Top seed Kunal Anand and second seed Nitin Kirrtane were knocked out of the MSLTA-IOC Khar Gymkhana All India Ranking Men's tennis tournament today by respective rivals Abdullah Shaikh and Jatin Dahiya here.
Unseeded Shaikh of Telangana stunned Delhi's Anand 6-2 6-3 in a 90-minute semi-final encounter, while sixth seed Dahiya of Delhi ended Maharashtra No. 1 Kirrtane's winning streak, triumphing 4-6 6-1 6-4 win in a two-hour battle.
Anand later teamed up with Aaditya Tewari to enter the doubles final for a clash against Dhruv Sunish and Parambeer Singh.
Left-handed Kirrtane, troubled by tennis elbow, fought hard before biting the dust against Dahiya. The Pune veteran won the first set with the help of three breaks after recovering from 0-2, before losing the second.
Kirrtane staged another fight-back from 0-2 in the deciding third set for a 3-2 lead. Games went with serve until Dahiya decisively broke in the ninth and held serve to win the match.
In the other semi-final, Abdullah, who lost to Anand in the first round of the Asian Tennis Tour tournament in Sri Lanka in January, had service breaks in the fourth and eighth games of the opening set as Anand's game was full of errors.
Anand, runner-up last year, raised hopes of a comeback when he broke his rival's serve in the opening and seventh games of the second set but dropped his serve in the second, fourth and eighth games to help Abdullah take a 5-3 lead.
Abdullah won the set and match on serve when Anand, a double crown winner here in 2011, buried the ball into the net on match-point.
Results: Singles (Semi-finals): Abdullah Shaikh (Tel) bt Kunal Anand (Del) 6-2 6-3; Jatin Dahiya (Del) bt Nitin Kirrtane (Mah) 4-6 6-1 6-4.
Doubles (Semi-finals): Kunal Anand/Aaditya Tewari bt Sai Saran Reddy Byreddy/SD Prajwal Dev 7-5 6-1; Dhruv Sunish/ Paramveer Singh bt Bhavesh Gour/Anvit Bendre 1-6 7-5 10-8.
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