New Delhi: Indians suffered a double blow in
the singles event of the USD 10,000 ITF Men's Futures event as
both Ashutosh Singh and national champion Ranjeet Virali
Murugesan lost their semifinal matches at the DLTA complex
here today.
Unseeded Ashutosh squandered a set advantage to lose 6-1
4-6, 3-6 to sixth-seeded Japanese Kento Takeuchi while Ranjeet
had no match of South Korean second seed Young-Jun Kim who won
6-2, 6-2.
As if the singles disappointment was not enough, Ashutosh
and compatriot Vishnu Vardhan, seeded top, lost to Britain's
Chris Eaton and India's Rohan Gajjar 6(6)-7, 6(3)-7 in doubles
final.
Ashutosh was in his elements in the first set of his
singles semifinal match with his serve and volley game while
Takeuchi struggled all along with a lot of unforced errors.
The Indian looked like he would wrap up the match as he
broke Takeuchi in the first game of the second set. The
Japanese, however, made a strong comeback by breaking back
Ashutosh in the fourth game.
Ashutosh had a break point chance in the ninth game but
failed to convert it and instead got broken in the tenth to
make the match a set apiece.
The Indian then committed a flurry of errors to slump to
0-3 before losing the decider 3-6.
Bureau Report
First Published: Friday, September 04, 2009, 22:02