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Yuki Bhambri goes down fighting to Sam Querrey in Indian Wells tennis
Yuki Bhambri, who had stunned world No. 12 Lucas Pouille in second round, lost the match against Sam Querrey in three sets 7-6 (4), 4-6, 4-6 as his journey at the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Indian wells ended
Yuki Bhambri, India’s highest ranked tennis player at No. 110, put up a great fight before going down to 18th seed Sam Querrey of United in the third round of BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells on Tuesday.
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Bhambri, who had stunned world No. 12 Lucas Pouille in the second round, lost the match against 2017 Wimbledon semi-finalist Querrey in three sets 7-6 (4), 4-6, 4-6 as his journey in the ATP Masters 1000 tournament ended.
Bhambri said playing Frenchman Pouille and Querrey was very different.
“They were completely different opponent. Sam has bigger serve and relies a lot on it. That was the difference today. He bailed himself out on a lot of points. Losing serve early in the third set was tough as I was playing catching up after that and more difficult against a big server,” Bhambri told PTI.
In their first-ever meeting on ATP circuit, Bhambri started the game well as he snatched the set in tie-breakers. But the next two sets saw world No. 21 Querrey make a strong comeback by breaking Bhambri’s serve at crucial points to seal the match.
However, Bhambri’s win over Nicolas Mahut (1st round) and Lucas Pouille (second round) is likely to send him into the top 100. The 25-year-old will get a prize money of $47,000 and 61 points in the ATP rankings table.
READ | Yuki Bhambri stuns No. 12 Lucas Pouille in Indian Wells, earns biggest win of career
Against Querrey, Bhambri got an early break as he led 4-2. But Querrey broke him back to restore parity at 5-5 in the first set and was then broken while serving to close it out. The set went into tie-break where Bhambri prevailed.
In the subsequent sets, however, Querrey demolished Bhambri. In all, the American fire 17 aces as compared to four by the latter.
Querrey, 2017 US Open quarter-finalist, gave away only three break points. However, he broke Bhambri four times to win the last two sets.
