Barbados’ best tennis player Darian King suffered a heartbreaking 6-4, 6-3 defeat in the final round of qualifying for the US Open yesterday.
Playing on court 16 at Flushing Meadows, New York City, in a do-or-die encounter against Russian Evgeny Donskoy, the Bajan ace failed to repeat his magical run of two years ago when he broke into the main draw.
After the match began following a 15-minute delay, King looked set to feature with the big boys yet again, breaking Donskoy on his opening serve of the first set before holding serve to go up 3-0 impressively.
A feeling of optimism prevailed, despite Donskoy immediately closing the margin before King won the very next game to lead 4-2.
But King was broken at 4-3 and once the man who defeated 20-time Grand Slam winner Roger Federer two years ago in the second round of the Dubai Tennis Championships, fought back to level the match, King never recovered.
In what was a rematch of the Delray Beach 2018 round of 32 clash which Donskoy won 6-4, 6-2, King once again started the second set positively with a 2-1 lead.
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