Angus tennis ace Jonny O’Mara saw his US Open doubles dream end after a brave defeat to the tournament’s second seeds.
O’Mara and playing partner Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi pushed Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos to the 12th game in both sets, losing 7-5, 7-5.
But while the Arbroath star can be immensely proud of his efforts, his dream of reaching the last eight at New York ended on his serve.
O’Mara was in confident mood before the game.
He told Courier Sport how he survived a New York tornado warning to try and take the US Open by storm.
New partner Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi the only Pakistan-born player to reach a Grand Slam final.
He reached both the doubles and mixed doubles finals of the 2010 US Open and was hoping to emulate that against the odds this year.
#USOpen doubles update 👇@Jonny_OMara & @aisamhqureshi fought back to beat No.16 seeds Sander Gille & Joran Vliegen 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(3)#BackTheBrits 🇬🇧 pic.twitter.com/QLK2IEJXsD
— LTA (@the_LTA) September 5, 2021
At 41, Qureshi has 18 tournament wins and his experience showed.
Qureshi looked cool and composed as he and O’Mara held their nerve until the 12th game against second seeds Granollers and Zeballos.
But O’Mara finally cracked as a misplaced volley saw the Spanish-Argentine duo taking the first set 7-5.
Jonny O’Mara survives three early break points in US Open last 16 battle
O’Mara recovered well in the opening game of the second set and looked lively and energetic on the Flushing Meadows court 17.
He played a stunning drop shot on the run to come close to breaking the favourites’ serve.
However, service went to unchallenged until the fourth game of the second set.
O’Mara’s serve came under severe threat – but he survived three break points to hold and take it to 2-2.
But it was going to take a break of serve at the other side for this game to turn.
And despite some impressive play, O’Mara’s team struggled to make an impact.
Their opponents held five service games in a row to love as the second set went all the way to game 12 again.
This time O’Mara was serving to stay in the match and he wasn’t willing to give it up without a fight.
He survived two match points before finally cracking on the third one to crash out in 1 hour and 42 minutes.
Granollers and Zeballos will now encounter another Scot in the next round – Jamie Murray.