The Indian challenge in the singles of the US $15,000 MSLTA-ITF Men's Futures tournament ended with both Prakash Amritraj and Karan Rastogi bowing out in contrasting styles on the penultimate day at the Dr Ranade Centre in Mumbai on Friday.
In the semi-finals, Indian Davis Cupper Amritraj lost to top seeded Englishman David Sherwood 2-6, 4-6 in an hour and ten minutes while unseeded Rastogi, who was serving for the match with a 5-3 lead in the second set not only dropped his serve but went on to lose the match 6-4, 5-7, 4-6 to second seeded German Simon Greul.
Top seeds Mustafa Ghouse and Vishal Uppal of India defeated their second seeded compatriots Harsh Mankad and Ajay Ramaswami 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(8-6) in a closely fought doubles final.
Mumbai-based Ghouse and Delhiite Uppal combined magnificently in a match which lasted for two hours and 20 minutes under floodlights.
Ghouse and Uppal split US $945 between them for their efforts along with 18 points each while the runners-up split US $495 between them and pocketed 12 points each.
Rastogi had himself to blame for the defeat. He served very well in the first set and looked in fine nick. The Indian broke the German in the tenth game to win the set 6-4.
In the second set, he took a comfortable 4-1 lead with breaks in the second and fourth games after dropping his own in the very first and looked set to wrap-up the match.
However, the German had other ideas and just tried to hang in there hoping that the Indian would choke, which he did when poised well to serve out the match.
After dropping his own serve in the eighth game, the Indian got a break back in the eighth only to lose his serve in the ninth and 11th games to lose the set 5-7.
With his confidence totally shattered, Rastogi dropped serve in the third game of the deciding set and was trailing 1-3 from which he never recovered as the German served out the match at 6-4 in two hours.
Third seed Amritraj's match against Sherwood was totally one-sided with the Indian making no impact.
The Englishman broke Amritraj in the third and seventh games of the first set to win 6-2.
In the second set, the Indian put up a better show and held serve till 3-all. However, a few unforced errors by Amritraj saw him drop his serve in the seventh game and the Englishman took full advantage of it to serve out the match at 6-4.
Though Amritraj served five aces, he was guilty of serving as many double faults while Sherwood had five aces and two double faults.
The two Indians got US $720 and six ITF points each for their efforts.
Results:
Men's singles (semi-finals): David Sherwood (GBR) bt Prakash Amritraj (Ind) 6-2 6-4;Simon Greul (Ger) bt Karan Rastogi (Ind) 4-6, 7-5, 6-4.
