Patrombon falls in Australian Open jrs

Jeson Patrombon's bid of duplicating Filipino tennis great Felix Barrientos' semifinals feat in a Grand Slam event ended on Thursday at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia. The eighth-seeded Patrombon failed to keep his errors in check and suffered a 7-5, 2-6, 3-6 loss to No. 4 George Morgan of Great Britain in the quarterfinal round of the 2011 Australian Open Juniors Championship. A win against Morgan would have made Patrombon the second Filipino to reach the Final Four of a Grand Slam event, next to Barrientos, who reached the 1985 Wimbledon Juniors semifinals before suffering a 6-7, 6-0 loss to Eduardo Velez of Mexico. Patrombon, a prized find from Iligan City, converted 58 percent of his first serves and had four double faults compared to the 72 percent and only one double fault made by his British rival. Patrombon remained optimistic despite the loss. "I learned a lot in this tournament, it was a good experience for me and I'm so happy," said Patrombon, who admitted that he succumbed to pressure after seeing a lot of Filipinos watching his quarterfinals match at Melbourne Park. This is Patrombon's third Grand Slam event since joining last year's French Open Juniors and US Juniors Open. Morgan will next play top seed Jiri Vesely of the Czech Republic, who scored a 6-2, 6-2 win against unseeded American Mitchell Krueger. The other semis pairing will be between No. 6 Roberto Carballes Baena of Spain and Lucas Pouille of France. – JVP, KY, GMANews.TV