It was a case of missed chances as Prakash Amritraj and Rohan Bopanna went down in the title clash to Michal Mertinak and Petr Pala at the Chennai Open doubles event on Sunday.
The Indian pair let a lead of 5-0 slip in the second set to lose 6-2, 7-5 in the final at the packed SDAT stadium.
Amritraj and Bopanna played at extremes, from dazzling to sluggish. Unfortunately their spurts of brilliance were far outlasted. They set the tone of the match for the first two games but fizzled out quickly.
Bopanna lost his first service game to give Mertinak-Pala a 2-1 lead in the opening set. The Czech-Slovak pair played a steady game, with Pala pulling out some amazing shots on close points.
Even if we discount the lack of experience of Amritraj and Bopanna, how they could lose after a rocking 5-0 start to the first set was baffling. They won 11 consecutive points, starting with Mertinak's service game in the set, but couldn't sustain the momentum and cracked under pressure.
"Actually at 5-0 down we were already thinking of the match tie-break," said Pala during the post-match press conference. "The guys should have taken the set after that, but we didn't give them any free points."
With them serving for the set 5-1, Bopanna dished out a poor service game, conceding it at love.
"I guess I had a bad service game and was a little low on confidence after that," said Bopanna. "After that it went so quick that before we could stop and think it was over."
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Though they saved two, a smart forehand volley by Mertinak took the visitors back on serve. Amritraj-Bopanna's touch at the net became erratic as the set progressed.
Mertinak and Pala didn't have a big serve, but kept the serves short and heavy, to spoil Indians' rhythm, both of who had some incredible returns to their name. Once they had lost the first service game in the set, Bopanna-Amritraj couldn't keep up the body language either.
It looked almost over when the Czech-Slovak pair pulled it to 4-5 and then leveled the set. Bopanna served a double fault at break point to give the opponents a 6-5 lead, and Pala served out the match with a cracking service winner.
"We played some good points and honestly it was a great experience for us to compete in the final," said Amritraj. "We were not able to slow down the game like we did yesterday (against Rainer Schuettler and Alexander Waske). But both of them are very good doubles players and it's been great competing at this level."
