Bangkok - Fabrice Santoro limped out with his fourth straight loss on the ATP as his career wound down Tuesday with a first-round defeat at the Thailand Open. The 36-year-old, due to quit the game in November at his home event at Paris Bercy after two decades in the sport, missed on three match points to drop to defeat by Russian Evgeny Korolev 4-6, 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (9-7).
Seventh seed Santoro rallied heroically in the final set tiebreaker from 1-4 down and found himself with three match points,
But 66th-ranked Korolev saved the trio and then produced a match-winner of his own as he landed a return deep in the corner to earn a second-round spot after almost three hours of battle.
Number 39 Santoro had experience in his corner, having made his first ATP appearance as a teenager in in 1988 when his opponent was just eight months old.
"I expected a better week here," admitted Santoro, who first played the event in 2003 and has yet to win a match in three appearances. "But I still have four tournaments left.
"If I can play like I did today, I'm going to win some matches."
Santoro has now gone a month without a victory, losing in New Haven, the US Open and last week in Metz, eastern France.
Korolev goes on to play the winner from a later contest between American Robby Ginepri and Thai Danai Udomchoke. That pair are playing in Bangkok for the third time, with Ginepri winning both previous meetings.
Udomchoke, Thailand's top player ahead of injured Paradorn Srichaphan, stands 142 with a 2-6 record at the home event.
Austrian sixth seed Jurgen Melzer earned an easy win over Brazilian Marcos Daniel 6-3, 6-2 while Andreas Beck, one of six Germans in the field, defeated Edouard Roger-Vasselin of France 7-5, 7-6 (7-1).
There was a victory for Swiss Marco Chiudinelli as the number 116 qualifier lived to fight again at the Impact arena after defeating Germany's Florent Mayer 6-3, 6-3.
Turkish qualifier Marsel Ilhan upset German Benjamin Becker 4-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-3 while Ernests Gulbis of Latvia defeated India's Somdev Devvarman 7-6 (9-7), 6-2.
