Melbourne: India’s Somdev Dev Varman is a step away from the Australian Open singles main draw after his three-set win against Germany’s Tobias Kamke here Friday.

The Indian overcame an indifferent start to beat his opponent 2-6, 6-1, 8-6 in the second round of the qualifying event.

Somdev, ranked 161, will take on world No.126 and 12th seed Blaz Kavcic of Slovenia in the third and final round of the qualifiers.

Prakash Amritraj and Yuki Bhambri had also entered the qualifying event, but lost in the second and first round respectively.

After three failed attempts, Somdev entered the singles event of a Grand Slam for the first time last year, when he qualified for the US Open and reached the second round.

Before that, Prakash Amritraj was the last Indian to play in a Grand Slam when he entered the US Open in 2002 as a wild card entrant.

Somdev in the first round had made short work of local lad James Duckworth, defeating him 6-2, 6-1, who was seeded 27 in the qualifying draw.