In a gripping contest at the Chandrashekar Patil stadium, which saw pendulum swing either ways, the big serving Croat survived by the skin of his teeth by taking four points in a row in the tie-breaker in which Bhambri enjoyed leads of 4-1 and 6-4 before bowing out.
On a hot day when lengthy three-setters were the order of the day, second seed Ivan Cerovic survived two match points before prevailing over giant-killer Yuki Bhambri 6-7 (8-10), 6-4, 7-6 (8-6) to advance to the pre-quarterfinal stage of the ITF Men's Futures Gulbarga Open 2007 here on Tuesday.
In a gripping contest at the Chandrashekar Patil stadium, which saw pendulum swing either ways, the big serving Croat survived by the skin of his teeth by taking four points in a row in the tie-breaker in which Bhambri enjoyed leads of 4-1 and 6-4 before bowing out.
A wildcard entrant, Bhambri is known for knocking out fancied names and Cerovic would easily have been the latest casualty if not for his experience that was the difference on the day in which two sets were decided by tie-breakers.
Strong comeback
In the first set, both Cerovic and Bhambri, held their serves and finally Bhambri broke the deadlock in the tie-breaker with a forehand winner. Cerovic came back firing in the second, unleashing his powerful serves including a couple of aces and got the decisive break in the ninth game.
It all boiled down to the decider where Bhambri looked tired and had to be attended by the doctor for cramps. Cerovic broke him in the seventh game before Bhambri drew level in the tenth. With Cerovic holding his serve in the twelfth game after overcoming three break points, it again went to the tie-breaker were a sudden rush of blood cost Bhambri dear.
Sitting pretty with a 4-1 lead, Bhambri allowed Cerovic to comeback with a couple of unforced errors. Though Bhambri regained ground and raced to a 6-4 lead, Cerovic's experience carried the day as he fired a good return and backed it up with two good serves and it was all over for the 15-year-old prodigy from Delhi when he hit wildly at the net.
Earlier, Austria's Philipp Oswald upset Serbian Darko Madjarovski with a convincing 6-4, 6-4 victory. India's Navdeep Singh also crashed out in the first round after battling hard before going down 5-7, 3-6 to fourth seed Israel's Dekel Valtzer.
Meanwhile, in the doubles section, Indian pair of Rohan Gajjar and Vishnu Vardhan created a major upset by defeating top seed Austrian duo of Rainer Eitzinger and Philipp Oswald 6-3, 7-6 (7-4) in a match played under lights late on Monday.
Ashutosh Singh and Vivek Shokeen, the doubles winners of the Bellary leg, also crashed out bowing out to compatriots Tushar Liberhan and Rupesh Roy 2-6, 4-6.
