Tough loss. A poor first set, particularly from Sander, who must have hit 4 or 5 DFs in that set alone. He was also wild on return of 2nd service which took any pressure off the opponents. Luke did his best to hold things together but his partner was too far off the pace.
A couple of tough holds from 0-30 early in the 2nd saw the momentum start to shift and from that point, Luke and Sander were in complete control - right up to the point where they were *7-2 up in the MTB. And then it all fell apart and they lost 8 of the next 9 points. They weren't helped when they were serving at *8-6 and in complete control of the rally, only to lose to a clean winner off the net cord.
"That's tennis", Luke said to me after the match. Those MTBs can be brutal.
Lighthearted moment of the day came when the players walked on court and Negritu looked over to the scoreboard and said "I really need to update my photo". He was pretty unrecognisable from the picture they had of him.
