N. Sriram Balaji missed a golden opportunity. His opponent and fifth seed Marc Fornell Mestres of Spain was struggling with the humid weather conditions and his game.
The 21-year-old wildcard entrant looked all set to close out the match when he had a match-point in the second set.
But, Sriram blundered and gave the Spaniard a keyhole of a chance which he gleefully accepted to script a 3-6, 7-6(3), 6-0 victory in the KCG Verghese memorial-ITF men's Futures tennis tournament here on Wednesday.
Mestres was supposed to play Patrik Rosenholm of Sweden in the quarterfinals.
However, he has given a walkover due to a swollen knee. Patrik outplayed P. Vignesh 6-2, 6-2.
Sriram was very effective with his serve and volley game successful in the first set. So tired was Mestres in the second game of the second set that he seemed to give up with Sriram leading 30-0 on his serve.
Sriram broke Mestres in the ninth game (5-4). Serving for the match, Sriram led 40-30 when he top-edged a forehand and later committed two double faults to squander a golden opportunity.
In the third set, both the players seemed extremely tired. Mestres was consistent while Sriram attacked and made elementary errors. “At the end of the second set, he was nervous. Then I thought, if he is not going to win, I am going to,” said Mestres.
The results (second round, Indians unless specified): V.M. Ranjeet bt Junn Mitsuhashi (Jpn) 6-3, 3-0 (conceded); Vijay Sundar Prashanth bt Christopher Rungkat (Ina) 6-4, 6-2; Marc Fornell Mestres (Esp) bt N Sriram Balaji 3-6, 7-6(3), 6-0; Vishnu Vardhan bt Jeson Patrombon (Phi) 6-4, 6-3; Vivek Shokeen bt Neeraj Elangovan 6-0, 6-2; Karan Rastogi bt Vijay Kannan 6-0, 6-1; Patrik Rosenholm (Swe) bt P. Vignesh 6-2, 6-2; Julien Dubail (Bel) bt Suresh Krishna 6-3, 6-4.
Doubles (quarterfinals): Sie Elbert (Ina) & P. Siriluethaiwattana (Tha) bt Marc Fornell Mestres (Esp) & Mike Vermeer (Lux) 2-6, 7-5 (10-6); Mark Alexander Kepler (Ger) & Amrit Narasimhan (USA) w/o Jae- Sung An & Young-Jun Kim (Kor); Vijay Sundar Prashanth & R. Arun Prakash bt Vijayant Malik & Kaza Vinayak Sharma 6-2, 2-6 (10-8); Junn Mitsuhashi (Jpn) & Christopher Rungkat (Ina) bt Arjun Kadhe & Jeson Patrombon (Phi) 6-4, 3-6 (10-8).
