Giant-killer Isha Lakhani failed to cross the final hurdle when she went down tamely to eighth seed Akgul Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan 2-6, 3-6 in the women's singles final of the $25,000 NSCI-ITF women's tennis tournament in Mumbai on Saturday.
Lakhani, who had accounted for top seed Shiho Hisamatsu of Japan and seventh seed Sania Mirza of India in the earlier rounds, could not produce the form she had shown earlier in the week and lost in sixty-seven minutes.
The Indian, who was playing her first big final in front of home crowd, seemed nervous at the start of the match and could not get her act together against a much faster and fitter opponent.
Lakhani lost her serve in the second, fourth and eighth games of the first set to lose 2-6. Her serve, which had stood out in earlier matches, went to pieces with the Indian serving as many as five double faults.
It was not any better in the second set as Lakhani struggled with her serve. Amanmuradova took full advantage of this and with two crucial breaks in the fourth and eighth games wrapped the match at 6-3.
With this win, Amanmuradova was richer by USD 3,000 and 25 ITF points while the Indian had to be content with just USD 1,700 and 17 ITF points.
The second seeded Indian pair of Rushmi Chakravarthi and Sai Jayalaxmi lost in the doubles final to top seeds Gabriala Navratilova and Hana Sromova of Czech Republic 1-6, 1-6 in just 40 minutes.
