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Sipaeya goes down tamely in semis December 07, 2007 15:32 IST Last Updated: December 07, 2007 17:44 IST Sunil Kumar Sipaeya's dream run at the SAIL [Get Quote] Open Challenger series tournament came to a halt when he was beaten in straight sets by the Czech Republic's Tomas Cakl in the semi-finals in Delhi on Friday. His exit brought an end to the Indian campaign in the US $50,000 event. The wildcard went down 4-6, 2-6 to the unseeded Cakl, who takes on fifth seed Russian Michail Elgin in the summit clash on Saturday. Elgin thrashed eighth seed Ivan Sergeyev of the Ukraine 6-1, 6-1 in the other semi-final on Friday morning. Â Meanwhile, third seeds Xin-Yuan Yu and Shao Xuan Zeng clinched the the doubles title after beating the Russian duo of Pavel Chekhov and Michail Elgin 6-3, 6-3. Yu and Zeng took home a purse of US $3,100 and earned 55 valuable ATP points for their triumph. Sipaeya, who stunned second seed Aisam-ul Haq Qureshi in a marathon quarter-final on Thursday, looked out of sorts in the semi-final and found the going tough against Cakl, who matched him from the back of the court and was better at the net. "He was a better player. I just wasn't good enough today but I am not disappointed. I had a fine run in the tournament, beat some good players and I will build on the experience," an exhausted Sipaeya said after the match. "His game plan was similar to mine and I found it hard to match him from the baseline. He had a wide range of shots and made me run around for every ball," he added. The left-handed Indian also struggled with his serve and was broken in the very first game. But he broke back in the fourth game when Cakl hit a backhand into the net. But Cakl, who took offence at a section of the partisan crowd constantly cheering for Sipaeya, did not allow the Indian to take any further advantage. "He is a nice player and I liked what I saw of him on the court. But I was all fired up after what the crowd did...they were even clapping on my double-faults, that's not fair," Cakl, ranked 325th, complained after the match. "Ultimately, I guess the crowd hooting worked to my advantage as I went a bit more crazy," he quipped. The Czech earned two break-points in the ninth game after Sipaeya committed too many unforced errors. The local lad saved one with a fine serve but miscued a volley into the net to go 4-5 down. Serving for the set, Cakl made no mistake and wrapped up the game with ease. Hopes of Sipaeya making a comeback, like yesterday, went up in smoke as he continued to make errors and wasted an early break point in the second game of the second set. The 24-year-old was broken in the third game and the usually calm Sipaeya vented his frustration by throwing his racquet on the court. He broke back in the fourth game with a fine forehand placed deep into the court but he could not do much as Cakl broke him twice more to wrap up the match in an hour's time.
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