Australia’s Roland Garros woe has plunged to new depths as Max Purcell missed six match points before ultimately losing their first-round match in bewildering fashion after a thrilling comeback.
But Purcell defended his underarm serve on a failed match point against qualifier Henry Squire, insisting he had “no regrets” after a five-set comeback despite his Reflecting on how “terrible” tennis is.
The Sydney native was knocked out by the German Grand Slam newcomer on Monday, leaving the Green and Gold with an 0-6 record – five losses and an injury withdrawal – two days after the Women’s Challenge ended after Dalia Daria Saville is 6-3, losing to Jasmine Paolini 6-4 on Monday.
It will be the first time since 1997 that no Australian woman will compete in the second round of a Paris Grand Slam following Ajla Tomljanovic’s exit on Sunday.
However, Purcell looked to finally break the men’s team when he fought back from two sets down against a strong Squire and served twice on the verge of winning his first five-set victory. of drought.
He failed to cash in four match points in the 5-4 service game, but then broke Squire’s serve again in the 6-5 service game and won the fifth match point, but made an armpit. Fatal decision to serve.
“I do this a lot in practice and it’s definitely worth it,” Purcell said. “No regrets – hindsight is a terrible thing, isn’t it? Don’t just accept the positives and learn from them – I hate living in the past.
Squire quickly caught on to the underarm trick to win the point, leaving the 25-year-old Purcell understandably flustered, who then double-faulted and backhanded the ball wide, Taking the game to a super decider
Purcell fought back again at 9-7 in a tight contest to save two match points and earn the German a sixth, but in the end, a tiring backhand into the net left Squire at 3 Won after 21 minutes.
When asked how he would overcome this, Purcell just shrugged: “I’ll go to training tomorrow and then double the next day. The game goes on, fine.
“I’m proud of the way I fought and I should walk away with the spoils, but this is tennis, it’s a *** sport and you don’t always win when you win.”
It was a positive result for Purcell from a match that was interrupted by two rains, with qualifier Squire going “lights out” in two sets.
“I wish he would open his eyes,” Purcell smiled sadly.
Earlier, Savile put up a valiant battle with rising star Paolini but she fought back from 5-1 to the brink of 5-4 in the second set, but her momentum was dampened when a heavy rain delayed the set by an hour. Her counterattack was interrupted.
But the 30-year-old Australia’s top-ranked player did not complain, only that his serve was too poor, passing only once in eight attempts and also sent nine double faults.
“I felt like the whole match was actually closer than the score suggested,” Saville said, “but I struggled with my serve and that cost me, especially in the first set.”
“But in that 5-4 comeback, I made four unforced forehand errors, tried to call the shots and missed. But I’m happy with that because I thought I took my chance, But it just didn’t work out.
