Indian girls' dream run at the World Junior Tennis competition in the Asia/Oceania Zone came to a screeching halt with a 0-3 loss to third seed Thailand in the semifinals in New Delhi on Saturday.
Despite the defeat in the semifinals, second seed India has already qualified for the finals of the event to be held in Czech Republic in August.
Indian girls will meet their Indonesian counterparts on Sunday for the third-fourth position.
Playing the first single of the day against a tough opponent, Rishika Sunkara put up a spirited fight before going down 4-6, 4-6 to Napatsakom Sankaew. Despite her defeat, Rishika showed tremendous resilience and made her opponent sweat for every point.
Rishika exchanged early breaks in both the sets to go neck-and-neck before losing the plot in the end.
The first set was at equal terms at 4-4 when Napatsakom broke Rishika for the third time and held her serve in the next game to take the set 6-4.
The second set followed the same script and again their exchange of breaks saw the players levelled after eight games.
Napatsakom raised her game when it mattered most and took the set 6-4 to put Thailand ahead.
Aishwarya Agrawal seemed set to bring India back into the reckoning in the second singles against Luksika Kumkhum before she strained a shoulder muscle in the third game of the second set.
After pocketing the first set quite easily, Aishwarya lost her rhythm after the injury and eventually went down 6-3, 3-6, 1-6.
This was for the first time in the tournament that the Indian girls lost any singles match.
Thailand completed the rout when Luksilka Kumkhum and Jarunwadee Kaewma joined hands to tame the Indian pair of Nova Patel and Rishika Sunkara 7-5 6-3 in doubles.
Captain Vibhor Sharma, however, was not too disappointed with the result.
"It's okay. I am not disppointed as they have played well in the tournament. Rishika played well today and you can not do much with injury. When two players compete, one has to lose. Today, Thailand players put up a better show," he said.
