Ghouse loses; Nitin Kirtane
in final

Top seed Mustafa Ghouse's luck finally ran out as he went down fighting to fourth seed Elran Doovey of Isreal even as third seed Nitin Kirtane kept the Indian challenge alive, getting the better of second seed Tomer Suissa of Israel in the semi-finals of the ITF Satellite tennis tournament in Delhi on Friday.

The 21-year-old Mumbai-based Mustafa had a slice of good fortune in the first two rounds, with his opponents retiring hurt, before ousting giant-killer Sandeep Kirtane in the quarter-finals.

However, today he faded away after a good start and lost 5-7, 6-4, 6-4.

However the Pune-based Kirtane prevented an all-Isreali final when he rallied splendidly to beat Tomer Suissa 2-6, 6-3, 6-3.

Mustafa faced a rough time in the first set but managed to put it across his rival at 7-5 and take a 1-0 lead. However, thereafter, he simply faded against some percentage tennis from Doovey, who won the next two sets to snatch a berth in the final.

The idea of scheduling the matches to suit television primetime took a severe beating as Suissa and Kirtane were forced to play their match after the first semi-final in scorching heat. As it were, Suissa succumbed to the extreme conditions, after winning the first set rather easily and leading 2-0 in the second.

Yesterday's report
Ghouse ends Sandeep Kirtane's run