Name of the sportsperson: Somdev Devvarman
Discipline: Tennis
Date of Birth: 13 February1985
State: Guwahati, Assam
Achievements and Awards
• French Open 2010, qualified for Singles main draw.
• August 2010, breaks into the top 100 at 96
• In 2010, he won the Gold medal in the Men's Single event of XIXth Commonwealth games.
• In November 2010, he became the first player since Japan’s Toshiro Sakai to win singles and doubles gold medals at the Asian games.
• In 2011, Devvarman received the Arjuna Award from the Indian government for his national tennis successes.
• On 20 September 2011, he was presented the Arjuna Award by Indian Sports Minister Ajay Makken.
• In February 2011, he was named Sports Person of the Year with cricketer Sachin Tendulkar in the Sports Illustrated India Annual Awards in Bangalore.
Profile
Somdev Devvarman began playing tennis at age 9 in Chennai. After competing on the Indian circuit all through his childhood, he hit the headlines as a student at the University of Virginia, USA, for being the only collegiate player to have made three consecutive finals at the NCAA Singles Championships (2006- 08), winning it back to back in his junior and senior years. Only three other players have matched that record since 1950.
He won the gold medal in the Men’s Singles event of the XIXth Commonwealth Games in Delhi, 2010, followed by two more gold medals (singles and doubles) at the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou, China, setting a new Indian record. In 2011, Devvarman received the Arjuna Award from the Indian government for his national tennis successes.
