Tennis:Ireland's Louk Sorensen's debut appearance at an ATP Tour event proved a fleeting one as he bowed out in the first round of the Chennai Open , losing 6-2 6-1 to France's Stephane Robert in India.
Sorensen, ranked 293 in the world, had come through as a qualifier, entering the main draw of an ATP event for the first time in three attempts.
But the Frenchman proved too powerful for the Stuttgart-native as he blazed his way through the first set.
Robert broke in the third game of the second set, winning on his second break point and broke again in the fifth and seventh games to seal victory in an hour and 11 minutes.
Sorensen will now attempt to qualify for the Australian Open later this month.
There was a major upset in Chennai today as America’s Robby Ginepri stunned top seed and world number eight Robin Soderling.
Soderling, 25, who began the year with a first victory over Roger Federer in an exhibition match in Abu Dhabi last week, was knocked out in an hour and 31 minutes.
The Swede began solidly but his game crumbled and he produced far too many errors. Ginepri, pounding away from the baseline, broke in the seventh game and sealed the first set with an ace.
The American lined up three break points in the first game of the second set but Soderling levelled at deuce and came up with two aces to hold serve.
The Swede then broke Ginepri but it was all downhill from there and the American broke back in the eighth and again in the 11th, before serving out for the match.
Soderling conceded he was squarely beaten.
“Everything went wrong for me,” he said. “I wasn’t hitting the ball well, I didn’t take my chances and he took his. It doesn’t matter whether you have two break points or three, you still have to take them.”
Last year’s finalist, India Davis Cup player Somdev Devvarman, overcame veteran Rainer Schuettler 7-5 6-2. Devvarman had trailed 3-5 in the first set but won six games in a row to gain the edge. He then went 2-0 up in the second and eventually sealed the tie.
In other first-round matches, third seed Stanislas Wawrinka strolled through with a 6-1 6-4 win over India’s Rohan Bopanna, Michael Russel defeated home qualifier Prakash Amritraj 6-3 6-1, Slovenia’s Lukas Lacko beat Taipei’s Lu Yen-Hsun 6-4 6-3 and Holland’s Robin Haase beat Yang Tsung-Hua 6-4 6-3.
There were also wins for Germany’s Michael Berrer, Israel’s Dudi Sela and Kevin Kim of the US.