Heat and humidity took a toll on James Duckworth as the Aussie top seed handed the men's singles crown to Moldova's Radu Albot, losing the summit clash of the Kolkata Open 6-7(0) 1-6, here today.
The Aussie top seed put up some challenge in the opening set before surrendering in the tie-breaker and started to suffer cramps in the second as the sixth seed Albot secured his first title of this season.
The Aussie world number 111, who was in line for a double, pulled out of the doubles citing dizziness to hand Indian duo of Somdev Devvarman and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan the title.
Hailing from the landlocked country in eastern Europe, Albot looked strong from the very beginning as he went for big shots and refused to donate any free point to Duckworth.
Albot broke the Aussie in the fifth game as he went ahead with a 4-2 lead in the opening set.
Thereafter, the quarter finalist at the Delhi Open, Albot failed to keep the pace as he dropped his serve at 5-4 with some baseline errors and a double fault.
The match progressed to a tie breaker, where it was a one-sided affair as 23-year-old looked in pain and could not add anything to the score.
In the second, Duckworth while serving at 1-2 played eight deuces before dropping the serve. Radu was soon leading 4-1.
Duckworth failed to physically give his best as he netted two double faults en route to dropping another serve.
Serving at 5-1, Radu consolidated the breaks and wrapped the issue and that earned him USD 7,200 and 80 ATP points.
"I had a one-month long training in Thailand before coming here and that helped me. I was better adapted the conditions. It's my first title of the year. He was not in his best of form," he said.
Results (all finals)
Men's Singles: Radu Albot (Mda) b James Duckworth (Aus) 7-6(0) 6-1.
Men's Doubles: Somdev Devvarman/Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan w/o James Duckworth/Luke Saville (Aus).
