Indian challenge in men's singles came to an end with Toshihide Matsui of Japan overpowering Karan Rastogi 7-5, 6-7 (4-7), 7-6 (7-4) in the quarter-final of the USD 25,000 Coffee Cup ATP Challenger tournament in Chikmagalur on Friday.
In an exciting and marathon match that lasted more than three hours, Rastogi played superbly before bowing out.
In the first set, both players were locked at five games each. But in the crucial 11th game, Rastogi down 0-15, made mistakes to lose serve and gave a 6-5 lead to his opponent.
In the 12th game, Matsui double faulted twice, but Rastogi failed to covert this to his advantage and lost the game and the set.
In the second set, Rastogi, though 5-2 up at one stage, lost momentum, but bounced back again to win the tie-breaker.
Though Rastogi tried his best to stretch the final set to a tie-breaker, he committed some glaring mistakes to concede the match.
Matsui will take on the winner of the match between top seeded Taik-Hyung-Lee (Korea) and Go Soeda (Japan), in the semi-final.