MANILA, Philippines - Jeson Patrombon yielded a 4-6, 0-6 setback to second round rival Yaraslau Shyla of Belarus to bomb out of the Loy Yang Traralgon International 2011 in Traralgon, Australia.
The eighth-seeded Patrombon actually took a 4-3 lead in the first set against the unseeded Shyla but failed to close out his taller and more aggressive opponent.
With Patrombon flubbing several chances to break, the 6-3 Shyla held serve in the eighth game to knot the count at 4-4 then outsteadied the serving Filipino in 12 deuces in a tight ninth game to move up, 5-4.
Patrombon, ranked No. 12 in the world, had several break points chances in the next game but just couldn’t convert them, enabling the 46th ranked Belarus bet to emerge victorious after 10 deuces and take the opening set.
Shyla went on an all-out attack mode in the second frame to finish off the pride of Iligan City and advance to the round of 16.
Patrombon’s coach Manny Tecson believes his player’s inactivity when he had foot surgery last month affected his game in the Grade 1 netfest, a warm up event to the Australian Juniors Open next week.
“His on-court game is improving but is still not 100 percent due to the long lay off,” Tecson said. “What Jeson needs is more matches to play to find his system of winning and to gain more confidence.”
To address this, Tecson said they have entered Patrombon in the Loy Yang’s consolation rounds to give him extra matches as he gears up for the first grand slam of the year.
“I am not disappointed at all (with his performance) since I can see that Jeson’s game is at par with any of these top players in the world and he is healthy again, with no injuries to worry about. The important thing now for us is to keep improving in our performance and to keep getting stronger in each match or tournament that we play,” Tecson said.