New Delhi: Indian challenge ended in the $15000 ITF Futures men's singles event with the straight set defeat of unseeded Rohan Gajjar in a semifinal here today.

Gajjar lost 2-6 3-6 to Kazakhstan Alexey Kedryuk in one hour and 13 minutes at DLTA Complex.

Kedryuk would now clash with second seeded Alexander Satschko, who halted dream run of Bulgarian qualifier Simeon Ivanov in the second semifinal 6-1 6-4.

Alexey set up the Indian's ouster by playing a solid serve game. Rohan, on the otherhand, lacked variety in strokes to match his opponent's overpowering game.

Gajjar tried too much and hit some ambitious shots ended up in unforced errors. Alexey hit some beautiful forehand winners to break Gajjar in the third game of the first set and created lead.

Alexey not only created breakpoints for himself but also saved some on his serve, not giving any chance to Gajjar to make a fight out of it.

The Kazak player wrapped up the first set by firing an ace in eighth game after he had broken the Indian in the previous game, cashing in on Gajjar's double fault and forehand errors.

Gajjar started the second set in good fashion but Alexey was determined to spoil Gajjar's chances of playing in the summit clash as he hit some stunning service returns, leaving the Indian gasping.

After holding their serves in the four games, Gajjar dropped fifth and ninth to hand the match to Alexey, who had accounted for two more Indians --Karan Rastogi and Navdeep Singh -- in the event.
Source : PTI