It was a case of being so near and yet so far for Rohan Bopanna. The Karnataka ace even had three match points, but just didn't play the big points well to crash out in the first round of the $416,000 Kingfisher Airlines Open at the CCI courts here.

After a tentative start, France's Nicolas Devilder rallied in splendid fashion to force a 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (11-9) victory in a match that began at 9.30 in the evening and ended in the wee hours of Wednesday owing to a 40-minute delay due to rain in the decider.

The 27-year-old Indian could have closed out the match in the tenth game of the decider, but Devilder came up with two huge serves to save both the match points. Then Bopanna had another opportunity in the tie-break, but his forehand sailed long.

The Frenchman, who kept his nerves, advanced to the next round when Bopanna put his backhand into the net in the tie-break.

Earlier, Bopanna began brilliantly with a break in the eighth game of the opening set. With his booming serves working fine, the Frenchman never got a look-in.

But he failed to get a high percentage of his first serves in in the second set.

Besides, errors crept into his game. Devilder made the most of it to take the second with a break in the second game. The two traded breaks in the third set, but the Frenchman played a better tie-break to move into the second round.

Kiefer stuns Mathieu
Earlier, the 130th-ranked Nicolas Kiefer, who was ranked in the top-five in the world a couple of years ago, showed flashes of brilliance en route to a stunning 6-4, 6-3 win over third-seeded Paul-Henri Mathieu of France.

The German, up a break and leading 4-3 when rain forced the suspension of the match on Monday evening, returned on Tuesday evening to give the finishing touches. Kiefer, playing nowhere close to the form that had taken him to No 4 in the world seven years ago, carried far too many guns for Mathieu.

"Thank god we are not playing a five-set Grand Slam here," Kiefer commented after the energy-sapping victory over Mathieu.

"I'm happy that I won, but I need to work on all the areas to improve. The conditions were not easy."

Kiefer, who broke Mathieu in the seventh game on Monday evening, closed out the first set in about five minutes. But instead of stepping on the gas, Kiefer, for some strange reason, committed too many unforced errors to let the Frenchman get a measure of his serve.

Mathieu came hard at the German, earning two breakpoint opportunities in the fourth game of the second set.
But Kiefer woke up from his slumber, saved both with two thunderbolt serves before making it 2-2. That broke Mathieu's resolve and he surrendered meekly after that.

Results:
Singles (I round): Nicolas Kiefer (Ger) bt Paul-Henri Mathieu (Fra) 6-4, 6-3; Fabrice Santoro (Fra) bt Edourd Roger-Vasselin (Fra) 6-1, 6-2; Rainer Schuettler (Ger) bt Julien Benneteau (Fra) 7-5, 6-3; Viktor Troicki (Ser) bt Aisam-ul-Haq (Pak) 6-2, 7-6 (7-4); Yen-Hsun Lu (Tpe) bt Jiri Vanek (Cze) 4-6, 7-5, 6-4.

Doubles (I round): Lars Burgsmuller (Ger)/ Olivier Rochus (Bel) 6-1, 6-3.