In somewhat of a role reversal, it was birthday boy Andrew Ilie who handed out the gifts last night as he exited the XL Capital Bermuda Open following a three-set defeat to Flavio Saretta that was largely of his own making.

It was a match that was as frustrating as it was enthralling, with Australian Ilie seemingly unable to get going, then staging a stirring fightback before letting it all slip away again.

The 6-2, 5-7, 6-0 victory for number five seed Saretta means the Coral Beach tournament has lost one of its crowd-pleasers, but, on the plus side, means tennis lovers will get another chance to see a Brazilian star clearly on the rise.

The night began badly for the former champion Ilie when he was broken to love in the very first game. And it took the now 26-year-old eight points before he got a score on the board, a fact that drew ironic cheers from the audience.

Ilie managed to hold his serve in the third game and then broke back in the fourth thanks to a wonderful backhand down the line that gave him a chance to seal it at 30-40.

However, the good work was undone just moments later when he was broken again to love, hitting some wild returns in the process.

Erratic shots on Seratta's serve allowed the 21-year-old to establish a 4-2 advantage and he never looked back, breaking Ilie once more before serving out the set in 25 minutes.

A straight-sets victory looked on the cards because Ilie just did not seem to have the fire in his belly, and when he lost his serve in the opening match of the second set and Saretta held his such an outcome seemed even more certain.

However, slowly but surely the real Ilie began to surface and although Saretta opened up a 3-1 lead, the gap between the pair's performances began to close. Ilie held his serve in the fifth and a double fault by Saretta at deuce gave Ilie a lucky break that he took, hitting a forehand winner after a long baseline rally.

He went ahead for the first time in the seventh which he finished with a terrific ace, and although Saretta levelled in the eighth and then had a long argument with umpire Jake Garner in the next over a let call, Ilie held his nerve to move to 5-4 up.

Dr Jeckyl made another appearance in the following game when Saretta served out to love, but Mr Hyde reappeared in time to restore his one game advantage. Then just when he needed some big shots, Ilie made them.

A backhand down the line brought up 15-30 in his favour and a cry of joy and another sumptuous shot identically executed gave him the set.

Surely the comeback was on.

Sadly, no. At 30-40 on his serve Ilie inexplicably passed up the chance for deuce when, despite having all the court to aim at, he put a forehand on the run out. From 1-0, it became 2-0 and then 3-0 as the match began to run away from Ilie and towards Saretta who was playing as faultless a third set as he had in the first.

Three games later an ace from the South American brought up match-point and although Ilie delayed the execution with firstly an improbable backhand, then a cute shot down the line and finally the help of a net cord, Saretta was just biding his time and finished proceedings with a clinical forehand.

"There were just a couple of things that didn't feel right," Ilie said afterwards. "It took me a while and I struggled. I really tried to put it behind me and in the end the court dried up a little bit, it went a bit too fast for me, and I couldn't quite put the points together in the third."

At least he could draw some comfort from his performance in the middle of the match. "I am really proud of myself for getting back in that second set," he said. "I tried at least to put up a fight. A lot of guys under these circumstances would have given up."

Saretta was justifiably pleased with his night's work. "In the first set I started very well. I made very few mistakes, whereas he made a lot," he said. "In the second I was a break up and 3-2 but he broke me and got to 3-3 and I lost it. But that was OK, because the third set was like the first and I made few mistakes and I won."