GUANGZHOU, Nov 23 (PTI): Somdev Devvarman added a historic singles gold to his men�s doubles triumph with an upset win over world number 40 Denis Istomin as India rounded off its tennis campaign at the Asian Games with five medals here today.
Second seed Somdev entered history books with his superb 6-1, 6-2 win in the final over the top seed Uzbek as no Indian had won a gold medal in the event at the Asian Games before.
Somdev, ranked 106, won his second gold in as many days at the Games as he had combined with Sanam Singh to win men�s doubles event yesterday.
Just last month only Somdev had won men�s singles gold at the Commonwealth Games and has been the face of India on the ATP Tour in singles for quite some time. The gritty Indian fell on his back on the court with tears in his eyes when a forehand error by Istomin confirmed Somdev�s gold medal.
�I am very, very happy to get the gold here. It�s a dream come true. No one comes to an Asian Games with the intention of winning two gold medals. Representing the country gives me the greatest pleasure,� said Somdev. India had three bronze medals in men�s singles to show so far at the Games with Leander Paes (Hiroshima in 1994), Mahesh Bhupathi (Bangkok in 1998) and Prahlad Srinath (Bangkok in 1998) winning them in the last decade.
In total, Somdev won three medals at this edition of the Games as he had earlier won a bronze in team event as well.
India rounded off its tennis campaign with five medals, two more than what the country had got at the Doha Asian Games in 2006.
At Doha, Leander Paes had won two gold medals � in men�s doubles with Mahesh Bhupathi and in mixed doubles with Sania Mirza. Sania had won a sliver in the women�s singles.
Somdev broken his rival�s serve thrice in the opening set to clinch it 6-1 when Istomin, ranked 44th as compared to the Indian�s 106th going into the event, hit his forehand shot over the baseline. Somdev, who handled the pressure of playing the all-important gold medal match much better than his rival, staved off an early break attempt by Istomin in the second set by hanging on to his serve grimly in the third game of the second set, got an early break and then dropped his serve immediately.
But getting a second wind, the Indian raced away from 3-2 to 6-2 by breaking Istomin twice more, in the sixth and eighth games, to complete a memorable outing at this South Chinese city. Somdev�s golden double in the men�s individual event is the first time the feat has been accomplished in the Games history in 24 years after Korean Yoo Jin Sun performed the coveted job in 1986 at home in Seoul.
Somdev, who came into the Games after guiding India into the Davis Cup World Group with a come-from-behind 3-2 stunning victory over Brazil in Chennai followed by his golden run in the Commonwealth Games singles event.
