In the third match of that day, first-seeded Mayer faced the French player Serra.
The first set was just fantastic. Serra looked much better in shape and physical condition, whereas Mayer showed several smooth shots and stops. Both players just had minor problems to hold their serve for a long time , but Mayer managed to break Serra's serve in the eleventh game which made him win the first set.
After Mayer had break points in the first game in the second set, there still seemed to need to worry when he got broken in the second one. But he acted completely nervous now, committing more and more unforced errors. There is no need to report many facts from the rest of the game - especially in third set, Mayer either hit the net or shot the ball out of bounds. Not surprisingly, he came back to his match at the end of the third set - but at this time, the score was 0-5 against him. He even had the chance to break Serra's serve at 1-5, but as the crowd seemed to hope for a comeback and put him under pressure, he failed again.
A very disappointing day for the young German, who impressively showed how much psychology is all about in ATP tennis. There are so many players who are able to play great tennis - if you are mentally better than they are, you may beat him.

This will be the final match I will report from at the Braunschweig Challenger. Though there were some really weak matches in the first two main draw days, it is just a wonderful challenger tournament, which I would for example favour to visit instead of Hamburg masters. It may just need some better players - and, of course, a couple of Indians :-)