Mark Lajal loses 3-hour epic against former world No. 39
Mark Lajal is out of the Challenger 100 tournament in Oeiras, Portugal after losing an epic three-set clash with veteran Kazakh player Mikhail Kukushkin, 6–7 (4), 6–2, 5–7.
The entire encounter lasted three hours and 16 minutes.
Lajal, ranked 153rd in the world, had come through qualifying in Oeiras and then seen off Spain's Daniel Merida Aguilar 6:2, 6:2 in round one proper.
Kukushkin, who recently turned 38 and is ranked 262nd by the ATP, has twice reached the fourth round of a Grand Slam and holds a career-high ranking of 39th in the world.
In the opening set, Lajal dropped his serve in the sixth game, immediately broke back, and saved two set points with things at 6:5. In the ensuing tie-break, the Estonian won five consecutive points to take the set.
Kukushkin broke Lajal's first two service games in set two, breaking again in game seven, to take the set convincingly 6:2.
In the decider, Lajal went up 2:0 only to be broken in the next game with no points in reply. Things stayed relatively even until Kukushkin made the decisive break when the score was 5:5 in games, and held his serve in the next game to take the set 7:5 and with it the match.
The Kazakh earned a whopping 15 break points on Wednesday, converting six of these. Lajal served up nine aces, but also posted eight double faults. While he won 68 percent of points on his first serve, his second serve let him down as he won only 33 percent of those points played throughout the match.
Estonia's second-highest-ranked men's player, Daniil Glinka, is in action in round two in the same competition just after lunchtime on Thursday, when he faces Colombian Nicolas Mejia (ATP No. 168th), the tournament's eighth seed.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte
