Only one of the 12 first round matches scheduled for the day in the Cambodian $10,000 ITF Futures for the GLF Tep Khunnah Trophy at the National Training Center yesterday went the full three sets, and it involved second seed Robin Kern of Germany.

The hard-serving winner of the Cambodian F3 last year had to dig deep into his reserves to get past Romania’s Catalin Ionut Gard 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.

Taiwan’s Ti Chen is a new arrival this week and he replaced his countryman Tsung Hua Yang, who missed the third week after being forced to make early exits in the first two weeks of competition, at the top of the seedings list.

Ti was not hard pushed against wildcard Katsuhsi Fukuda of Japan, who at 37 was the oldest player in the main draw. While Ti produced flawless percentage tennis, Fukuda’s best came only in snatches.

After trailing 0-5 in the first set, Fukuda managed to hold his serve and break Chen’s. But the response from Chen was swift, winning seven games in a row to polish off the match at 6-2, 6-0.

For the third week in succession, Cambodia’s Davis Cup pivot Bun Kenny failed to strike winning form. Taking on India’s Karunuday Singh, seeded six, Kenny put up a patchy show before going down 2-6, 1-6.

Slovakia’s Ivo Klec failed to make the grade for the final leg. But he had a pleasant surprise in being given a free pass to the main draw as a lucky loser after Oscar Hernandez Perez withdrew from the event. The Slovak used his luck well, beating Igor Tubic of Sweden 6-1, 6-4.

Last week’s losing finalist Josh Goodall, who has moved up the seedings to three, had an easy time against Ting Yu Chuang of Taiwan at 6-2, 6-2.

In the day’s other matches, Takuto Niki of Japan beat Siyu Liu of China 6-4, 6-1; Arata Onozawa of Japan prevailed over Thomas Shubert of the US 7-6, 6-4; Kittipong Wachiramanowong of Thailand downed Colin Van Beem of Netherlands 6-2, 6-2; and Harry Meehan of Great Britain got past Robin Olin of Sweden 7-6, 6-2.

Thailand’s Pruchya Isarow was made to sweat for the first set before he ousted Takashi Saito of Japan 7-6, 6-3, while Maxi Pongratz of Australia was too good for Patrick Davidson of the US 6-2, 6-2.

In the last batch of matches on Court 2, Taiwan’s Chieu Fu Wang had his work cut out before winning 6-4, 6-4 against Nicolas Ernst of Germany.