It’s one and done for the king of swing.
Darian King didn’t get to advance at another ATP Masters event, having saved three set points before losing yesterday’s hard-fought first-round match at the Miami Open.
Failing to take advantage of an early break, King never recovered from dropping that tight first set before going on to suffer a 7-6(4), 6-4 defeat to fast-rising Spanish teen Nicola Kuhn on Court 7.
It proved the saddening end to an otherwise stirring tournament run that saw the 25-year-old Bajan ace qualify for his second successive main draw at the Miami Open.
But King didn’t get to make the type of noise that he did last year following his first-round victory over Lukas Lacko that came days before he took a 4-0 lead on world No. 9 David Goffin.
It wasn’t for a lack of effort though, as King broke early for 2-1 in the first set and had another chance to break for 4-3 with Kuhn trailing 0-40 on his serve.
However, he handed that initial break right back at 2-2 after Kuhn hit two deep returns on the heels of King’s untimely double fault.
Squandered advantage
And King then squandered a prime 0-40 advantage by missing two routine backhands and then sending an even easier forehand long of the mark.
He very nearly lost serve in the next game too, having dug himself a hole at 30-40 before he saved break point with an unforced Kuhn error.
The two traded holds for 5-6 until Kuhn held three different set points with King serving to stay in the set. But King saved all three and forced a decisive tiebreak with a huge first serve.
He struggled in the ensuing tiebreaker though, failing to win points on his serve with a slew of errors that led to Kuhn taking four of the final five points.
Things then went from bad to worse when King missed more backhands and lost serve to fall behind 3-1 early in the second set.
And Kuhn simply tightened the screws by serving well and putting away all of his opponent’s subsequent short returns.
Yet King almost forced his way back into the match, having produced to pristine backhand passes to get a break point with Kuhn serving for the match.
But Kuhn simply snuffed out that chance, saving the break with a crosscourt backhand winner of his own before King missed a forehand down the line on match point.
