Garin´s great run comes to an end

It’s a sign of his progress that Christian Garín cut a frustrated figure after losing to Filippo Volandri in the ATP of Buenos Aires.

Buenos Aires – The 17-year-old tennis starlet had to win through three rounds of qualifying to earn the chance to meet the Italian, ranked 77 in the world. And his own ranking of 439 suggested it could be a mismatch.

However, Garín had other ideas and won the first set after a horror start. He lost the first 11 points of the match, but then recovered brilliantly to fight back and take the set 7-5.

Garín´s game fell away in the second set and the Italian punished him, taking it 6-0 to set up a deciding set. Garín led 3-1 and had a point to go 4-1 up with two breaks of serve.

But he couldn´t take it and it was perhaps a combination of his opponent´s experience and his own tiredness that eventually saw him go down 6-3.

On his Twitter account, Garín said afterwards: “I´m sad for the defeat, but keen to stay improving and learning.”

Meanwhile, Nicolás Jarry (718) beat Brazilian Thiago Cunha in the second round of the Future 1 of Guatemala. The 18-year-old won 6-3, 6-4 to continue his fine start to the year.

And fellow Chilean Hans Podlipnik (301) saw off the Czech Republic´s Libor Sabala (858) in the first round of the Future 5 in Egypt. Podlipnik won 6-1, 7-5.