Teenager Sanam Singh squandered a golden chance in the first set before being blown off court by his Japanese rival Gouichi Motomura in the third and final men's singles qualifying round of the USD 3,80,000 Kingfisher Airlines Open tennis tournament in Mumbai on Sunday.
The 18-year-old Sanam was beaten 7-6 (2), 6-2 by Motomura who fought back from 5-6 and a service break down to get past the Indian youngster into the 32-player main draw starting on Monday.
Also falling by the wayside one match short of making it to the tournament proper were two other Indian players -- Aditya Madkekar and Mustafa Ghouse -- who lost to their rivals James Auckland of Britain and Germany's Frank Moser respectively.
Madkekar, seeded seventh in the qualifiers, went down 6-2, 6-4 against the 26-year-old Auckland, seeded second in the qualifiers with a world ranking of 406.
Mumbai-born Ghouse, who had surprised compatriot Vishnu Vardhan in three sets in the second round on Saturday fell 7-6 (3), 7-6 (9) to the gangling Baden-Baden-born Moser.
The elimination of the three Indian players, the only threesome to make it to the last qualifying round, has left wild cards Rohan Bopanna, Karan Rastogi and 16-year-old Akash Wagh to carry the home country's torch in the tournament in which world no 7 Tommy Robredo of Spain and Croatian world number 11 Mario Ancic are the top two seeds.
Delhi youngster Sanam, ranked 772 in the world and seeded sixth in the qualifiers, was serving for the set at 6-5, having broken his 292nd-ranked Motomura, the top seed in this preliminary stage -- before nerves got to him and he committed a spate of unforced errors to drop serve in the next game.
After the reprieve by the inexperienced Indian, Motomura, who hits hard from the baseline and has a double-fisted backhand, toyed with him in the tie-break to run up 4-1 and 5-2 leads before clinching it 7-2 when Sanam played another loose shot.
The second set was completely dominated by the Japanese player, who was ranked as high as 134 in 2000, as he rolled over his Indian rival with a spate of winners on both the flanks.
The 26-year-old Ghouse, ranked 1043 in the world, and 773rd-ranked Madkekar also lost in straight sets to far stronger rivals though the latter forced his Germany opponent Moser to the tie-break in both the sets.
The 6-foot-6-inch Moser had celebrated his 30th birthday on Saturday by packing off India's Rahil Makharia without dropping a single game in the second round.
Ghouse, like Sanam, was serving for the opening set at 5-4 but dropped his serve and allowed his rival to storm his way back into it and win it on tie-break.
The Indian latter fought back to take the second set too to the tie-break before running out of steam.
Results:
Singles: Third and final qualifying round: Gouichi Motomura (Jpn) bt Sanam Singh (Ind) 7-6 (2), 6-2; James Auckland (GBR) bt Aditya Madkekar (Ind) 6-2, 6-4; Frank Moser (Ger) bt Mustafa Ghouse (Ind) 7-6 (3), 7-6 (9).
Second qualifying round: Gouichi Motomura (Jpn) bt Xiao Long Yin (Chn) 6-2, 6-2; Sanam Singh (Ind) w/o Christopher Marquis (Ind); James Auckland (Brit) bt Purav Raja (Ind) 6-3, 6-4; Aditya Madkekar (Ind) bt Nishank Mishra (Ind) 6-1, 6-3; Frank Moser (Ger) bt Rahil Makharia (Ind) 6-1, 6-0; Mustafa G house (Ind) bt Bt Vishnu Vardhan (Ind) 6-0, 3-6, 6-3; Martijr Van Haasteren (Ned) bt Shivang Mishra (Ind) 6-2, 6-2; James Smit (Ned) bt Arjun Goutham (Ind) 6-4, 6-7 (8), 6-1.