Fifth seed Zeel Desai missed a match point as she went down 7-5, 6-7(6),2-6 in three hours and 55 minutes by top seed Sandra Samir in the final of the $15,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament in Cairo, Egypt, on Sunday.
In a see-saw battle, she recovered from being down 0-3 in the second set and saved two set points. But she missed a match point at 7-6 in the tie-break as Sandra forced the decider.
Sandra fired two aces in the end, one to save a break point and the other to seal victory in the eighth game of the third set. The 22-year-old Sandra served four aces in the match and converted eight of 16 break points that she forced.
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Zeel converted seven of 16 break points in the match, and won 119 points to 133 by Sandra.
It was a commendable performance by the 21-year-old Zeel who had earlier lost the doubles final.
Zeel had won a singles title in the ITF professional circuit in Gwalior in 2017. She has also won four doubles titles on the Tour.
Meanwhile, in the $108,320 Challenger in Mexico, the fifth seeded Sriram Balaji and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan, occupying the position of the top seeds in the draw, were beaten 7-5, 6-4 in the doubles semifinals by the Brazilians Orlando Luz and Rafael Matos.
The Indian pair collected 35 ATP points and $2,160.
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