India’s Saketh Myneni went down to the Czech Republic’s Jiri Vesely in his first round encounter of the US Open on Tuesday. The 28-year-old, who reached the main draw of his first grand slam, lost 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-2, 2-6, 5-7 in a marathon five-setter.
The first set went down to the wire and had to be decided through a tie-breaker. The Czech bagged the set 6-7(5) in 52 minutes. However, Myneni made a strong comeback in the second set to win it 6-4. He continued to surge ahead in the third and broke his opponent twice to win 6-2.
With the momentum clearly with the Indian, Myneni only had to close out the match in the fourth, but that was not to be. Vesely staged a brilliant comeback and demolished Myneni 6-2 in the fourth.
In the deciding set, both players were relentless, waiting for the opponent to falter. Eventually it was Myneni who capitulated, with the Czech bagging the fifth set 7-5 after 67 minutes.
World No. 143 Myneni knew he had a tough task against Vesely, ranked 49th in the world. However, even the Czech was not expecting such a fight from the Indian in a match that lasted three hours and 47 minutes.