Australia's Matthew Ebden felt like he was the victim of a Vasek Pospisil prank as the Canadian shrugged off injury to win their second round encounter in the Australian Open.
Ebden missed a golden opportunity on Rod Laver Arena on Wednesday night, blowing set points in both the second and third before falling 3-6 7-6 (8-6) 7-6 (11-9) 6-1.
Pospisil appeared to struggle in the first two sets with a back injury and twice took a medical time-out for treatment.
The 28th seed said post-match he considered withdrawing until pain killers kicked in to get him over the line.
But Ebden, who was clearly unsettled by his opponent's up and down form, sounded sceptical about the injury.
"I guess I got a bit tricked," the West Australian said.
"I'm puzzled. I felt he was struggling a bit but then he was serving amazing, over 200km, and moving side to side so I guess that's on me.
"I tried to do everything I could but it just didn't fall my way.
"I'm obviously pretty unhappy about it."
Ebden, 26, admitted he was a bit passive at crucial times as he failed to take his chances.
As well as the tie breaks, he missed three break points that would have given him a 5-4 lead in the second and allowed him to serve for the set.
His game fell apart in the fourth when the chair umpire over-ruled a linesperson to call Ebden's unhittable first serve in, but then made him replay the point rather than awarding it to him.
It continued a run of crushing losses for the world No.67.
Last year at the Australian Open he had match point against world No.25 Mikhail Youhzny before falling in five sets. The year before, it was a similar lead blown against Japan's Kei Nishikori.
Pospisil said he would go for an MRI scan on Thursday on his back, which has been previously diagnosed as a disc problem.
He will play eighth seed Stanislav Wawrinka in the third round.
"I just tried to hang tough and overdose on pain killers and that seemed to help me a bit," the 23-year-old said.
"I'm super thrilled to get through."
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