A gutsy effort by Australian Matthew Ebden was not enough to overcome former Brisbane International champion Radek Stepanek at Pat Rafter Arena today.
The 24-year-old South African-born Perth resident was beaten in an enthralling encounter 6-4 3-6 6-3 by Stepanek, who also made it to the final here in 2010 and the semifinals last year.
Stepanek, the sixth seed, said he was pleased to keep his brilliant record in Queensland intact.
“I always come fresh after an off-season and I’m working hard in the off-season to be ready for a new one and it’s paying off right away here in Brisbane,” Stepanek said.
Despite losing, Ebden did his budding reputation no harm and made a lot of new fans by delivering a fearless display that combined baseline skill and class volleying.
“He has a future in front of him definitely,” Stepanek said.
“He has a good game, he plays smart, he comes to the net quite often and he has a feel of when to come in.
“There’s a lot of work waiting for him but everybody was in his position.
“We’ll see in the future what he comes up with.”
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The match began evenly with both players trading service games before Stepanek broke to make the score 5-4 and then served to win the first set.
An aggressive Ebden came back out firing and immediately took complete control of the second set as he raced away to a 3-0 lead and maintained the break to win 6-3.
“Against a guy like that you’ve got to create your own game and push him around rather than letting him attack you,” Ebden said.
“I had to take it to him a bit more [in the second set] and I think I stepped up well.”
At the start of the third set, Stepanek was gifted an early break when Ebden double faulted in the third game to give the Czech a 2-1 lead.
The break proved decisive as Stepanek held his nerve to close out the match.
“That was the first match of the year and you don’t know what to expect from yourself,” Stepanek said.
“You have to get back [into] the habits and I’m happy I’m through and now I’m looking forward to another match.”
Stepanek will play Finland’s Jarkko Nieminen next after he beat Jesse Levine 7-6(4) 6-2.
Elsewhere, Australian John Millman fell to Colombia’s Santiago Giraldo 6-3 6-3 and Tommy Haas dispatched Victorian Marinko Matosevic 6-3 7-5, while Philipp Petzschner upset his doubles partner and seventh seed Jurgen Melzer 6-1 7-5 and qualifier Igor Andreev outclassed Adrian Mannarino 7-6(6) 6-2.
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