vijau Sundar Prashanth, who beat Arata Onozawa, of Japan, 6-2, 7-5. The result will ensure that Rastogi will move into the top 300 in the world for the first time in his career when the points gets added to his ranking. A commendabl effort for someone who was not ranked at all just 16 months ago due to injury.
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