Sunil Kumar Sipaeya's dream run at the SAIL 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.
 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.
