In the end it was down to one bad service game that proved costly for Rohan Bopanna. India's top-ranked player went down fighting to eighth seed Wesley Moodie of South Africa 3-6, 6-7 (5), 6-4 in the first round of the Kingfisher Open in Mumbai on Tuesday night.
Earlier in the evening, Mario Ancic and Mahesh Bhupathi had an easy time at office, blasting their way past India's wild card entrants Akash Wagh and Christopher Marquis and winning 6-0, 6-1 in the first round of the doubles competition.
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Bhupathi-Ancic, seeded third, showed what separates the men from the boys on the tour as they crushed their opponents on centre court.
Karan Rastogi and Sanam Singh were also beaten, 3-6, 3-6, in the first round by Igor Kunitsyn and Rik de Voest.
Bopanna, ranked more then 200 places below Moodie, came out confident from his doubles victory on Monday night, when he and Mustafa Ghouse toppled top seeds Alexander Peya and Bjorn Phau in straight sets.
"It helped that we won the match last night. I had a better feel of the court and playing under lights," said Bopanna after the match.
He served on target and showed great control in rallies. Down 30-40 in the third game, Bopanna served two aces and closed out the game with a service winner. The players traded breaks in the next two games, but the Indian youngster took the lead when he won eight points in a row, breaking Moodie at love in the sixth game.
Once into the lead, he maintained his hold and won a long rally when Moodie hit a forehand into the net to. That gave him the first set.
The second set ran a lot closer, with Bopanna surviving three break points and Moodie five, as the players called in their big serves to get them out of tricky situations.
But the momentum swung Moodie's way as he nearly aced out Bopanna in the second set tie-break. He got the mini-break on Bopanna's second service point and closed out the set at 7-5.
"Having a good serve helped," explained Moodie. "I was not feeling that fresh in the beginning, not only because I came in late but also I was playing a match after a long time. I made some unforced errors on my volleys in the first set but it got better as the match progressed. I was also feeling a lot fresher and was more clued into the situation."
A lapse in concentration in the opening game meant that Bopanna was playing chase to Moodie in the third set. A couple of close line calls against him, especially an ace that was granted to Moodie at 30-40 in the fourth game, proved crucial.
Moodie served 19 aces in the match, two in his last service game to win the set 6-4 and the match in two hours and five minutes.
"I had come expecting a tough match," said Moodie later.
"If Bopanna can concentrate on his serves and reduce the number of unforced errors he can pose a threat to a lot of top players," were his encouraging words for the Indian player.