Johannesburg, Sep 18 - India's No. 1 Somdev Devvarman lived up to expectations, overpowering South Africa's second singles player Izak van der Merwe 7-6 (5), 6-3, 6-4 in the first rubber of the Davis Cup World Group tennis play-off at the Ellis Park Indoor Arena here Friday.

The 133rd-ranked Somdev was favoured to win the match, having earlier beaten the 290th-ranked van der Merwe in straight sets at the Aptos challenger quarters in July. The Indian took two hours and 13 minutes to close out the match.

Rohan Bopanna, India's second singles player will now play South Africa's top player Rik de Voest, in the second singles.

Somdev, the hero of India's away win against Chinese Taipei in Februaury, was given a stiff fight in the first set by Van der Merwe, whose impeccable volleying neutralised the powerful backcourt play of the Indian.

But the Indian shifted gears in the next two sets, complementing his groundstrokes with some strategic net play. As the South African lapsed into errors, Somdev came up with spectacular backhand hitting to make the set one-sided.

However, that was not the case in the first set. The two players served big and barring facing break points in two successive games, Somdev in the eighth and van der Merwe in the the ninth, neither had difficulty holding.

The set entered a tie-break where Somdev cruised to a 5-2 lead and when van der Merwe double faulted at 6-5, India was 1-0 up.

Somdev was in control in the second set, stroking freely and passing the South African easily.