KEY POINTS:
It just wasn't meant to be for the Statham brothers. Serving for a rare home-town ATP main draw victory, the Kiwi pair blew three match points to lose to Spanish pairing David Ferrer and Marcel Granollers.
It was a harsh fate for the Kiwis, with Ferrer shanking a return from a Rubin Statham serve at match point in the super tiebreak that landed just inside the baseline for a winner.
"It was a tough match," Ferrer said. "We had break points in the first and second set and we didn't [convert] them. Then in the tiebreak we got lucky. This ball was very lucky."
The match started well for the Kiwis, who raced to a 3-0 lead in the first set. They were quickly pegged back to 3-3 but broke Granollers' serve in the decisive game to take the set 7-5.
They were frequently in trouble in the second set but managed to play their way out of trouble until the Spaniards finally broke Oliver Statham's serve in the 10th game to take the set 6-4 and force a super tiebreak.
The match looked to be going the Spaniards' way as they established a 4-1 lead but the Kiwis fought back, briefly igniting the centre court crowd as they took eight of the next 10 points to lead 9-6 and bring up triple match point.
Rubin Statham had two serves to close out the match but Ferrer's fluky return winner gave the Spaniards hope and they closed out the match with three solid points in succession.
Dan King-Turner, New Zealand's sole surviving hope of a victory, was in doubles action in last night's late game.
