By Anand Philar
Chennai, Jan 6 (IANS) Janko Tipsarevic, the 25-year-old from Serbia, extinguished the last of Indian challenge in singles as he blasted to a 6-2, 6-1 win over Somdev Devvarman and booked a berth in the quarter-finals of the $400,000 ATP Aircel Chennai Open tennis tournament, here Wednesday.

Wild card Devvarman, the 24-year-old Davis Cup star who shot to fame by reaching the final here last year, was hardly in the frame tonight against an opponent who played solid, if unspectacular, tennis.

Tipsarevic’s superiority was fairly obvious as he served better, showed excellent mobility and courtcraft that more than made up for the occasional errors that he committed in the course of the 78-minute encounter.

In contrast, Somdev did his best to move his opponent about and did come up with a few delectable winners on both flanks, but overall, the difference in level of play was far too glaring to be discounted.

Somdev did not have much to show in the first set that started with two breaks of serve apiece. It was the 38th ranked Tipsarevic who called the shots with his powerful groundstrokes and superior netplay.

From 2-2, Tipsarevic took control to win the next four games by breaking Devvarman in the fifth and seventh. He carried the momentum into the second set by breaking Devvarman in the third game to stamp his authority on the proceedings that then turned academic as the Serb won in a canter.