Frank Dancevic returns against Taylor Dent in the Campbell’s Hall of Fame Tennis Championships at the Tennis Hall of Fame yesterday. Dancevic won the match, 3-6, 7-5, 6-1.

The Providence Journal / Sandor Bodo

NEWPORT –– Taylor Dent was two points from victory in his first match in more than two years on the ATP Tour. Two points from victory a year after being told there was no way he was playing tennis again. Two points from victory over the seventh seed in the Campbell’s Hall of Fame Tennis Championships. Two points from victory in the stadium where he won his first ATP tournament in 2002.

But victory eluded the 27-year-old Californian on a warm, breezy afternoon at the Newport Casino. Serving at 6-3, 5-4, deuce, Dent watched Frank Dancevic’s backhand return fall for a winner. Dent then double-faulted, losing the game and beginning a slow slide to defeat.

Dent dropped four consecutive service games, enabling Dancevic to escape with a 3-6, 7-5, 6-1 victory on Day Two of Tennis Week. He saved four match points in the sixth game and finally held serve, but Dancevic dashed any hope of a miraculous rally by holding serve in the seventh.

“It’s to be expected,” Dent said of his demise before 1,952 spectators. “I haven’t played any matches. I was playing decent tennis to get up a set and only break, and the nerves got the better of me. There’s no other way to put it. I wish I could say I didn’t somewhat expect it, but having not played a real tour match in over two years, you can get those things.”

Dent, son of the big-serving Australian Phil Dent and a big server in his own right when he was a rising young star on the tour, struggled with his serve in the second and third sets.

“Second set, I just got a little bit tight on my serve. I couldn’t crack an egg. And then I didn’t recover in the third set,” he said.

Dancevic sensed that Dent was tiring toward the end of the second set.

“I knew he hadn’t played a match in a few years,” the Canadian said. “If he were in top shape and serving 5-4 for the match, I probably wouldn’t have broken him.”

Dent, a four-time winner on the tour, is trying to come back from three back surgeries. The first was in May 2006. He had a rhizotomy, a procedure in which doctors probe for nerves causing pain and sever them. He missed the rest of that year.

Dent played four tournaments in the first two months of 2007 but was in so much pain that in March of that year he had experimental fusion of his vertebrae. That procedure failed, and in September he had a traditional fusion using rods and screws to connect two vertebrae in his lower back. He did not play a match last year. Indeed, it was four months after the second operation before he could walk 10 minutes, “a big workout,” he said, and six months before he could hit a tennis ball.

His first tournament since leaving the tour was a Challenger in Carson, Calif., in May. He lost in the first round.

“It’s not going to be instantaneous. I’m going to have to work to get back to my former form,” he said. In other words, he has to build his endurance and match toughness.

“Physically, I feel fine. I feel like my best service game was pretty much the last service game I played,” he said. Serving at 0-5 in the third set, he saved four match points and snapped that string of four consecutive service-game losses.

“I hit some big serves. I hit some good second serves. I hit some doubles (double faults), but I’m going to do that. That was one of the stronger service games I played. Fitness is going to be an issue, but on the grass here, it benefited me. Points are short, so it didn’t really give me a chance to get too tired out there.”

After winning here in 2002, Dent returned in 2003 but had to withdraw before his first-round match because of a bruised nerve between his ring and pinky fingers on his right hand. He tried again in 2005, coming in as the top seed, but lost to South African Wesley Moodie in the second round. Although he lost in the first round this time, his visit was a success.

“For me, it’s an unbelievable step. I was told a year ago that there’s no way I’m playing tennis, and today I’m up a set and a break twice … that’s pretty unbelievable progress in my mind,” he said.

Dent plans to return to Florida today and see how he feels. He has no firm tournament plans, believing it’s unfair to tournament directors to commit in advance with the possibility of his having to withdraw at the last minute. He got a wild card to the Hall of Fame tournament only last week.

His goal is to play every week, however, even if it means dropping down to the Challenger or Future circuits.

“I don’t have any ego about it whatsoever,” he said. “I know that I’ve got to not start over from scratch, but almost.”

In other matches yesterday, American Jesse Levine upset fifth-seeded John Isner of the U.S., 6-3, 6-1. Eighth-seeded Kevin Anderson of South Africa rallied for a 6-7 (3), 6-3, 6-3 victory over Gilles Muller of Luxembourg. Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi of Pakistan beat Benjamin Becker of Germany, 7-5, 7-6 (5). And Prakash Amritraj of India defeated Joseph Sirianni of Australia, 6-7 (3), 6-4, 6-4. His father Vijay, a three-time Hall of Fame champion, was in the crowd.

Top-seeded Mardy Fish, an ardent Minnesota Twins fans who was at Fenway Park Tuesday night to throw out the ceremonial first pitch, will finally play a match today. He is third on the stadium court schedule against qualifier Rohan Bopanna of India. Fish is ranked 41st in the world.

mszostak@projo.com