National champion Kieran Merrilees was left to rue an inability to put what he has done in practise into practice on court as he suffered a shock defeat in the opening round of the Scottish Open Grand Prix at The Emirates Arena last night.
The 28-year-old Glaswegian had entered his home event full of optimism on the basis of form and the apparent luck of the draw and he looked to be in control throughout most of the opening game against India’s Karan Rajan Rajarajan until conceding four points in a row when leading 18-16.
“It was quite a strange one. In the first set I was winning but I wasn’t feeling I was playing great, so I was trying to get myself going even faster and it ended up working against me.
“I think I made four easy mistakes in a row which gave him confidence and he played very well from there.”
What made it all the harder for Merrilees to take was that he had all the evidence he required to know he could beat his 21-year-old opponent.
“I played him about a month ago and won quite comfortably, but I think I put pressure on myself not just to win but to win well and it’s backfired completely on me.”
Merrilees had gone into the event seeded 11th, having had a highly encouraging season and his defeat was all the more painful because he was the first seed to be knocked out of this year’s tournament and had felt he had a particularly good chance when top seeded Englishman Raj Ouseph had withdrawn.
“The Scottish Open’s one of the tournaments I always want to perform well at, especially this year when I definitely saw an opening in the draw after Raj Ouseph had pulled out and I was really looking to perform well. It’s a shame I couldn’t make the most of it,” he said.
“I’ve not got many more chances of performing well at the Scottish Open and I think this was one where I would.
“It’s the first year where I’ve really played well against world class opposition on a fairly regular basis, so I saw myself as being in the mix to get to the later rounds and then I’ve crashed out in the first round.
“It’s frustrating because I play nothing like that in practise. The player that’s been practising would have beaten me so easily today with what I’ve been doing every day. That’s what my coach said to me during the break, just play like you do in practise and I couldn’t bring that out, which is annoying because I know how much better I can be.
It was a very tough opening day for the home contingent in the men’s singles which was the only event which got properly underway.
Both the 17-year-old Grimley twins did manage to make it through qualifying, but Matthew was then beaten 21-15, 22-20 by former English men’s singles champion Sam Parsons, while after trailing 6-1 early on, Christopher did well to get into a 17-16 lead in the first set of his meeting with Ukrainian Artem Pochtarov,. However he seemed to run out of steam at that point, losing 21-17 and 21-14.
There were also early first round exits for their compatriots Matthew Carder and Ben Torrance.
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