Matt Ebden, West Australia’s final hope in the Australian Open fell yesterday to the 22 seed, Kei Nishikori in the 2nd round of the Australian Open.
Ebden came out firing and managed to take the opening set convincingly 6-3. His momentum continued in the second set and put on a flawless display of top quality tennis in front of a vocal Australian crowd.
A confident Ebden marched onto court ready to take the match in straight. However, unfortunately for the 24 year old West Aussie, Nisikori thought otherwise.
Nishikori took control early in the third and clawed his way back into the match. He took the next 2 sets rapidly and used the breaks diligently to recover from his intensive and aggressive play.
The crowd tried their best to psyc up a scattered Ebden, however Nishikori rose to the challenge and prevailed through the final set dropping just one game in his quest.
Ebden obviously disappointed with the end result, still managed to find positives in prevailing to the 2nd round of the 2012 Opening Slam.
“You know, that’s the thing. At the end of the day, you lose second round. You think, Oh, it’s terrible. But sometimes you have to get some perspective.
Maybe the first hour after you lose, it’s not that easy. After that you realize I’m still out there doing what I love. I’m pretty happy to be doing it.
I’ll take it on the chin and I’ll just look to get better from it.”
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