Tournament favourite Sam Querrey squandered a one-set lead and a break of serve to crash out of the XL Bermuda Open yesterday at the hands of the feisty unseeded Austrian Daniel Koellerer.

The 19-year-old super-kid looked tentative and out of sorts for large parts of what turned out to be a scrappy, bad-tempered encounter on Coral Beach’s Centre Court as Koellerer’s superior consistency and willingness to run down every ball ultimately paid handsome dividends.

The American world number 70 took the opening set despite an appalling start during which he stuck four consecutive groundstrokes into the net to have his opening service game broken.

He quickly recovered from that though and broke back to take the score to three-all, before ultimately going on to claim a closely contested tie-break 7-5.

And when Querrey broke Koellerer again in the opening game of the second, it looked for all the world as if the XL’s number one seed was on his way to a straight sets win and a place in the quarter-finals.

But the long-haired Koellerer had other ideas, taking advantage of numerous unforced errors from his gangly opponent — particularly on the backhand side — and pulling off a few memorable shots of his own to surge back into the match and take the second 7-5.

This pattern continued in the decider as the ever-present shower clouds circled menacingly overhead, and though neither player could claim to have played particularly well, bizarrely Querrey was just that much more sloppy at the crucial moments, allowing the Austrian to claim the match 6-3 in the third.

While the quality of the tennis was far from memorable, the obnoxious behaviour of the relatively unknown Koellerer certainly was.

Almost from the very first point, the Austrian argued incessantly with the umpire, barked impatiently at the ball boys, spat on the ground in between points, threw his racquet on the ground after virtually every error and screamed loudly in both English and German when frustrated with himself.

It was a painfully embarrassing performance which impressed no one, least of all the usually easy-going Querrey, who made his feelings on the matter abundantly clear both to the chair umpire and tournament supervisor Norm Chryst.

Play was held up on two separate occasions while Koellerer argued with the umpire and then when he called Chryst to the court to complain further after being slapped with a point penalty for failing to heed warnings about his consistently colourful language.

When asked about his opponent’s disruptive antics after the game, Querrey smiled and said sarcastically “I think he’s a really nice guy” — though he diplomatically declined to comment on the matter any further.

“It was a very frustrating day,” he said. “I was a set and two-love up and I really should have gone on to win it from there, so to end up losing is a big disappointment.

“I was just a little tentative with my shots, I didn’t believe in them and consequently I made a lot of unforced errors which I think in the end was the difference.”

Koellerer, meanwhile, said he was had been frustrated with how poorly he played in the opening set that he had considered throwing in the towel at one stage.

“I was thinking about tanking the match at that point because I was so angry with how I was playing and I thought the match was gone.

“But I managed to break back right at the start of the second and he hit a couple of balls two or three metres out and then I thought if I kept going and putting pressure on him I might have a chance.

“I know this might sound arrogant but I don’t think I have played very well for the last two days really, but I just did enough today to win. Hopefully I will play better tomorrow and go further in the tournament.”

Koellerer now moves on to Koellerer now moves on to play the Argentinian Mariano Zabaleta, who looked every inch the leading contender for the XL title yesterday in thrashing Czech Jan Mertl 6-0, 6-3.

The former world number 21 was in irresistible form once again, but insisted afterwards he would be taking nothing for granted simply because the number one seed was now out of the equation.

“I think Querrey is a phenomenal player — he is very young and you can see he is going to be star of the future. He has everything,” he said.

“But the guy (Koellerer) also played very well and will be a tough player to beat. He runs around, is very determined and it is difficult to put the ball away against him, so I know it’s going to be a tough match.

“I don’t worry too much about his behaviour. I just try and concentrate on my own game and not worry about anything else. “For me though, I am playing some of my best tennis and also I am trying to enjoy it a lot more after all my problems last year with injuries.

“I beat a top ten player last week in Houston (James Blake at the US Clay Court Championships) and that has given me the confidence to go out there and win matches.”

In other second round action, American Wayne Odenisk, who has been playing in borrowed kit for the last four days after his luggage did not arrive from Los Angeles, enjoyed a surprisingly easy time against the number seven seed Juan Pablo Guzman, beating the Argentine in straight sets 6-2, 6-3 on court seven.

Another seeded player, Canadian Frank Dancevic, then saw off the brave challenge of qualifier Nikita Kryvonos 7-5, 7-6. In doing so he set up a quarter-final clash with either Scoville Jenkins or number two seed Alexander Peya, who weren’t able to finish their match under the floodlights last night as a major thunderstorm passed by and brought a premature halt to proceedings.

Today’s quarter-final matches will also see Dusan Vemic take on American Bobby Reynolds while Nicholas Devilder will play Odenisk after the former dispatched Brazilian Andre Sa 7-6, 6-7, 6-0.

Late on Wednesday night, meanwhile, Bermuda number one Andy Bray made his XL doubles debut alongside Israeli pro Dekel Valtzer. The English accountant comfortably held his own with some delightful winners against Benedikt Dorsch of Germany and Sergiy Stakhovsky of the Ukraine, but ironically was often let down by his erratic partner as they lost in straight sets 6-2, 6-2.