Patrombon, Reyes fall in F4 tennis

MANILA, Philippines - Jeson Patrombon’s modest streak came to an end as he fell to French fourth seed Laurent Rochette, 4-6, 4-6, and dropped out of the Thailand F4 Futures 2011 netfest Wednesday in Phuket, Thailand.

Patrombon came off a big upset over Korean Woong-Sun Jun, a former top 200 ATP netter, 4-6, 7-5, 7-6(5) in the first round, but failed to sustain the momentum against Rochette. Prior to toppling Jun for his biggest win in the pros so far, the Iligan pride beat Hong Kong’s Wing-Lun Lam, 6-4, 4-6,7-6(2), in the qualifying round.

The 18-year-old Patrombon battled the more experienced Rochette toe-to-toe in the first eight games before the Frenchman broke the Filipino after eight deuces in the ninth en route to taking the first set, 6-4.

Patrombon managed to seize a 3-0 lead in the second but Rochette was better in handling the big points from thereon to secure the triumph, a follow-up to his 6-2, 6-3 disposal of the Phl ace in the previous week’s Laos F1 Futures.

“We will charge this lesson to experience,” said Manny Tecson, coach of the SEA Games-bound Patrombon. “And the great thing now is that Jeson is learning to be more competitive against these high-ranked and seeded players. He is no longer afraid or intimidated.”

Fil-Italian Marc Reyes suffered the same fate as Patrombon, bowing to Rohan Gajjar of India, 6-2, 6-2, in their two-and-a-half hour second-round encounter.

“Marc is striking the ball very solid and clean but still lacks the experience in constructing and managing the points and games of his matches,” Tecson said.