Date:23/05/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/23/stories/2008052353382200.htm

Sport - Tennis

Navdeep loses

New Delhi: The second-seeded Mohammad Al Ghareeb defeated Navdeep Singh 6-2, 6-1 in the quarterfinals of the singles event in the $15,000 ITF men’s Futures in Kuwait on Thursday.

Navdeep had upset the eighth-seeded Rasmus Norby of Denmark 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(3) in the first round before dismissing qualifier Ciaran Moore of South Africa 6-2, 6-1 in the pre-quarterfinals.

The other Indian in the fray, Rohan Gajjar, lost 4-6, 3-6 in the first round to Harshana Godamanne of Sri Lanka, but made the doubles final with Ken Skupski of Britain.

Gajjar and Skupski defeated Ricardo Ghedin of Italy and Stefano Vukov of Croatia 6-3, 6-4 in the semifinals.

The Indo-British combination, that had lost just six games in all in the first two rounds, will challenge the unseeded Johan Ortegren of Sweden and Mohammad Al Ghareeb in the final. The Kuwaiti-Swedish collaboration had beaten the top-seeded Miles Armstrong and Brydan Klein of Australia 2-6, 7-6(7), 10-3 in the semifinals.