Stockholm Open: Another first-round exit for Somdev

Indian tennis star Somdev Devvarman's first-round jinx continued as he lost in straight sets to German wild card Tommy Haas to bow out of the Stockholm Open.

The unseeded Indian, who is aiming to break into top-50 by the end of the season, went down fighting 6-7 (6), 4-6 after one hour and 25 minutes in the first round of the euro 600,000 hard court event.

It was the first meeting between 84th ranked Somdev and Haas, who was world number two in 2002 but is now languishing at number 290 in the ranking charts.

Now, in a period of about four months, Somdev has managed to win only two matches in eight tournaments, including the Davis Cup tie against Japan.

The Indian challenge is still alive in the competition as top seeded-pair of Indian Rohan Bopanna and his Pakistani partner Aisam-ul-haq Qureshi take on Austrian Julian Knowle and Poland's Likaaz Kubot in the opening round.