Local hope Stanislas Wawrinka blew two match points as he crashed out of the Swiss Indoors event to qualifier Benjamin Becker in Basel.
Swiss disappoints home fans in Basel
Local hope Stanislas Wawrinka blew two match points as he crashed out of the Swiss Indoors event to qualifier Benjamin Becker in Basel.
The world number 12, seeded fifth this week, cruised through the first set with two breaks of serve but suffered a bout of the jitters when serving at 5-4 in the second, and was made to rue his mistake.
His German opponent hammered two winners from 30-30 to level the set and then clinch the tie-break 7-5, taking the match into a decider.
Still the Swiss had the chance to put his opponent away, breaking the 137th ranked Becker twice more, but the German claimed a couple of breaks himself and defended the match points in his final service game to force the tie-break.
And once again it was the qualifer who kept his cool under pressure, earning his place in the second round by completing a 3-6 7-6 7-6 success.
"It was tiredness. I'm feeling tired physically and mentally now it's near the end of the season," said the Swiss, whose defeat ends any hope of reaching the Masters Cup in Shanghai.
"I was missing shots that I would have made earlier in the year. Of course, it's frustrating to lose after being ahead but Becker also took more risks when he was behind and so deserved the win in the end."
Wawrinka's countryman and Basel native Marco Chiudinelli was also involved in a tough battle and he gave the fans plenty to cheer about against world number 39 Feliciano Lopez.
However, the Swiss wildcard was unable step up when it mattered and the Spaniard clinched a straight sets victory by the narrowest margin, 7-6 7-6.
Sixth seed Igor Andreev and eighth-ranked Mardy Fish both enjoyed straight sets wins, the Russian Andreev beating Jurgen Melzer 7-6 7-5 and Fish of America seeing off Agustin Calleri 7-6 6-2.
