Ernests can afford some time to celebrate his 21st birthday today after his US Open match against Andy Murray has been scheduled for Tuesday or Wednesday.
He will be hoping for better tidings this time around, after last year’s birthday was marked by a heartbreaking four-set loss to fellow birthday boy, Andy Roddick.
The draw gods were in a foul frame of mind during the US Open draw ceremony today, for they had pitted Ernests against Great Britain’s Andy Murray in the first round.
Ernests’ unlucky No. 13 seeding might be an omen of things to come after he was handed a tricky draw in the Cincinnati Masters qualifying.
Ernests’ second-round doom dogged him into the qualifying of the Montreal Masters, where he lost in straight sets to Alejandro Falla of Colombia.
Ernests has progressed to the second round of the Rogers Masters qualifying after defeating Lukas Dlouhy in a one-sided 6:1 6:2 victory.
He will next face Colombia’s Alejandro Falla, who defeated his compatriot, the 14th-seeded Santiago Giraldo.
That match is scheduled third on BN Court on Sunday, with play due to begin at 10am Montreal time.
Ernests would need to beat Falla in order to qualify for the main draw.
Should he succeed, his potential first-round opponents could include Lleyton Hewitt or Fernando Gonzalez.
Ernests fails to win two matches in a row, as he loses in the second round of the Washington tournament to Tomas Berdych. The czech is seeded 8th in the tournament.
The first serve percentage of Ernests was only 52 in the first set, and Berdych broke his serve two times, taking the set 6-2.
The second set gave Ernests plenty of opportunities: he had 10 break points, but only managed to convert one of them, while Berdych won the only break point he had. The set went into a tie-break. Despite Ernests gaining a mini-break and leading 5-4, Berdych eventually won the tie-break 8-6, and therefore the whole match 6-2, 7-6(6).
The next tournament Ernests will play is the Rogers Cup in Montreal, where he will have to start with qualifying his way in. The qualifyng matches start on Saturday the 8th.
Ernests has moved on to the second round in Washington by winning Kevin Kim of the USA in the first round.
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