New Delhi, April 27 (Inditop) India’s Srirambalaji Narayanaswamy blew up a set advantage to go down 6-4, 2-6, 0-6 to the fifth-seeded Japanese Hiroki Moriya in the first round of the $15,000 International Tennis Federation (ITF) tournament at the DLTA complex here Monday.
The 19-year-old Balaji, National runner-up, benifitted from his opponent’s erratic play in the first set, but struggled with his serve, hitting as many as 12 double-faults.
To make matters worse for Balaji, Moriya came back with vengeance and attacked his weak backhand for easy points.
The two traded breaks twice in the first set before Balaji pulled off the decisive one in the tenth game.
Moriya broke Balaji in the first and the fifth game to take the second set and a dispirited Balaji made a string of errors in the decider to go down without making a fight of it. Moriya won seven games in a row to take the set and the match.
In the other first round matches, Ronak Manuja went down 6-3, 7-5 to Belgian Alexandre Folie while fourth seed Goran Tosic from Montenegro showed door to Tushar Liberhan 6-3, 6-1.
rounak