Singh pulls upset at VNB

It was a good news and bad news situation for the Virginia tennis program at the Virginia National Bank Men’s Pro Championships on Tuesday.

The good news was that UVa junior Sanam Singh pulled off a shocking upset of Grega Zemlja, the No. 156th-ranked player in the world. Singh, an NCAA semifinalist last spring, won 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 to advance to a second-round match against Scoville Jenkins on Thursday.

The bad news? Due to the upset, Singh will not be able to join his UVa teammates in the ITA National Indoor Championships that begin on Thursday in New Haven, Conn. Because of a Challenger Tour fine that prohibits players from pulling out of events, Singh’s only reasonable choice is to continue playing in the tournament.

Singh never really thought he’d be in the predicament.

“[UVa coach Brian Boland] was just like, ‘Give it a shot and see how it goes in qualies and we’ll see what happens,’” Singh said. “But I wasn’t thinking about [missing ITA].”

Four wins later, Singh finds himself in the second round.

In other action from Tuesday, Michael Russell, the tournament’s top seed and the 85th-ranked player in the world, rallied to defeat Michael McClune. He’ll take on Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov in the featured second-round match tonight at around 8 p.m.

Jenkins advanced to face Singh with a 6-1, 5-7, 6-3 victory over Cory Parr.

Hometown hero Somdev Devvarman defeated Denes Lukacs 6-3, 2-6, 7-5 in the night’s final match.

In the featured doubles match on Tuesday evening that preceded Devvarman’s match, No. 1-seeded Treat Huey (Devvarman’s former teammate) and Harsh Mankad, lost to Parr and Todd Paul in straight sets.

In notable action today, Donald Young, who upset former top 20 player Vince Spadea on Monday night, takes on fourth-seeded Kevin Anderson of Russia.

Meanwhile, former Virginia standout Dom Inglot takes on 7th-seeded Roko Karanusic of Croatia sometime after 2 p.m.

Against Zemlja, Singh showed great resiliency. After blowing a match point and dropping five straight games to lose the second set, Singh rallied to win in the third.

“I got my second wind and kind of surprised myself,” said Singh. “I’ve been hitting the ball really well and just taking advantage of some opportunities. I feel really good about myself right now. I wanted to play this tournament to see where I stand in my game and how much better I need to get to reach the consistency level of these guys.”

Singh doesn’t know anything about Jenkins, his opponent on Thursday. However, he said he planned to get a scouting report from Devvarman, his former teammate.

“I’m just going to go out there and play my game,” he said, “and hopefully I can do well.”