Lack of stability was to prove costly, when Elmer Moller missed out on a ticket for this year's French Open on Thursday.
In Thursday's qualification final, the 21-year-old from Aarhus struggled to reach his top level, and lost to the 23-year-old Italian Matteo Gigante 3-6, 6-7.
However, Moller is among the highest ranked players who lost his decisive qualifying match, and among them three names will be drawn who will receive a so-called lucky loser ticket to the main tournament.
Ranked 108 in the world, Moller otherwise went into the match as favorite against the Italian left-handed player, who ranks No 167 in the world.
Moller got off to a good start, and already in the first game had chances to break Gigante's serve without being being able to convert them.
At 3-3 Moller again missed two break points, when he was up 40-15 but lacked sharpness in the decisive moments.
Instead Gigante cooly converted his first chance to break Moller's serve to make it 5-3 and followingly withstood pressure from the Danish youngster to serve home the set.
Moller looked visibly deflated at the start of the second set and was immediately broken with Gigante making the most of his momentum.
Moller managed to fight his way out of trouble, but the fluctuating quality of his game haunted him throughout the set.
He was broken at both 2-3 and 4-5 and was thus forced to break Gigante's serve at 4-5 to stay in the match where he gave evidence of the coolness which is usually a vital part of his game.
He managed to force the match into a tiebreak decision, but again he did not find the necessary stability. Gigante took advantage of this to win the tiebreak 7-5 and book his ticket to the main event.