Simon Carr’s tremendous run in the US Junior Open was brought to a shuddering halt on Thursday night when he bowed out in the third round of the boys’ singles event.
After earlier wins over American Sangeet Sridhar and France’s Jaimee-Floyd Angele, the Irish No 1 came up short against Russia’s Timofey Skatov on a 5-7 6-2 1-6 scoreline, after two hours and eight minutes on No 14 Court at Flushing Meadows.
But in his agonising defeat Carr put up a tremendous fight against an opponent who had pulled off a shock win over the No 3 seed, Austria’s Jurij Rodionov, in the previous round
In the wake of losing the opening set, the Mullingar right-hander stormed back to break Skatov twice in the second set to move into a 4-1 lead.
And after Skatov had pulled back one break point, by dropping only one point in the next game, Carr immediately reasserted his authority by breaking for a third time to move into a 5-2 lead.
In the next game, after winning the first point, Skatov saved two set points, but the Westmeath lad was not to be denied, levelling the contest at one-set all, on his third set point, after 53 minutes.
In the deciding set, Carr got off to a tonic start, breaking his opponent after two deuces in the opening game, only for Skatov to break back immediately before moving into a 2-1 lead.
Subsequently, the Russian won the next three games on the trot before wrapping up his quarter-final place by dropping only one point in the final game.
