Bangkok, Sept 27: Paradorn Srichaphan left a home crowd in shock as he lost in the quarter-finals of the Thailand Open despite holding a one-set margin over Croatian Ivan Ljubicic. A sellout of 9,000 mainly local supporters at the 550,000-dollar event witnessed their hero's crash as he lost 4-6 7-6 (7-4) 7-5 to the sixth seeded European, yesterday.
Paradorn was close to tears in defeat, burying his head in his towel for five minutes at his chair after losing in two hours, five minutes.
The Asian ace, who has built tennis in the country into a major sport in the space of just a few seasons with his improving performances on the ATP world stage, couldn't believe how badly he had crashed back to earth at home.
Paradorn, who couldn't handle a 22-ace barrage from Ljubicic, came back from a break down in the final set after losing a second-set tie-breaker.
The national hero levelled at 4-4 but lost serve in the 11th game. Ljubicic finished the upset a game later, setting up match point with an ace and then profiting as Paradorn pushed a return into the net.
Top seed Juan Carlos Ferrero dodged a near upset, holding off Frenchman Gregory Carraz 6-4 3-6 7-6 (7/2).
But fellow French Open champion Carlos Moya fell in a three-set struggle against Finn Jarkko Nieminen 6-7 (5/7) 6-4 6-4.

Bureau Report