Somdev Dev Varman during his match at the Chennai Open on Tuesday. (AFP)

Chennai: It was a night of thrills for the goodly crowd at the Nungambakkam tennis stadium on Tuesday as local favourite Somdev Dev Varman moved into the second round with a 7-5, 6-2 victory over Germany’s Rainer Schuettler at the $450,000 Chennai Open.

The runner-up in the last edition here, the 24-year-old Indian Davis Cupper held the upper hand throughout to set up a clash with fourth seed Serb Janko Tipsarevic.

Earlier, the tournament said goodbye to its top seed, Robin Soderling, who suffered a 6-4, 7-5 loss at the hands of American Robby Ginepri. Last year, it was Somdev versus the 32-year-old German in the semi-final here and the Indian moved to the final after Schuettler gave a walk over.

On Tuesday, Somdev had this in mind but said he was not there to prove anything.

“I wasn’t there to prove a point,” Somdev reacted sharply, after the match. “I was out there to win a first round match and that’s that.”

Everyone around was sceptical about the chances of the three Indians in the singles main draw. While Prakash Amritraj and Rohan Bopanna went down to their respective rivals without offering much resistance, Somdev was the toast of the crowd with his gritty display and impressive court craft.

Amritraj fell to Michael Russell of the US 3-6, 1-6, while Bopanna proved no match for third seed Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka as he went down 1-6, 4-6. Somdev overcame initial hiccups — he was broken on his very first serve — to reassure the apprehensive crowd with a quick break-back. That lifted his confidence to a level where he was returning almost everything that was thrown at him from difficult angles.

Once the crowd realised it was certain to be Somdev’s day, the clapping and chanting became louder. As if to acknowledge the gesture the fans, Somdev broke the German twice more to pocket the first set. The Indian was the runaway winner in the second set, which proved to be completely one-sided as the German dropped his serve twice.

Fresh from his victory over Roger Federer in an exhibition event last week at Abu Dhabi, Soderling reached Chennai high on confidence but the Swede could never find his bearings against Ginepri’s attacking play.

“Everything went wrong,” Soderling admitted after the straight sets defeat on Centre Court. “I haven’t lost like this in a long time. I didn’t feel comfortable. It was tough moving. Hopefully, my form for the season will change,” said a Soderling.

In the beginning, the setting was just perfect for the Swede. While the handful of Swedish fans came armed with banners and flags, joining them in cheering Soderling were the local spectators who backed him till the end of the encounter.

Ginepri, however, was in no mood to oblige his opponent. Ranked 100th in the world, Ginepri was known as a giant killer when he was in his best form, five years ago. That was a time when he defeated big names like Carlos Moya, David Ferrer and Marat Safin. He showed promise but could never really fulfil it.

Ginepri, who served 11 aces, broke Soderling in the seventh game to take a firm grip on the first set. The Swede hit back by breaking Ginepri in the second game of the second set but conceded the advantage by dropping serve in the seventh game.

Soderling’s poor service proved to be his undoing as he committed a double fault to lose the 11th game.