National Champion Ashutosh Singh put up a valiant effort, but that was not enough to lift his first ITF singles title as he stumbled in the final of the USD 10,000 grass court event in Lahore on Saturday.

The second-seeded Indian went down fighting against top seed Czech Adam Vejmelka 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(6).

Ashutosh staged a comeback in the second set after conceding the first, but his higher ranked opponent, 334 in the world, prevailed in the tie-breaker of the deciding set to lift the title.

This is for the second consecutive week that an Indian failed to cross the final hurdle to capture a singles title. Last week at the same venue, Divij Sharan had lost to local star Aqeel Khan in the final.