Bruthans, Ziv in final

Bangalore, Jan 21: When Viktor Bruthans won his quarter-final match against seventh seed Radim Zitko after virtually shaking hands with defeat. In a repeat performance, Bruthans earned a final berth in the Wearhouse-Century Club ITF Men’s Tennis Championships at the Club courts on Friday.

Bruthans outplayed an error-prone Denis Golovanov of Russia 6-7 (6-8), 7-6 (7-2), 6-4 in two hours, 20 minutes. He now meets Ziv Kobi who upset the lone seed in the fray — fourth seed Boris Borgula — 7-5, 7-5, in the final.It was an unlucky day for the Indians as both the top-seeded pair of Prahlad Srinath-Saurav Panja and second-seeded Kirtane cousins — Nitin and Sandeep went down in the semi-finals. The top seeds went down to the Israeli pair of Andy Ram and Nir Welgreen (Isr) 4-6, 4-6 while the Kirtanes were beaten by Miles Macalagan (Gbr) and Aisam Qureshi (Pak) 3-6, 6-7 (2-7).

Serving for the match at 5-4 (40-30) after clinching the first set in the tie-breaker (7-6), Golovanov committed a double fault. He lost another match point at advantage before losing serve.

RESULTS (all semis)

Singles: Ziv Kobi (Isr) bt 4-Boris Borgula (Svk) 7-5, 7-5; Viktor Bruthan (Svk) bt Denis Golovanov (Rus) 6-7 (6-8), 7-6 (7-2), 6-4.
Doubles: Andy Ram/Nir Welgreen (Isr) bt 1-Prahlad Srinath Saurav Panja (Ind) 6-4, 6-4; Miles Macalagan (Gbr)/Aisam Qureshi (Pak) bt 2-Nitin Kirtane/Sandeep Kirtane 6-3, 7-6 (7-2)