Berankis fails to claim win upon return to the tennis court

ATLANTA, USA – Lithuania’s Richard Berankis has been unable to return to the tennis court in winning fashion, falling to France’s Nicolas Mahut in the opening round of the Atlanta Tennis Championship.

It was Berankis’ first appearance in a competition in four months following an extended injury induced layoff. Understandably, Berankis was more than a little rusty, but was still able to push Mahut in the opening set before finally losing out 7-6 (5) 6-2.

Berankis struggled on his own serve, producing five aces but just as many double faults, whilst managing to win just 45% of points on his first serve. Mahut was able to take the Lithuanian to break point on seven occasions, breaking him four times, while Berankis could only manage to break back twice.

Berankis has seen his ranking suffer a significant drop while sitting on the sidelines with his current ranking seeing him placed at 115 in the world after being as high as 73 at the end of January.

Later in the week Berankis is also expected to compete in the men’s doubles draw.